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You know what music is, more or less. A bunch of sounds that have some kind of harmony, rhythm, and melody. So when does experimental music become plain old noise?
Noise Art (not to be confused with Sound Art) is also known as Noise Music. It´s the deliberate use of all the sounds we usually try to avoid: Static, feedback, distortion, dissonance and vocal elements like screams, grunts and high-pitched squeals. Imagine a track called Fingernails Down a Blackboard, and you´re on the right track.
Noise Art is experimental music taken to its extreme. It´s designed to make the listener uncomfortable, to make sure the listener cannot focus on anything but the track being played. In short, Noise Art is an attention-captivating experience.
Who would like to listen to this stuff? Lots of people apparently like it. This has been around since the early 1900s, when progressive artists began to experiment with sound as a medium. From ´Found Sound´ art to the 1975 Lou Reed album Metal Machine Music, there continues to be a fascination with Noise Art.
And there is a huge market for it. Today´s most popular Noise Artists (or more correctly, Noise Musicians, depending on your definition of music) make a very tidy living from their work. The Japanese Noise Art scene is especially noted for its plethora of talent, kind of like the way that Seattle was the home of grunge. Masami Akita is probably the best known of these, and has had more than one world-tour.
The appeal seems to lie in the discomfort of the listening experience. Noise Art fans like to push the boundaries of what is considered to be ´good´ music, and are pretty sure that we can retrain our brains to interpret any noise as ´beautiful.´ Pointing out that you would be executed if you brought a little Rage Against the Machine into a Medieval Royal Court, fans of Noise Art understand that fashions in music change pretty fast – and that experimentation in noise may be tomorrow´s Top 40.
There´s also a Zen element: Listening to Noise Music forces you to focus only on the noise. Everything else is basically shut out, which is only a step away from meditation. In an information-overloaded world, when we are always thinking about the next appointment, the next task, the next day, listening to Noise Music is one way to make sure you only focus on the here and now.
Another way to focus on the here and now is to take a holiday. Rent apartments in Helsinki – one of the homes of the world´s Noise Music scene for a peek into this weird and wonderful genre.
