Noise rock is a subgenre of rock music that originally emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Artists fuse rock music to noise, while utilizing extreme levels of guitar distortion and feedback, primarily through the use of electric guitars.

The earliest known use of the term "noise rock" was on April 25, 1970, in an issue of Record World by writer John Kornblum, who used the phrase "psychedelic-noise-rock". On July 22, 1972, writer Nat Freedland published an article in Billboard magazine which outlined the influence of Germany's krautrock scene on English rock bands. He concluded by asking, "Is America the next step for teutonic noise rock?"

Noise rock is a term that can refer to two distinct styles, each stemming from different influences and stylistic origins. In the early 1980s, music critic Robert Christgau coined the term "pigfuck" to describe Sonic Youth, the label later took a life of its own encompassing artists like Big Black, the Jesus Lizard, Flipper, Cows, Scratch Acid and No Trend who were more rooted in the post-hardcore and post-punk scenes and often associated with labels like Amphetamine Reptile and Touch and Go. The other strain of the genre originated in the late 1960s with more art-based influences, aligning itself with avant-garde music and psychedelic rock, pioneered by bands like the Velvet Underground, Red Krayola, and Les Rallizes Dénudés and later Fushitsusha and Boredoms. Bands like Sonic Youth incorporated both the genre’s punk rooted origins as well as its art-damaged sound, by including the use of alternate tunings and unconventional prepared guitar techniques, such as playing guitar with drumsticks.

Sonic Youth are the only noise rock band to achieve commercial success with the single "100%" from their album "Dirty" reaching #4 on the US charts with frontman Thurston Moore stating:

Noise has taken the place of punk rock. People who play noise have no real aspirations to being part of the mainstream culture. Punk has been co-opted, and this subterranean noise music and the avant-garde folk scene have replaced it.

Additionally, the no wave scene helped further develop the sound of noise rock, with the compilation album "No New York" serving as a pivotal influence. Subsequently, bands like Sonic Youth and Swans, emerged out of the scene as key noise rock artists, drawing inspiration from no wave composers Glenn Branca and Rhys Chatham.

Noise rock fuses rock to noise, merging extreme levels of guitar distortion, electronic effects, atonality, improvisation, and white noise with that of traditional rock music instrumentation.

While noise rock has never had any wide mainstream popularity, the raw, distorted and feedback-intensive sound of some noise rock bands had an influence on shoegaze, which enjoyed some popularity in the 90s, especially in the UK, and grunge, the most commercially successful with Nirvana's final studio album In Utero produced by Steve Albini and generally taking influences from bands like Big Black, Wipers, the Pixies, Dinosaur Jr. and the Jesus Lizard. The Butthole Surfers' mix of punk, heavy metal and noise rock was a major influence, particularly on the early work of Soundgarden. Other influential acts were Wisconsin's Killdozer, Chicago's Big Black, and San Francisco's Flipper.