Noise Used As A Genre Descriptor By The Mainstream

[HONOR_IS_KING!]

One of the more interesting things I heard frequently while on the tour I did with Full of Hell, was how loosely the term noise was used to describe music. The best example though of this was when a young fan told me that "God Is War and Author And Punisher are my favorite noise acts."

I guess noise and what qualifies as is a lot more open end then I thought these days hahaha.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I have always felt this way. It is very small group of devotees would will start to dissect what exactly is noise. In Finnish language, when you say melu, literally "noise", I would always assume it doesn't consist just the harsh noise as genre, but anything from Whitehouse, NWW, to Merzbow and Incapacitants, and so on... It would be unlikely to talk random guy and he'd start using terms musique concrete, HWN, power electronics, death industrial, and so on. Just throw most things under umbrella of what quite well explain that there is intent to be noisy, intent to be loud abstract sound as opposed to clearly defined music.

[Johann]

I think that "noise" is simply the contemporary descriptor for what "industrial" was 40 years ago, as genre becomes more defined and homogenized the word becomes a less useful descriptor for things that exist outside of the parameters of the style. When I speak to older people I knew from record stores 20+ years ago who were aware of stuff like Merzbow etc they describe it as "Power Electronics", which as a descriptor meant something very different then what the current users of this forum would understand to mean. It was simply a way of saying "noise" before people were saying it.

Several years ago I drove down to No Response in Cincinnati, being a loner with no friends in that city but not a sketchy character, I started talking to this young kid (probably 13 years old, who's mother quickly pawned off on me to seek reprieve from the sound) about how he came to find out about this. He was dressed a bit like a mormon missionary (white button down, sandals and slacks) but he explained to me he was there for see Hijokaiden who he discovered from Youtube. I met him durning Graham Lambkins set, one of the main reasons I went to begin with, and asked him how he perceived it (especially considering on some level his ears are so fresh to the experience) and he simply said "I found it uninspired" haha, very curious to know if he continues down this path if his ear will change or not. It doesn't totally surprise me that some young fan might find the 'Full of Hell' and A'uthor and Punisher' (not sure what either sound like honestly, but one must assume, close enough) in the same Youtube recommendations list.