Front 242 in the context of Dark electro

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.

Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. Originally emerging in the late 1970s to early 1980s, pioneered by artists such as Chrome, Killing Joke, Swans, Big Black and Skinny Puppy, the movement was further proliferated in the late 1980s by Wax Trax! Records in Chicago, with artists like Front 242, Front Line Assembly, KMFDM, and Sister Machine Gun.

Subsequently, the movement would lead to the emergence of genre fusions and subgenres like electro-industrial, industrial metal, martial industrial, industrial hip-hop, industrial dance and industrial techno. By the 1990s, broader industrial music genres were made accessible to mainstream audiences through the popularity of acts such as Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, all of whom released platinum-selling records.