| Noise music is perhaps the definitive "anti-music." The | | | | owes much of its development to industrial noise |
| genre features a number of artists whose work is | | | | groups such as Current 93, Hafler Trio, Throbbing |
| best described as a form of "sound art." Noise breaks | | | | Gristle, Coil, Laibach, Nurse with Wound and |
| through the boundaries and constraints imposed | | | | Einstürzende Neubauten. These bands mixed |
| within traditional music genres and due to its total | | | | conventional instruments such as guitars with other |
| disregard for standard concepts of musical theory, it | | | | sound sources such as metal percussion and |
| is often considered entirely unlistenable to those | | | | self-made noisemaking devices. |
| unfamiliar with the genre. Forming an exact definition | | | | Since there are no stylistic guidelines to define noise |
| of noise can be difficult, although it has often been | | | | music, there are also no requirements placed on the |
| described as being made up of "unwanted" sounds or | | | | equipment used to create it. Noise can be made using |
| sounds that are inappropriate for a particular situation. | | | | traditional instruments, which can be seen to a large |
| By this definition, the perception of what is noise has | | | | extent in the related genres of Free Jazz and Noise |
| changed over time and also varies from culture to | | | | Rock, or by using non-instruments and "found |
| culture as well as from person to person. | | | | sounds" (recordings of non-instrumental sounds and |
| Despite the fact that nowadays it is frequently | | | | noises). In the early days of noise, artists often |
| associated with modern industrial artists or Japanese | | | | experimented with splicing together recordings made |
| noise artists (so-called "Japanoise" bands) such as | | | | on tape machines. Today, this process has largely |
| Merzbow, the development of modern noise music | | | | been replaced by modern hardware and software |
| can be traced back to the beginning on the 20th | | | | samplers. |
| century. A member of the futurist movement, Luigi | | | | Many noise artists are known for creating their own |
| Russolo, is often cited as one of the first noise | | | | self-made instruments and noise machines, either in |
| artists. Russolo envisioned noise as the music of the | | | | the form of hardware synthesizers or effects boxes |
| future, which he outlined in "The Art of Noises," first | | | | or using modern software tools such as Max/MSP. |
| released in 1913. To demonstrate his ideas on how | | | | Masami Akita, the man behind the prolific Japanese |
| this future music would sound, Russolo built a number | | | | Noise project Merzbow, also builds his own guitars |
| of noisemaking machines to form a "noise orchestra." | | | | used on his recordings and during live performances. |
| Russolo's performances were generally not | | | | More conventional gear often used by noise artists |
| well-received by audiences of the time. | | | | includes the Roland SH-101 hardware synthesizer and |
| Modern noise emerged more than a half a century | | | | the digital audio workstation Ableton Live. |
| later, over the course of the 1970s and 1980s and | | | | |