Use of noise in mainstream music / pop

[HongKongGoolagong]

What does anyone here make of this very mainstream hit song by Nicki Minaj? Personally I love it and the video is amazing and full of extreme imagery too. Certainly seems as if she and her producers have adapted techniques from underground genres. Ignoring the rapping, the 'music' is ultra-minimal and basically just noise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6j4f8cHBIM&; (WARNING: this will drive most people crazy within one minute but it's worth watching til the end)

Are there other examples of mainstream music around which seem to be inspired by more subcultural scenes? I'm not thinking of the likes of Sonic Youth, more unlikely things like this.

[Goat93]

Doesn't understand it really what you mean. Whats used in this Videoclip is very old DJ Stuff and it isn't influenced from Noise in Classical Sense as Subculture. As Influenced from Subculture Christina Aquilera - Fighter and madonna - Frozen Video could both also be Goth Videos from Image and Music.

Others come in my Mind were Prodigy, Asphex Twins and as new one Skrillex and this Dubstep Stuff

[Ashley Choke]

Must confess that I hardly see the noise element either. My GF's really into her, dosen't really appeal to my taste in pop. Sure there's a end worth watching!

[HongKongGoolagong]

Yeah it's probably just a matter of coincidence that I can hear the minimal beat style of Pan Sonic and the siren effect used by Whitehouse in Wriggle Like A Fucking Eel in Stupid Hoe. It does seem a very radical sound for a manistream artist - some of the comments from outraged 'music lovers' on youtube are great.

I have her first album filed between Merzbow and Mingus here and most of it is shit, but I do enjoy her occasional tracks (like this) performed by her gay psychotic boy alter Roman Zolanski.

I remember hearing Aphex Twin drop some Sotos collages into a set at a festival around ten years ago and bumming out ravers. His 90s stuff now sounds pretty dated.

[HongKongGoolagong]

Anyway, whilst we're posting pop videos that might not be completely related to noise, here's a recent one from the Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All collective who are all about ironic shock value tactics (note the house number at 1:56 for example): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN-xq7t6pKw

Ha, thanks for that. If anyone can manage to keep a straight face throughout it then god help them. Great mischievous detail on the door number.

As far as 'extreme' rap with power electronics lyrics similarities goes I always loved MC Eiht (Comptons Most Wanted) from the gangsta era, if only because his cold delivery made him sound like a genuinely evil bastard. For Right To Kill / SJ style words, Geto Boys are still unbelievably intense. Who can't love 'Mind of a Lunatic'. Gravediggaz had cheesy and cartoonish qualities to their horrorcore, all the more surprising when it turned out they weren't faking it and were genuinely disturbed and suicidal guys. There's a youtube lyrics vid to their wild track 'Six Feet Deep' which I would highly recommend.

[ironfistofthesun]

not "noise" per se but very avant garde pop...In 1981 this went to number 2 in the pop charts!!! Seems impossible that something so minimal and wonderful would ever get so much exposure in the mainstream again. one of the only records to bring a tear to my eye...still have the 7" i bought from star newsagents ( back when you could buy records from just about everywhere)
http://youtu.be/-VIqA3i2zQw

[ARKHE]

As for direct connections early Industrial music to modern pop, I read in an interview with Timbaland that he's highly influenced by Trent Reznor, who in turn of course has a lot of influences from Coil & similar. And Timbaland has had a pretty big influence on the crap spewed out the last couple of years.

Isn't Public Enemy often referred to as bridging hiphop with non-musical sounds & noises?

I'm often surprised when I hear new so-called dubstep at how noisy a lot of it is. Not in a good way, though. Seems though like it's mainly informed by 90's IDM stuff.

[Andrew McIntosh]

Hendrix's rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, perhaps? The Who's destruction of their equipment at the end of their live shows? "Metal Machine Music"? Pink Floyd's early appearances at student parties where they'd just lay on layers of guitar feedback (I read about that once, not sure if any recordings exist)?

[HongKongGoolagong]

I have some bootlegs of early Pink Floyd (sadly in poor quality) doing that cacophonous thing, which was pretty much inspired from AMM's contemporaneous London performances.

Metal Machine Music, hell yeah - pre-industrial, pre-PE, still sounds great. Likewise VU obscurity 'Loop' and all those Dream Syndicate things.

'O Superman' is a wonderful record and was much loved by Dennis Nilsen according to his biographies, he'd sit with a dismembered body in front of him drinking and crying with that on headphones!

The comment by 'justinbsfavoritegurl' under that Black Sheep track is pretty funny.

[ImpulsyStetoskopu]

Pink Floyd's early appearances at student parties where they'd just lay on layers of guitar feedback (I read about that once, not sure if any recordings exist)?

I think that "Ummagumma" has some such moments like that, especially "Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave And Grooving With A Pict" and "The Grand Vizier's Garden Party"... and their "Saucerful of Secrets". Besides Ron Geesin & Roger Waters "Music From The Body", early SILVER APPLES items and Angus Maclise.

[HongKongGoolagong]

Some primitive and atonal very early hip-hop recorded in a high school NYC gymnasium - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtsVMJAXkv8 . This still sounds fucking incredilble to my ears, all those many years after I first heard it.

We used this an an extended sample during one of the 2007 Smell & Quim shows due for release on Turgid Animal DVD "Piggy Style" soon.

S&Q shows en gai Paris early August avec Evil Moisture.

[Reprobate]

What about this new "witch house" movement? Definite connection to industrial music. Salem is one of my favorites, although (thankfully) they don't claim the witch house label, but they definitely have a darkness to them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27pRb5gtb6w&feature=related

[HongKongGoolagong]

What about this new "witch house" movement? Definite connection to industrial music. Salem is one of my favorites, although (thankfully) they don't claim the witch house label, but they definitely have a darkness to them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27pRb5gtb6w&feature=related

That sounded nice enough but kinda old-fashioned in a way - a mix of trip-hop and NIN style pop-industrial sounds, pretty much what Mark Stewart was making in the mid-90s.

Mark Stewart came from post-punk, funk, hip-hop and radical politics background and isn't often classed as noise or industrial but check out this mid-80s track http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCTodrkwyk0