Noise music (also referred to simply as noise) has been represented by many genres during the 20th century and subsequently. Some of its proponents reject the attempt to classify it as a single overall genre,[92] preferring to call noise music a non-genre, an aesthetic, or a collection of genres. Even among those who regard it as a genre, its scope is unclear.[93] Some commentators use the phrase "noise music" (or "noise") to refer specifically to Japanese noise music, while others instead use the term Japanoise.[94][95]
While noise music is often nowadays associated with extreme volume and distortion[96] and produced by electronic amplification, the tradition dates back at least to the Futurist Luigi Russolo,[97] who rejected melody, constructed original instruments known as intonarumori and assembled a "noise orchestra" in 1917. It was not well received.[98] In his 1913 manifesto The Art of Noises he observes:
At first the art of music sought purity, limpidity and sweetness of sound. Then different sounds were amalgamated, care being taken, however, to caress the ear with gentle harmonies. Today music, as it becomes continually more complicated, strives to amalgamate the most dissonant, strange and harsh sounds. In this way we come ever closer to noise-sound.[97