Rivethead

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A Rivethead is a fan of, or a person associated with the industrial music scene. This however does not mean that said person is a fan of actual industrial music, but one of industrial's many sub-genres. Although the culture around Industrial Music was already flourishing during the early Post-punk period^{[citation needed]}, the identifiable stereotype of an Industrial fan would only emerge in the 1990s^[1].

1 Origins of the term
2 Aesthetics
3 Music
4 Controversies
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Origins of the term

The man responsible for coining the term Rivethead in the context of Industrial Music was Chase, founder of Re-Constriction Records, a subdivision of Cargo Music specialized in Industrial Music^[2]. In the early 1990s Chase released Rivet Head Culture, a compilation including several Industrial acts of the American underground scene. This is, allegedly, the first time the term was put in official use on the Industrial counterculture. The problem of that statement is that during the same year Rivet Head Culture was released Chemlab - whose members were close friends of Chase - released their debut album, Burn Out at the Hydrogen Bar (1993). This record had a track called "Rivethead".

When asked about the "Rivethead" controversy, Chemlab singer Jared Louche said he didn't remember where "Rivethead" came from, although he states that this song title was in his mind for years^[3]. On his behalf, Chase admits he wasn't the one who came up with it, yet he claims the responsibility for making "Rivethead" a popular word inside the Industrial Music scene.

Outside music, the term was already being used since the 1940s as a nickname for American car factory workers, mainly those working on assembly lines^[4]. The term hit the mainstream with the publication of Ben Hamper's Rivethead: Tales From the Assembly Line^[5]

[edit] Aesthetics

Some argue that a typical Industrial Music fan doesn't resort to a particular "look"; that's an excellent strategy to avoid the stereotyping traps that transformed Punks, Hippies and Goths into walking clichés. Also, this kind of thinking is in accord to the highly individualistic nature of the music and it's active disdain towards mass culture.

Others, though, claim that rivetheads do have a dress code, and that dress code can be identified relatively easily, often related to "anti-fashion". The sections below deal with the details of this alleged dress code.

The prime dress style of Rivetheads is inspired by military aesthetics, complemented by Modern Primitive body-modification (tattoos, piercings and scarification) or borrowed visual cues from Goths (mainly androgyny, fetishism and black hair dye), as well as oldschool Punk themes (such as the fanned Mohawk hairstyle, worn by Sascha Konietzko of KMFDM).

Below are some of the main characteristics of the Rivethead dress style. These were picked from a number of sources - parody sites such as Industrial 101^[6] and Sykospark's "Insta Rivethead Kit"^[7]^[8]^[9]^[10] plus specific topics off the Side-Line^[11] and the industrial.org forums.

Boots: combat boots, Tanker boots, knee-high military dress boots, steel-toe boots (such as Dr. Martens, Gripfasts or Grinders), which are usually the centerpiece of the rivethead wardrobe. They are alternatively called "shit stomping boots", "stompy boots" or "shitkicking boots"

Pants: cargo pants or BDUs, tucked into boots, rolled at the bottom cuffs, or as cut-off shorts. Also, leather pants.

Tops: Band T-shirts, Black Wifebeaters, flight jackets, leather jackets ("old school"), Nihilist themed shirts. Bulletproof Vests, Trenchcoats are also frequently seen.

Hair: Long and black or natural non dyed bright colors, shaved bald, partially shaved (undercut), or in a few cases, dreadlocked* and cyberfalls*.

headgear or facegear: sometimes masks are used, gasmasks, helmets and industrial goggles

Female Rivets: May play along the Femme Fatale look with sexuality as power. Short skirts, military, knee high stilleto boots, vinyl / leather / PVC bustiers and corsets, and lip gloss with less makeup than Goths. Colorful synthetic pony falls / hair extensions and colorful vinyl are seen but are more known as *"CyberGoth" wear.

[edit] Music

Main article: Industrial music

Since its beginning, Industrial Music has branched out into different genres. The eventual broadening of its music spectrum split the fan base - a crack that's widening with each passing year. The club-oriented subgenres (Futurepop, Electronic Body Music(EBM), Terror EBM, TBM^[12]), for example, don't fare well with the Neofolk crowd, which are closer in spirit to Industrial's founding fathers. There's also the case of Industrial Metal, which is more akin to standard Rock 'n' roll than Throbbing Gristle's electronic maelstrom.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Criticisms of the term

Some Industrial fans rejected the term. Others associated it with real Heavy Metal bands such as Manowar. In the early 1980s, "Rivethead" was a nickname for Iron Maiden fans.

Some Industrial fans find the word suspicious, because it implies "pigeonholing"; others deem it "overused" and or trendy.

[edit] Comparison to goth subculture

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It should be noted that Rivetheads are different from Goths in ideological and musical terms, as well as in their visual aesthetics. Goths were a romantic outgrowth of Punk, while the Industrial counterculture was largely a pre-Punk entity: something like a cross between the Dadaists and the Beat Generation. Be noted: to many rivetheads, the term "goth" is insulting.^{[citation needed]}

Confusion regarding the boundaries of those two youth cultures has heightened because of recent (mid-1990s onwards) hybridization between both^[13] which has led some people to believe that Rivetheads were actually a Goth offshoot^[14]^[15]. (Canadian novelist Nancy Kilpatrick calls them "Industrial Goths" instead^[16]). That assumption is incorrect. Industrial counterculture came to be in 1977^[17] while Goth subculture gelled around the London's Batcave club in the summer of 1982^[18]^[19]^[20].

The rise of cybergoths further contributed to this cross-boundary issue.

Rivethead culture is highly violent in its visuals, but not necessarily in practice. Goth culture is, however, totally devoid of any appreciation for violence^[21]^[22]. The most important difference is the related types of music. They were grouped due to how small the Industrial scene was plus the fact of dark themes and further the merging of the music.

[edit] Columbine massacre

In the aftermath of the Columbine massacre, groups such as Marilyn Manson^[23], Rammstein and KMFDM^[24] were blamed for the tragedy. (According to a friend of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, the Columbine shooters listened to the above artists^[25]). Because of their liking for black clothes and trench coats, Harris and Klebold were labelled by the media as goths, something which many goths resentened.^[26]

According to musicologist Bret D. Woods in his Master Thesis about industrial music-^[27]

"It is (...) important to note that some industrial artists use Marxist, socialist, and/or communist imagery in a shocking and satirical way to represent tyranny and their protest against tyranny. These are not to be seen as endorsements of particular ideologies, but are to be taken in context to their intent, a commentary on oppression".

– Bret Woods, Industrial Music for Industrial People (2007)