>""Art of Noise is also classified as industrial" "

>"what what WHAT?"

Tomas, I am surprised. Look around. From in the 80's they were called an "industrial" band of sorts. I once heard that they were like an early industrial band like that started it (I never quite believed that.)

Here is a write up on one sight, if you look through the whole thing you will find several references to them being called industrial:

"Apart from that, I guess the best way to describe Who's Afraid would be "sound collage", but unlike, for instance, the underground INDUSTRIAL bands of the time, Art Of Noise were definitely trying to mold their collages into rhythmic, almost danceable grooves. Heck, what's up with "almost"? They are danceable! 'Beatbox', although in a somewhat different version, was, like, the ultimate break dance soundtrack of its time! This is why they proved so "influential", with tons of techno and trance performers ripping out the weirdness and imagination of this music and leaving just the rhythmic punch. Ah well, we can't blame them for all the techno crap they've launched upon this world anyway, or else we'd have to blame the Beatles for Barry Manilow or something."
(from: starling.rinet.ru/music/artof.htm)

How about this:
"Though its origins lie in the '70s proto-industrial grind of London's Throbbing Gristle and the sonic assault of '80s and '90s Japanese noisemongers like Merzbow and the Boredoms, today's noise punk developed largely as party music."
(from: www.spin.com/features/ma.../art_noise/)

That is just a couple of references. They are classified as industrial in many places and credited with inspiring many industrial bands. They were the first (that I heard) to have a chain saw and a car engine as part of their music. Would that not make them industrial right there by definition?

Looking through Wiki I found an interesting bit about "industrial music" the origins being "noise" which if you look at noise you get this interesting tid-bit:
"Luigi Russolo, a Futurist painter of the very early 20th century, was perhaps the first Noise artist. His 1913 manifesto L'Arte de Rumori (The Art of Noises) stated that the industrial revolution had given modern men a greater capacity to appreciate more complex sounds. Russolo found traditional melodic music confining and envisioned Noise Music as its future replacement."
(From Wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_music)
See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_music for a bit about Industrial music

So this would explain the origins of the name of "The Art of Noise"