Industrial music (also known as 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 industrial rock, dark ambient, EBM, neofolk, power noise, electro-industrial, industrial metal, martial industrial, industrial hip-hop, industrial dance, futurepop 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.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the genre was first named in 1942 when The Musical Quarterly called Dmitri Shostakovich's 1927 Symphony No. 2 "the high tide of 'industrial music'." Similarly, in 1972, The New York Times described works by Ferde Grofé (especially 1935's A Symphony in Steel) as part of "his 'industrial music' genre [that] called on such instruments as four pairs of shoes, two brooms, a locomotive bell, a pneumatic drill and a compressed-air tank". Though these compositions are not directly tied to what the genre would become, they are early examples of music designed to mimic machinery noise and factory atmosphere. Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo laid the groundwork for industrial music with his book and work The Art of Noises (1913), which aimed to reflect "the sounds of a modern industrial society".

Industrial music was a response to "an age [in which] the access and control of information were becoming the primary tools of power," defined primarily as a musical reflection of post-industrial society, with its rampant use of contemporary technology and incorporation of unconventional modernist lyricism and themes not commonly found in popular music. Industrial artists drew influence from modernist literature, art, philosophy and avant-garde music, rejecting formal rock music conventions, with Industrial Records wanting to use the term "industrial" to evoke the idea of music created for a new generation. Artist Genesis P-Orridge stated:

[...] there's an irony in the word 'industrial' because there's the music industry. And then there's the joke we often used to make in interviews about churning out our records like motorcars, that sense of industrial. And [...] up till then the music had been kind of based on the blues and slavery, and we thought it was time to update it to at least Victorian times—you know, the Industrial Revolution.

Early industrial music made by groups such as Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle, featured tape editing, stark percussion, vocal effects and loops which were distorted. Throbbing Gristle opposed traditional rock music structures associated with the punk rock scene, declaring industrial to be "anti-music." Early industrial performances often involved taboo-breaking, provocative elements, such as mutilation, sado-masochistic elements and totalitarian imagery or symbolism, as well as forms of audience abuse, such as Throbbing Gristle's aiming high powered lights at the audience.

Artists often played in non-traditional ways, incorporating the use of homemade instruments, such as Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle who invented a device named the "Gristle-izer", played by Peter Christopherson, which consisted of a one-octave keyboard and a number of cassette machines triggering various pre-recorded sounds. Cabaret Voltaire's Chris Watson custom-built a fuzzbox for Richard H. Kirk's guitar, produced a unique timbre. Carter built speakers, effects units, and synthesizer modules, as well as modifying more conventional rock instrumentation, for Throbbing Gristle. Cosey Fanni Tutti played guitar with a slide in order to produce glissandi, or pounded the strings as if it were a percussion instrument. Throbbing Gristle also played at very high volume and produced ultra-high and sub-bass frequencies in an attempt to produce physical effects, labelling this approach as "metabolic music". AllMusic defines industrial music as the "most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music".

Industrial groups typically focus on transgressive subject matter. In his introduction for the Industrial Culture Handbook (1983), Jon Savage considered some hallmarks of industrial music to be organizational autonomy, shock tactics, and the use of synthesizers and "anti-music." Furthermore, an interest in the investigation of "cults, wars, psychological techniques of persuasion, unusual murders (especially by children and psychopaths), forensic pathology, venereology, concentration camp behavior, the history of uniforms and insignia" and Aleister Crowley's magick was present in Throbbing Gristle's work, as well as in other industrial pioneers. William S. Burroughs' recordings and writings were particularly influential on the scene, particularly his interest in the cut-up technique and noise as a method of disrupting societal control. Many of the first industrial musicians were interested in, though not necessarily sympathetic with, fascism. Throbbing Gristle's logo was based on the lightning symbol of the British Union of Fascists, while the Industrial Records logo was a photo of Auschwitz.