Post-industrial music is a collection of related
music genres that emerged in the early 1980s, all of which blended elements of varying styles with the then new genre of
industrial music. "Industrial" had first been applied to music in the mid-1970s by the
Industrial Records label artists. Since then, a number of labels and artists have come to be called "industrial". These offshoots include fusions with
noise music,
ambient music,
folk music, and
electronic dance music, as well as other mutations and developments. The scene has spread worldwide, and is particularly well represented in North America, Europe, and Japan. The most commercially successful post-industrial subgenre is
industrial metal.