Age survey

[XTORSOX]

36. Founded noise etc when i was 16.

[Cementimental]

I don't think I have ever meet a teenager who is into Industrial or Noise (which is a good thing in my opinion) and a small number of > 21 year olds.

I've met a few over the last few years and now they're some of the most influential, serious and active people in the UK noise/PE scene so maybe you shouldn't make that kind of assumption. Plus most of the 'classic' acts we all go on about here started as teenagers or early 20s...

[enmity]

I also think this spans from where you are from, it is much easier to be exposed to genres of music when you live in a big city, or go to school near a big city where many kids are exposed to different genres. This makes your age when you found these genres much lower imo. Not all but most people that are in their late teens and early 20's today had an easier experience finding these subcultures with the help of the internet. Personally I live in the country, 1 hour away from city, 3 hours away from major city and it was a lot harder for me to find stuff and also be exposed to certain things when i was younger. I was a teenager in the early 90's near the birth of the internet which made it difficult for me to find anything out of the ordinary besides Skinny Puppy, Coil, and sometimes Merzbow, Death In June, & Nurse With Wound.

[Zeno Marx]

I don't think age is an issue.  Generations are likely bigger factors, especially recent ones because of how information is handled.

People from large metropolitan areas, or areas of condensed population (thinking of NY, MA, MD, NJ), really don't have any idea how less populated areas function.  How slowly change and trends occur or drag behind is lost on them.  The variable of exposure might seem like common sense, but it acts in unusual, not necessarily obvious ways with difficult results.  It isn't being exposed or not being exposed.  Socialization isn't that simple.

[Steve]

Yo! Oldest fucker here ... who'd have thought.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

People from large metropolitan areas, or areas of condensed population (thinking of NY, MA, MD, NJ), really don't have any idea how less populated areas function.  How slowly change and trends occur or drag behind is lost on them.

This is something what I have been thinking for years, and quite a lot. In case of Finnish noise, there certainly are bands from bigger cities. I believe Halthan, Bizarre Uproar and Grey Park for example are original Helsinki guys? Not sure who exactly are original Turku people and who just moved there.
But vast majority of noise or especially PE, would originate from smaller cities or even villages. Or at least by people original from there, even if they moved into cities later on.
Skinhead bands for vast majority are small town origin. Black Metal appears to be so. Its very hard to say almost any relevant and long living BM band originally from bigger cities (of Finland that is). Punk used to be scattered to tiniest villages where is absolutely nothing. Not sure how much this is reality now since at least live music appears to focus merely on big cities?

I'm quite sure it has been studied somewhere, yet my assumption would be that big cities with social scenes, venues, record stores, hang out places and such was already enough for many. Living isolated in small city, banging scrap metal in fathers carage with only contacts via international post network... It would probably be filter strong enough to really process people with stronger visions? While I would hope and theoretically believe the collective spirit may lead to higher results, perhaps the reality shows otherwise? I was recently thinking of mapping the "scene". Having image map + bands, their current locations and perhaps ask if this is where they originally came from.

[ImpulsyStetoskopu]

I was recently thinking of mapping the "scene". Having image map + bands, their current locations and perhaps ask if this is where they originally came from.

Great! Make INTERNATIONAL NOISE NETWORK!

[RyanWreck]

I don't think I have ever meet a teenager who is into Industrial or Noise (which is a good thing in my opinion) and a small number of > 21 year olds.

I've met a few over the last few years and now they're some of the most influential, serious and active people in the UK noise/PE scene so maybe you shouldn't make that kind of assumption. Plus most of the 'classic' acts we all go on about here started as teenagers or early 20s...

What assumption did I make?

Why is this a good thing? Purely out of interest. I listened to plenty of industrial and noise when i was a teenager (TG/Godflesh/Whitehouse/Ramleh/etc) and still do. I just turned 22.

Yea, I got into this stuff in my early teens as well, around 13 or 14. Maybe I should have clarified what I meant because I think you guys are taking it to mean that I don't like any teenagers being in the genre. I was thinking more about them being the majority like with a lot of other music these days such as Punk or Grime or whatever little genre the kids like these days. When that happens, when teenagers seem to be the main group that the genre revolves around then the genre usually becomes a joke.

[GustavLMM]

Teenagers will like whats new, exciting and of provocative nature, especially if its helping defining a new genre or movement (because they can be a part of it). Older people will as well. From punk, hip-hop, witchhouse and so on. I think the interest in noise/industrial/P.E in the teenage majority comes from the influence of the internet . You dont have to strive or make an effort to know about new projects, releases and shows coming up. Its now easy (and not as exciting) to find out everything about noise. People will have an interest in noise, because its unfamiliar music and often unexplainable, but i doubt noise will be a worldwide teenager fad. Mainly because most people will find it too harsh or boring.

[post-morten]

Oldest fucker here ...

Only by a whisker...

[martialgodmask]

Yesterday I was watching piece of UK street magic guy and he appeared in backroom on popular R&B singer and next thing you see one of the crew members with Mayhem t-shirt.

The guy is Dynamo and I was a little bemused to see the shirt on it. Very strange environment, perhaps explained by the Hot Topic "extreme metal" tshirts of a couple of years back? Think Mayhem may have been one of them? Also, on the wall in the sixth form common room scenes on Brit-com The Inbetweeners is a Mayhem - Ordo Ad Chao poster.

[tisbor]

I'm quite sure it has been studied somewhere, yet my assumption would be that big cities with social scenes, venues, record stores, hang out places and such was already enough for many. Living isolated in small city, banging scrap metal in fathers carage with only contacts via international post network... It would probably be filter strong enough to really process people with stronger visions? While I would hope and theoretically believe the collective spirit may lead to higher results, perhaps the reality shows otherwise? I was recently thinking of mapping the "scene". Having image map + bands, their current locations and perhaps ask if this is where they originally came from.

Thinking about this, i guess situation in Italy is similar. Lots of the classic industrial/p.e./noise acts were based in little towns. Dead Body Love, Mauthausen Orchestra, Atrax Morgue, OEC label, etc etc

[Desperate]

36 here. I got into noise/experimental/industrial around the age of 19 or 20, but that was due to having pen pals (from Metal Maniacs magazine!) that also listened to that stuff. There was just no one within a 50 mile radius that would have known about any of these bands. There possibly could have been cassettes like Skinny Puppy "Too Dark Park" or similar, but I would have not known anything about the band if I hadn't searched it out. Living in a very small town made it much harder to discover anything remotely different. I'm actually very thankful for the magazines I found at bigger music stores (the Tower Music store in Nashville that I visited had more genre based mags for punk, goth, industrial, metal, etc). And I also think the internet has made it much easier to discover bands, as there isn't much "searching" going on. On one hand that's good, but then again, it seems to dilute the experience of discovering this stuff.

[acsenger]

Forgot to add that I turned 30 in May. Started listening to noise and experimental music at age 17. I had been listening to extreme metal for a couple years and got a Relapse sampler CD with Gore Beyond Necropsy on it. It was pretty sick so with the help of the internet (this was in 1999, and at least in Hungary the internet was still pretty new) I found that they had a collab CD with Merzbow. Listened to Merzbow on the Relapse website via Real Player samples; at first thought it was a joke but then I started liking it and started ordering Merzbow, Masonna etc. stuff and never looked back.

[Jaakko V.]

Got into noise as a teenager in the mid 90s. Had been into dm/bm since the early 90s so was familiar with the mechanisms of the underground. It was amazing time, I only knew of three noise oriented persons in the whole country, one lived 400 km away from me, the other two 600 km, but that was enough. Then a little later realized that there is also FA recs. The fact that *nobody* else in my surroundings knew or understood made it all the more fascinating, a totally magical private universe - an experience I wish more youngsters could have.