I was turned on to Ballard, as I'm sure many people were, as a result of listening to Industrial music. In Re/Search's 1983 publication, The Industrial Cultural Handbook, Jon Savage states that "...Industrial Music provides perhaps the true soundtrack to the final quarter of the twentieth century". If so, then the screenplay was based on a novel written by Ballard.J.G. Ballard's literature could almost be described as being the DNA of Industrial music. He was a huge, if not the primary, influence on the artists who coined the phrase "Industrial Music". In fact, it's easiest to tell someone to read Ballard -- specifically Crash -- to gain an understanding of the Industrial philosophy/mentality.

Industrial Music as a scene is said to have died in the early 80's with the breakup of Throbbing Gristle. Today, most cutting edge Industrial musicians refer to their work as "experimental", "electronic", "noise" or "ambient". The Industrial label has been abandoned, but the tests and collisions go on underground. And the music still relates to the psycho-sexual/mechanical themes associated with Ballard, whose literature is as fresh, mind-expanding, and radical today as when it was first released.

Tab Brown

A listing of 10 Industrial (or Experimental, etc...) music pieces related to/influenced by Crash spanning from the 70's to today are as follows: (Artist/Title/Release Date and Connection to Crash)

1. Throbbing Gristle "The Second Annual Report of Throbbing Gristle" 1977

Industrial Music for Industrial People

2. Cabaret Voltaire "Voice of America" 1980

Violence, Paranoia, and Control as Pop Entertainment Themes

3. System Planning Korporation "Information Overload Unit" 1980

Mental Hospitals as Music Venues

4. Nocturnal Emissions "Drowning in a Sea of Bliss" 1983

Anthems of the Meat Generation

5. Nurse With Wound "Spiral Insana" 1986

A Surrealist Masterpiece

6. Cranioclast "Koitlaransk & Ration Skalk" 1986/88

Ballard as Subject Matter

7. Merzbow "Great American Nude/Crash for Hi-Fi" 1991

Live Snippets from Japans' King of Sex Noise

8. Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock "Ho" 1992

Psycho-physical Sound Experimentation

9. Isolrubin BK "Crash Injury Trauma" 1992

A Documentary 10. Vagina Dentata Organ "Un Chien Catalan" 1994

Surrealism at its Finest or Saturday Night in San Bernardino?

Source: Tab Brown, ILATO Inc., 1997 E-Mail Address: SCHMCZYK@Walrus.Com