An electronic genre originating with influential group Throbbing Gristle in 1970's, on their own "Industrial Records".
The genre was created and defined by TG based off a phrase coined by Monte Cazazza, "Industrial Music for Industrial People". Consisting of abrasive lyrics, dissonant and relatively abstract distorted melodies, drum machines/samplers and gratuitous use of delay and other effects, Industrial music often draws upon transgressive and shocking themes while adhering with absolutely no fucking established musical conventions In other words, it is
music theory's worst nightmare.
Although first wave Industrial artists are generally considered by Industrial historians to be the only "true" Industrial bands (and even that is sometimes reduced to just TG), the genre gave birth to dozens of genre that generally fall under the umbrella term of "Post-Industrial". This includes the
Electro-Industrial genre, comprised of bands such as Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly, the EBM genre (
Nitzer Ebb, early Ministry,
Front 242, etc.) and the Industrial Metal/Industrial rock genres (later Ministry,
Pigface, etc.) just to name a few (the commercially lauded and probably most known post-industrial band, Nine Inch Nails, dabbled in a handful of these genres, but mostly stuck with an Industrial Rock sound in later years).