Industrial music is a genre that, at first, might be tricky to understand. It is characterized by electronic sounds and often the use of distorted vocals. Artists within this genre tend to be more experimental and avant garde. The genre started to gain popularity in the late 1970s, pioneered by bands like Throbbing Gristle, but only broke into the mainstream in the 1990s along with Nine Inch Nails and My Bloody Valentine.
“It was very literally an experiment,” recalled P-Orridge. “Let’s set up a band. Let’s give it a really inappropriate name”
Throbbing Gristle was made up of four members and their names were Genesis P-Orridge, Chris Carter, Cosey Fanni Tutti and Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson. To them, the term “industrial music” meant something more than just a genre, “We wanted to make people more active in their approach to life … you can actually create something yourself or go in a different direction. That’s what we meant by industrial” said Cosey Fanni Tutti. They had a vision to revolutionize how music was created and also inspire people to unapologetically follow their own path as artists.
They created music in their studio, which was located close to some factories, a railway arch, and also a dubstep/reggae club. This meant that there was always some sort of loud sound nearby and in turn, affected how they saw the world around them–full of grime, noise and a sense that people are always working.
Before the band became a four-piece, Genesis and Cosey were part of a performance art group in Hull called COUM Transmissions. They did regular shows that were very transgressive in their content. Perhaps their logo being a drawing of the male genital would provide an idea of the group’s aesthetics. However, once the press and police were taking notice and they were gaining a bad reputation, the group moved to London.
While in London, the duo met Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson and Chris Carter. Carter was doing sound engineering for television as well as putting on light shows for some musicians during this time. After becoming a band, they worked in a very worn-down studio which they named “The Death Factory”. They would perform physically concerning sound experiments like playing frequencies at an extremely loud volume, to the point where their vision would get temporarily affected.
“Nowadays, health and safety, you couldn’t get away with that.”
The debut gig of Throbbing Gristle happened at COUM Transmissions’ Prostitution art exhibition on October 18th 1976. It featured pornographic images of Tutti and a chaotic performance from the band. They were officially condemned by Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn who called them “wreckers of civilisation”. If anything, I thought the band was just living up to their unorthodox aesthetic. In fact, they probably thought “wreckers of civilisation” had a ring to it.
In 1978, Throbbing Gristle released the track “Hamburger Lady” from their second album, DOA: The Third & Final Report. Both sonically and lyrically, “Hamburger Lady” is eerie and deeply unnerving. The making of it started off as lyrics written by the quartet’s American friend, Al Ackerman, who was a doctor and a mail artist–in the 1970s, some artists sent their drawings and poems on postcards.
He had treated a woman patient in the hospital who was fatally burned and seeing the state that she was in had a powerful impact on him. As a result, he wrote a letter and in it he described this tragic tale.
“This long description of this woman that was in such a terrible state with burns. It impacted us quite a lot, and that’s when Gen put down his letter to the track itself.”
The song appears to depict the point of view of the Hamburger Lady. The siren and vehicle sounds are what she hears while lying on the hospital bed, and the spoken-word lyrics repeating “hamburger lady” could be the muttering of other patients in the same room or visitors who have come to see her. It is a track that leaves a disturbing feeling in listeners, especially those who aren’t typically exposed to such dark themes in music.
Bibliography
Tom, D. (2015). Classic Tracks: Throbbing Gristle ‘Hamburger Lady’ https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/classic-tracks-throbbing-gristle-hamburger-lady