Noise Rock

Noise Rock
Noise Rock is a subgenre of Rock that focuses on being loud, abrasive and noisy. Although many people associate Noise Rock with post-hardcore-esque bands like Unsane, The Jesus Lizards and Shellac, Noise Rock is far more varied in the true sense, and ranges from early psychedelia with walls of feedback, to sloppily played punk with the amps turned up to 11. The genre arguably first came around in the 1960s

The 1960s
Tracing the roots of Noise Rock back to it's origin is a difficult task simply because how nebulous the term "Noise Rock". One could look back to the 1960s - in Germany, bands like Monks were creating noisy, fuzzy rock that was completely different from the timid rock of the time. In New York, there were critical darlings The Velvet Underground, who combined John Cale's avant-garde ideas and long, droning passages with Lou Reed's pop sensebility, producing Experimental Rock that was as instantly enjoyable as it was Avant-Garde. While the use of noise and Feedback did play a big part in their debut with Nico, their second album White Light/White Heat utilised it even further. In Sweden, there was Pärson Sound, a group that extremely ahead of their time, blending long, drawn out psychedlia with lashings of Noise and Drone. They were also similar to the feedbacken-laden sound of Les Rallizes Denudes, formed in 1967, a Japanese Band who gained monumentum in the 70's, who were combining druggy psychedelic rock with walls of noise and distortion to create extremely chaotic and dischordant rock music. This style of Noise Rock still continues today with bands like LSD March.



The 1970s
The true turning point for Noise Rock was the "Punk Rock" movement of the 1970s. Bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash were playing extremely angry, indignant, and at times sloppy music in the spirit of rebellion and rage that was a precursor to the extremely Rock-Oriented side of Noise Rock, as opposed to the bands more focused on the "Noise" side. But bands like the Clash were still playing primitive Blues-Based rock in the spirit of the 1950's Rock & Roll. There was more to come - and while Punk Rock burned out bright late in the 70s before splitting into Post-Punk groups like PiL and Hardcore Groups like Minor Threat. But there was an even more subversive and rebellious movement brewing - The  "No Wave" scene of New York. There were a variety of styles - One was the epic, noisy multi-guitar compositions of Glenn Branca, who's use of alternate tunings, feedback, and playing at a blistering volume obviously influenced Noise Rock bands that rose out of the ashes of No Wave, most importantly Sonic Youth (Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo was even part of Branca's Orchestra for a period of time). Another style was the style of bands like Teenage Jesus and the Jerks - primitive, angular and noisy rock that deviated from traditional chord based rock that had preceded it, quite a lot similar to the band Half-Japanese who had appeared earlier in the 1970s (and whom I think also foreshadowed Noise Rock, and despite their lack of skill or musical knowledge, they stil played with a punk rock spirit that shines bright in Noise Rock today). Both these styles were the essential birthplace of the modern, punk-influenced, rock oriented side of Noise Rock that most people associate with the genre. Although No Wave was a short-lived scene, it was definitely an influential one as well.



The 1980s
The 1980s were a true golden age for Noise Rock to many people. This period of Noise Rock has strong ties to Hardcore Punk (in fact, many bands such as The Butthole Surfers started off as Hardcore Punk bands and then began to explore more experimental and abrasive tangents) and Industrial music, with bands like Brainbombs and Big Black transposing the noisy industrial sound into a rock-oriented group, with tremendous resultsThis was when the first "real" Noise Rock bands appeared on the scene - Sonic Youth, Flipper, and most importantly, Big Black. Big Black basically became the posterchild of the Noise Rock scene, and today, Albini still stands as a figurehead of the scene, producing for later bands like The Jesus Lizard and McLusky



The 1990s, 2000s and Onwards
Noise Rock has remained relatively constant since the late 1980s - many bands kept the industrial influence of bands like Big Black, and bands like Unsane and Shellac leaned towards the Post-Hardcore style of bands like Fugazi, albeit with a much noisier take on Post-Hardcore. The late 90s and 2000s saw more bands like McLusky dominate the scene, playing Post-Hardcore influenced Noise Rock dripping with bile and distortion. But there were still bands that challenged the status quo - from the Noise Punk duo Lightning Bolt's chaotic drumming and thunderous bass riffs, to the noisy drones of Boris on an album like Feedbacker. So as long as people have a predilection for the more abrasive, more chaotic side of Rock, Noise Rock will live on