Welcome back. Here we get into the core of what has happened to industrial as an artform. When industrial first was played in clubs, it was during "alternative dance" nights. So, that meant that the industrial music that would be played was aimed at pleasing a crowd who was only tolerant of certain types of industrial, and definitely weren't fans of industrial culture as a whole. This genre affiliation would only bring the most accessible industrial to these audiences. By the time we get to 1988, the word "goth" is becoming much more widely used in the place of describing the genre once known as "Deathrock." As I have pointed out, I understand that was a regional description and various areas called it something different. In any case, goth-industrial nights would be the most durable of the genre/culture affiliations, which is still the primary way one engages industrial IRL. It was also a genre crusher for industrial. Once again, we were subordinate to another genre that wasn't as sonically daring, nor as socially focused as industrial.

[a note from the writer] When looking for adjunct links, it has become crystal clear that people do not know what the fuck they are talking about. From Wikipedia; "Deathrock (or death rock) is a subgenre of rock music that merges punk rock and post-punk with gothic and glam rock, alongside elements of horror film scores. Often overlapping with, and sometimes considered a subgenre of, gothic rock…" Fucking hell! "sometimes considered a subgenre of, gothic rock." How does something become a subgenre of something that wasn't around when the thing started? No one used the word goth in the 1970s. I did, however, find a gem that wonderfully muddles the waters that I hadn't heard before, which may be a surprise to some of you as well. From Vice Music News; "Legendary music critic John Stickney coined the term 'Gothic Rock' in 1967 when describing a meeting he had with Jim Morrison in a dimly lit wine-cellar as 'the perfect room to honor the Gothic rock of the Doors.'" I grew up with many original fans of The Doors. Though some of their music worked for me, I felt that my hippy friends [hence hippy culture] were ahead of me for seeing the true "psyche" in psychedelic music. I am 100% grateful to my childhood friends for assisting in the opening of my mind. So, someone used the word in writing when I was 3 years old to describe The Doors. Interesting. I can certainly see a direct thread between The Doors and the genre of deathrock, goth, post-punk, or whatever one chooses to call bands that fit that culture.

At this point, I would like to quickly take a moment to answer something I recently read a couple of weeks back that will perfectly frame my third literary salvo. Someone yammered that industrial was "getting political." The band that started this movement was founded by people who were deeply focused progressive and socially driven. Genesis was clear about stating that they were anti-fascist, and anti right-wing. When Genesis founded Coum Transmissions, which was the project that birthed Throbbing Gristle, it was clear they were breaking down political, gender, and cultural walls. Also, some will say that being far right or far left are two heads of the same coin. And, they would be factually incorrect. The "far left" wing, especially in the United States, has stood for stopping oppression immediately, where far right wing conservatives have been consistently on the wrong side of history. They fought for… human enslavement, female oppression, ethnic cleansing, homophobia, sweatshop labor conditions, redlining, genocide, forced labor, child labor, gender oppression, environmental poisoning, and they even fought against seatbelts. To bring this back into the club realm, it was overwhelmingly a conservative argument that propagated the destruction of the bar/club/event industry if smoking were no longer allowed in venues. Well, anyone can see that was fucking wrong, just like they were about the other things I mentioned, and the many things I left out, but are easily searchable. When I was the internet strategist for Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney [2003 - 2010], she often had dope one-liners. One was, "They were dumb enough to write it down. We need to be smart enough to read it." So, as we said in punk rock in the late 1970s when the right wing people showed up, "NAZI PUNKS [and industrialists] FUCK OFF!" It was important to say in clear terms that "industrial is protest music." It comes from people with a revolutionary spirit to go beyond the trappings of mainstream existence, and who had a revulsion for whatever one would call "pop culture." Remember that before you ever think to put the words pop and industrial near each other, no more than to use it as a compound noun.

And now we're back after having to address that shit. LOL! Anyway, industrial has suffered because it has been placed with genres that have mainstream acceptability, where pure industrial music and culture have very little mainstream acceptability out of design. Just like they mainstreamed bands like The Ramones and The Sex Pistols, but never were able to mainstream bands like The Dead Kennedys or The Circle Jerks. On top of that, the overall evolution of people who are seen as "into everything" brings about even more degradation to the artform by demanding more "pop" elements be part of a genre that was launched with 0% pop connection, and was at war with the notion of pop culture and the social vapidity it bred. Likewise, NIN and Ministry may be household names in alternative music culture, but that has brought only a trickle of people into the industrial tribe. Alternative or goth will never really be the right home for our artform or culture. We tried it for over 30 years and it hasn't worked to the benefit of our culture. This is made worse by the mindnumbingly retro music being played at the majority of "goth-industrial" nights. To think that until about 1990 we were a forward-thinking genre/culture that was seemingly breaking new ground with every album release, and now the culture lives in the way-back-machine that we originally goofed on rockers for when they were worshiping bands that had long since broken up and were ignoring, or worse yet denigrating, whatever new music was coming out. It could be said that people like me are doing the same thing, but we aren't. I am so thrilled about so many new artists and projects. I just never hear them when I go out. In the last 25 years, I have maybe gone to three event series that played new industrial that I felt was in line with the culture. Most new music that is accused [LOL!] of being "industrial" is actually eclectic dance music, under whatever genre title one would like to give it.

To find industrial now, I typically attend "noise" shows. That is where the mainstream still has no input and there is wonderfully no consideration for making things "accessible." Like jazz legend Miles Davis reportedly said, "We don't play to be seen. I'm addicted to music, not audiences." He was famous for not being concerned about appeasing the audience, and being completely enveloped in the artform. I find this interview interesting because he is 62 years old [one year older than I am now], and we couldn't have been further apart in our life philosophies, but he still speaks to being an "artist" in comparison to being an "entertainer." That is the thing that separated him from many others who sought fame at all cost, and why he was respected by so many of his peers, as well as enthusiasts of the artform. [This 60 Minutes interview is also an example of how much I wanted to take the positive elements of artists like Miles, yet to have nothing to do with the horrid, male-centered, drug-addled thought process that so many artists like him felt, and too many in this genre, still feel comfortable with. I am quite elated that when people see video interviews from my early 60s, they will see a non-cringeworthy person who worked to represent the best elements of myself and our species.] This is the spirit that punk rock, industrial, and any other counter-culture artform that ever existed thrives on. If that is left out of the equation, it is then impossible for one to understand why someone like me would spend 40 years [and counting] being overwhelmed by an artform and culture that remains the most sonically and performatively liberating of any of the musical genres I have engaged in my 61 years [also… and counting… fingers crossed. LOL!] of life.

Almost perfectly timed, as I was preparing to write today [FYI - it usually takes me about 7 writing sessions to complete these], I had talked to a person who was bothered by what people had said when they posted their music. Their concern for the audience's approval made me sad. No one should EVER produce industrial music with the hope or concern for broad, mainstream acceptance. If people get down with it. Fine. If a lot do… great. But this is also the problem of the industrial DJ performing at a "goth-industrial" event. As I pointed out, one can only play industrial that is acceptable/tolerable to the majority of the attending "goth" audience. And, the tyranny of having to keep people dancing also determines that only the most "catchy" dance industrial will be played, which creates a vacuum for hearing the true diversity within the industrial genre IRL, which is why noise events are now the true home of industrial music culture. [FYI - I used vacuum as a double entendre, because the culture being so retro sucks. LOL!]

So what has been stopping industrial nights from growing outside of the confines of being a compound noun for the last 30+ years? The answer will surprise some, and others will be screaming some version of, "I'm glad someone finally said this shit out loud, in writing, in public," as they read this. Be sure to come back where I cover that in the next volume. JK [LOL!] But in all seriousness, sadly, the people who are mostly to blame, as far as I can prove [or as my high school students say, "have receipts for"] are the very DJs/promoters/producers running other nights who are trying to stop anything from going beyond their own capitalist visions and notions of "industry dominance." Every region has them. I have been told for decades about different people telling others to shape productions in a way that basically would mainstream them away from producing an industrial event in any unadulterated way. This is done by people kindly saying that you can "...get more audience by…" or "...if you really want to get an audience, you should…" When one seeks to push creative barriers, there is no place for someone who lives within those barriers to have helpful input. Understand this [and please do your homework for the nights you attend]... most "industrial" nights are run by people who are not complete enthusiasts of the artform. They certainly appreciate and earnestly support specific forms of the genre, but those parts are almost completely from the more accessible danceable side. Without having people who are enthusiasts of producing the full spectrum of industrial IRL, the compound noun model will dominate what people think is industrial in its pure form. As Orwell said in 1984, "The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth." As he also said, "You are outside of history…," which I will never submit to… and no other industrialists should either… ever. Metalheads do not let people who are into 80s hairmetal bands have a dominating say in their current scene, and that element has no place making curatorial decisions in our community either.

To drill into this further, I recently had a conversation with a long-time industry professional who wanted to start an actual industrial night. They told me that they were directed away from it by a bunch of the "industry professionals" within the community. The information they were given was basically a mirror of what those people's personal tastes were, and had nothing to do with helping that person bolster their own idea of producing an industrial series. I had this conversation the day before I went out to a club and was wonderfully reminded [by a now well-known DJ] that I was the person who gave them their first support for being a DJ. It hit me a bit harder because it made me think of all of the people who do not feel powerful enough in themselves to go beyond the limiting "advice" of those they respect. Telling someone some version of, "playing industrial will make you no money and guarantee you will have no audience" are not words assembled to help someone do an industrial night. Of all the industry elders they communicated with, I was one of the only ones that gave only hardcore and total support for their vision. Most were overwhelmingly in the other/negative/capitalist camp. I am not saying that eclectic dance music shouldn't exist or isn't good. That isn't the point. It is that it is being propagated as "industrial" while unadulterated industrial is basically left out of the picture. Here is a dope band I have been following for a few years. I am a complete fan of Dame Area from Barcelona, and have been talking to them about having them come to NYC. Founded only 8 years ago in 2017, they are the full embodiment of the evolution of the industrial music/culture that brought me to the artform over 40 years ago.

How many others experienced that type of input that translated in their heads as rejection from their elder peers? If all the people who do that anywhere had supplied support, what would be possible now? How do we foster and nurture another generation when there seems to be some sort of a turf war for affordable/genre-accessible venues? How can we as a global tribe dampen the industry voices that stop innovation, understanding that innovation is the cornerstone of our artform? Why have people been allowed to do this for so long without any real ramifications? Our global tribe needs to start asking questions like this… and demanding answers. Every community is different, but the structures are often the same. As I said before, any "scene" or grouping of people for almost anything is run by a small handful of people. Those people should be put under a microscope to understand what they are doing and why they are motivated to do it. "If it is correct, as I believe it is, that a fundamental element of human nature is the need for creative work or creative inquiry, for free creation without the arbitrary limiting effects of coercive institutions, then of course it will follow that a decent society should maximize the possibilities for this fundamental human characteristic to be realized." Noam Chomsky [The documentary about Professor Chomsky, "Manufacturing Consent," is a masterwork in explaining his overall theorem. I have easily watched it 50 times, and have loved it since it was released.] These people, in our tribe, represent "the arbitrary limiting effects of coercive institutions." Innovative artistic expression exists despite industry influence and without industry support, not because of it.

To also be clear, I am focusing on how we as industrialists move forward. I am not trying to drum up a global drama war of people pointing fingers at each other saying some stupid shit like, "YOU AREN'T INDUSTRIAL ENOUGH! My point is that we have been hampered for decades by this and can not move forward when the very people the community respects are the ones taking it down the path of mainstreaming it out of existence. To that point, that is why the mainstream hairmetal bands of the 80s, and their kind, basically ran their course and don't vibe with modern metalheads. I mention that as a first-generation metalhead, and because of the truism that metal, and hardcore punk, were the only underground art forms [of the rock/alternative genres] that followed their own paths. To make the point clearer, modern metal is fully recognizable to someone like me who was a fan of Black Sabbath, the Throbbing Gristle of metal, in 1972 when I was 8 years old, but much of the music and culture called "industrial" now would be unrecognizable to someone who attended "Prostitution," which was Throbbing Gristle's first big performance/installation. Cosey Fanni Tuti of Throbbing Gristle talks about her role in TG, and in fact, the underpinnings of the industrial genre. Metal and hardcore punk are the only genres that have gotten consistently harder and more inaccessible to mainstream audiences, while maintaining loyal tribes to keep them evolving forward, even without the mainstream appeal the genres found in the 1980s when rock/metal was the biggest genre on the planet, which it has not been for decades.

Here are a few things that we all can do right now:

• It may be important to actively keep those people in the dark to your plans. There is no sense in asking someone for advice when they do not fully believe in what you are planning to do.
• If you seek the opinion of anyone, find an enthusiast of the artform. I understand that people believed that was what they were doing. However, it is imperative to be able to discern between mentors within a community and the monitors of it.
• If you are approached by someone who gives this type of "advice," be sure to tell them that it was not welcomed and to please keep their opinions to themselves.
• If a friend of yours is approached by something like this, be sure to document it for them. They may be in too deep, and/or feel too afraid to act in their own best interest. This is typically how it has come to my attention. I can feel the fear in the voices that they have for those they trusted to assist them, and it only makes me more fervent in addressing this, hence living up to my own words and propagated beliefs.
• Any industry professionals that have status/influence have an even deeper duty to intervene when we see this type of thing happen, no matter our relationships with the offending elders. If we do not hold a clear and unadulterated standard that excuses no one, we then become part of the "fraud squad" of our tribe.
• Start checking out, and supporting, the noise shows in your region. That is where industrial in its purest form is still welcomed and expanding as an artform. These are the productions where there are typically no dress codes, no goth, no fetish, and no mindnumbingly formulaic EBM beats.

When I was 15, the Bush Tetras had a song that was my social anthem. It remains so over 46 years later. Over those years, I have worked tirelessly to be a "creep crusher." It is up to each of us to decide how each of us will be remembered, and how we collectively will be remembered/evaluated.

Let's do this.

Peaceness and Sledgehammers,

dh