Industrial music is a form of experimental and electronic music which emerged in the 1970s. After 1980, industrial splintered into a range of offshoots, sometimes collectively named post-industrial music. This list details some of these offshoots, including fusions with other electronic and experimental genres as well rock, folk, and hip hop. Industrial genres have spread worldwide and are particularly well represented in North America, Europe, and Japan.
Industrial music comprises many styles of experimental music, including many forms of electronic music. The term was coined in the mid-1970s for Industrial Records artists. The first industrial artists experimented with noise and controversial topics. Their production was not limited to music, but included mail art, performance art, installation pieces and other art forms. Prominent industrial musicians include Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Boyd Rice, SPK, and Z'EV.Test Dept,Clock DVA,Nocturnal Emissions,Whitehouse,Laibach, and The Leather Nun subsequently participated in the movement. German group Einstürzende Neubauten forged their own style, which mixed metal percussion, guitars and unconventional instruments (such as jackhammers and bones) in stage performances that often damaged the venues in which they played.