Merzbow Ate My Radiator

Quite possibly the most polarizing, abrasive genre of music out there lies Noise.  Noise is as it sounds.  Cacophonous.  Grating.  Schizophrenic.  Hopeless. Messy. Spastic.  Ear piercing.  In other words, just all around unpleasant.  This begs the question, why on Earth would anyone listen to Noise?

Noise can offer catharsis.  You wake up. Go to work. Go Home. Go to sleep. Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Go to sleep. Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Go to sleep.  Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Go to sleep.  Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Go to sleep.  Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Go to sleep.  Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Go to sleep.  Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Go to sleep.  Wake up. Go to work. Go home. Go to sleep.  SKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKKSKSKSKSKKSKSSKKSSSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKSKS
After a while, life melds into the background, and noise is the only release.  Some noise artists are built upon a foundation of repetition with occasional bursts of violent sound.  This style of almost ambient can create a sort of Zen sadism that offers a release from the daily grind.

Noise can offer peace.  Artists such as Merzbow create an isolating white noise that builds a shimmering drone almost suited for meditative purposes.  The Boredoms' Super Ae is probably the best example of this phenomenon.  Over seven tracks, three of which clock in at over twelve minutes, its easy to get lost in the warmth.

Noise can offer popularity.  "WTF?" you might be asking yourself.  But there is a precedent.  The aforementioned Boredoms early career culminated with appearances at Lollapalooza and noise rock pioneers Sonic Youth are well-known and established artists far beyond the Noise scene.  For more recent examples, one can look to the trashy synth sounds that crop up in many pop songs today.  The influence of noise is prevalent everywhere from Kanye West to Ke$ha.


Noise can offer acceptance.  Like many niche genres, followers of Noise build a cult around what they believe in.  The genre offers a sort of nihilism that takes the negative, "fuck you" attitude of punk and metal then twists and perverts it into something that is found nowhere else save for some of the more depraved grindcore acts.  The scene has even fallen back on using dead formats to spread the word, with cassette releases being very common.  A well-known noise label RRRecords even has a series of noise releases titled Recycled Music that re-purpose cassettes found in thift stores, recording over them and slapping a label on it for the artist in question.

Acts like Wolf Eyes and Whitehouse most fully embody the harsh polarizing sounds most associated with Noise, not  being content to offer mere mind-torching static and feedback but peppering their tracks with unsettling titles evoking morbid or disgusting images in the mind's eye like Wolf Eyes' "Black Vomit" and "Dead in a Boat".  Whitehouse takes an even more unpleasant route by splicing in sound bytes from rape victims' cries for help and serial killers' confessionals.  Even the most staunch Noise defenders find such music often unapproachable and more of an exercise in endurance rather than generating any kind of pleasure from the listening experience.

So what's the point?  Well, there isn't one.  much like Noise itself, sometimes the need to get something out there overrules the desire to create meaning in what you do.