Aggrotech in the context of "Cabaret Voltaire (band)"

Industrial music (or simply industrial) is a subgenre of experimental music inspired by post-industrial society, initially drawing influences from avant-garde and early electronic music genres such as musique concrète, tape music, noise and sound collage. The term was coined in 1976 by Monte Cazazza and Throbbing Gristle, with the founding of Industrial Records. Other early industrial musicians include NON and Cabaret Voltaire. By the late 1970s, additional artists emerged such as Clock DVA, Nocturnal Emissions, Einstürzende Neubauten, SPK, Nurse with Wound, and Z’EV, alongside Whitehouse who coined the subgenre "power electronics".

During the 1980s, industrial music splintered into a range of offshoots collectively labelled "post-industrial music", these included, EBM, new beat, hard beat, dark ambient, neofolk, power noise, industrial dance, electro-industrial, dark electro, aggrotech, industrial rock, industrial metal, cyber metal, Neue Deutsche Härte, martial industrial, industrial hip-hop and industrial techno. By the 1990s, elements of industrial music were made accessible to mainstream audiences through the popularity of acts such as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Rammstein, and Marilyn Manson, all of whom released platinum-selling records.

Electro-industrial is a subgenre of post-industrial music that emerged in the early 1980s. It was originally pioneered by acts such as Front 242, Cabaret Voltaire, Front Line Assembly, Klinik, Numb, as well as groups from Canada and the Benelux.

Other influential acts included Canadian band Skinny Puppy, who signed to label Nettwerk, which served as a central hub that helped proliferate the style. By the early 1990s, electro-industrial spawned the dark electro genre, and later the aggrotech offshoot. The fan base for the style is linked to the rivethead subculture.