Noise music

Noise music (or simply noise) is a subgenre of experimental music that is characterised by its use of unwanted noise as a primary musical element. The genre has roots in early 20th century avant-garde music, but later drew influence from industrial and electronic music. It is characterized by a rejection of conventional music theory and traditional song structures, often featuring little or no melody, rhythm, or harmony. This type of music tends to challenge the conventional distinction between musical and non-musical sound.

"Noise as music" originated as an avant-garde music style in the 1910s through the work of Luigi Russolo an Italian Futurist, who published the manifesto The Art of Noises in 1913. Elements of noise music were later explored by artists in the Dada and Fluxus movements, as well as through electroacoustic music, modern classical and musique concrète. Composers such as John Cage, Edgard Varèse and James Tenney would explicitly use the term "noise" to describe some of their experimental practices. During the 1960s and 1970s, compositions such as Robert Ashley's "The Wolfman" (1964) and Pauline Oliveros' "A Little Noise In The System" (1967) were among the earliest examples of contemporary noise music, while works by non-academic artists such as Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music were influential for later noise artists.

By the late 1970s and early 1980s, the emergence of industrial music and commercial synthesizers, encouraged non-musicians to experiment with strictly noise-oriented styles, leading to genres such as power electronics, coined by the English group Whitehouse, as well as post-industrial styles like dark ambient, death industrial and power noise. In Japan, the Japanoise scene which stemmed out of the Kansai no wave movement, produced several influential noise acts such as Merzbow, Hijokaidan, Hanatarash, C.C.C.C. and Incapacitants, who, together with American and European noise artists the Haters, Daniel Menche, Vomir and Richard Ramirez, contributed to the emergence of harsh noise and harsh noise wall into the 1990s and 2000s.

During the 2000s and 2010s, the American noise scene infused influences from kosmische musik, progressive electronic, ambient, drone and new age, leading to the development of post-noise. The movement had been catalyzed by the Skaters, a group formed by James Ferraro and Spencer Clark in 2004. Notable artists included Oneohtrix Point Never, Pocahaunted, Zola Jesus, Laurel Halo, Sun Araw, Yellow Swans and Emeralds. This style influenced the development of hypnagogic pop, neo-kosmische, nu-new age, glo-fi and vaporwave.