Suicide

Suicide was basically the first industrial music. As the above link states, "Although they barely receive credit, Suicide (singer Alan Vega and keyboardist Martin Rev) is the source point for virtually every synth pop duo that glutted the pop marketplace (especially in England) in the early '80s. Without the trailblazing Rev and Vega, there would have been no Soft Cell, Erasure, Bronski Beat, Yaz, you name 'em, and while many would tell you that that's nothing to crow about, the aforementioned synth-poppers merely appropriated Suicide's keyboards/singer look and none of Rev and Vega's extremely confrontational performance style and love of dissonance."

Their drum machine was a modified bowling pin setter. They had to build it themselves. Ric Ocasek took Suicide under his wing, but the record industry didn't really know what to do with them in the days of stadium shows. Even Bruce Springsteen was a fan. Crowds acted extremely hostile to their music. As related on their album liner notes, after opening for The Cars it was found that someone had actually thrown a knife at them during a performance. However, the club scene loved them and their influence may be heard to this day.

Here are MP3 clips to most of their well-known recordings.