Industrial
Industrial is a harsh, confrontational style of music built from noise, distortion, mechanical rhythms and provocative themes.
It began in the United Kingdom in the mid-1970s with Throbbing Gristle, whose label Industrial Records gave the style its name, and with groups such as Cabaret Voltaire. Early industrial relied on tape loops, found sounds, metal percussion and electronics more than conventional songs. Later branches added dance beats, as in EBM, or heavy guitars, as in industrial rock and metal, which is how Nine Inch Nails and Ministry took the sound to a wide audience.
Artists it is known for: Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Einstürzende Neubauten, Nine Inch Nails.
- Family
- Electronic & Dance
- On Spotify
- A current genre
- What it is
- A genre
- From
- United Kingdom, mid-1970s
- Also called
- industrial music
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 5%
About 4,000 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have industrial among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
Industrial artists
Rammstein
Nine Inch Nails
KMFDM
Marilyn Manson
And One
Miss Construction
Swans
Ashbury Heights
Static-X
Fantasm
The industrial artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.