History Music / ArtOfNoise

* {{Feelies}}: Parodied with ''Daft''. The cover art depicts one of the band's paper masks, with a dotted line and scissor icon around it, seemingly encouraging the buyer to cut the mask out and wear it as their own. However, because the album was never released on LP -- only on CD, cassette, and digitally -- the mask is way too small to practically wear.

(The) Art of Noise[[note]]The band and their labels used the definite article interchangeably throughout their existence, with no real rhyme or reason to which one is used.[[/note]] were an influential [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] SynthPop[=/=]InstrumentalHipHop group which existed between 1983 and 1989, and then briefly in 1999 with a different line-up. They are notable for helping [[TropeCodifier codify]] many aspects of synth-pop and electronica which are now ubiquitous, including the extensive use of {{Sampling}} and the sequencing of drum beats using a sampler.

** ''Daft'' was released by ZTT Records shortly after the band's acrimonious split from Horn and Morley, and features pseudonymous liner notes by Morley (as "Otto Flake") trashing the band's new aesthetic; it's essentially a cross between ''Into Battle'' and ''Who's Afraid'' with a couple of additional tracks.

* SiameseTwinSongs: ''In No Sense? Nonsense!'' is designed to flow as a single track, with constant use of FadingIntoTheNextSong to ensure that there are no audible gaps from one piece to the next. The cassette release even features the full album on both sides of the tape (rather than splitting each half across each side like the LP release) to ensure that nothing gets interrupted.

* SpokenWordInMusic: The vast majority of ''any'' "lyrics" used in Art of Noise's music are this. There are hardly any sung lyrics across their entire discography (the main exceptions being Music/TomJones' contribution to "Kiss", Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens on "Yebo!", and the operatic vocals on ''The Seduction of Claude Debussy''.)

* AWildRapperAppears: [[Music/EricBAndRakim Rakim]] appears on "Metaforce" and "Metaphor on the Floor" on ''The Seduction of Claude Debussy''.

* {{Feelies}}: Parodied with ''Daft''. The cover art depicts one of the band's paper masks, with a dotted line and scissor icon around it, seemingly encouraging the buyer to cut the mask out and wear it as their own. However, because the album was never released on LP -- only on CD and digitally -- the mask is way too small to practically wear.

'''(The) Art of Noise''' [[note]]The band and their labels used the definite article interchangeably throughout their existence, with no real rhyme or reason to which one is used.[[/note]] were an influential [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] SynthPop[=/=]InstrumentalHipHop group which existed between 1983 and 1989, and then briefly in 1999 with a different line-up. They are notable for helping [[TropeCodifier codify]] many aspects of synth-pop and electronica which are now ubiquitous, including the extensive use of {{Sampling}} and the sequencing of drum beats using a sampler.

** ''In No Sense? Nonsense!'' featured more orchestral arrangements, and moved towards a less "danceable", more ambient/lush pop sound.
** ''Below the Waste'' drew heavily from world music, while further relying more on orchestral arrangements.

* EverythingIsAnInstrument: See "Bizarre Instrument".
* TheFaceless: The original concept for the group with Horn and Morley involved its members wearing specially designed masks in all public appearances, so as to emphasise the music over the individuals that made it. This was dropped post-''Who's Afraid'' after the band split from Trevor Horn and Paul Morley, whose idea it fundamentally was, although they still maintained a minimal public profile and generally avoided publicity.

** ''Influence'' is a far more comprehensive work released in 2011, which includes tracks from both the ZTT and China Records eras of the band as well as its 1999 incarnation, along with a number of different rarities.

* BookEnds: ''Daft'' opens with "Love" and closes with "(Three Fingers of) Love", both remixes of "Moments in Love".

* CoverVersion: A couple on ''Below the Waste''-- covers of the ''Adventures of Robinson Crusoe'' TV series theme and the Film/JamesBond theme.
** Most famously, they covered Music/{{Prince}}'s [[Music/ParadeAlbum "Kiss"]] with Music/TomJones in 1987.
** And the ''Series/PeterGunn'' theme on ''In Visible Silence'', which won a UsefulNotes/GrammyAward for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

* GenreBusting: It's extremely difficult to categorise Art of Noise's music; there are good arguments for it being electronica, avant-garde, synth-pop, musique concrete, dance and hip-hop, and incorporate elements from all of these. Most simply categorise them as "Synth-pop" and have done with it.

** ''In Visible Silence'' ditched some of the more experimental, atmospheric, non-"song" tracks that were on "Who's Afraid" and instead featured almost exclusively more recognisable songs.

** ''The Seduction of Claude Debussy'' is the most radical departure, all but completely eschewing sampling in favour of DrumAndBass style beats alongside orchestral arrangements and opera.
* PopStarComposer: Leaving aside Anne Dudley's long and storied scoring of film and television, Art of Noise itself produced soundtracks for ''Film/HidingOut'' and ''Film/{{Dragnet}}''. They also produced the most well-known theme tune for ''Series/TheKryptonFactor'', something so indelibly associated with them that the theme song was included on the ''Influence'' best-of compilation.

* RearrangeTheSong: Trevor Horn has a habit of taking a song and making an immeasurably large number of variations on it, a habit that carried over to Art of Noise.
** "Moments in Love", "Beat Box" and the song "Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise" were remixed and rearranged repeatedly on various releases. The compilation album ''And What Have You Done With My Body God?'' compilation has ''three [=CDs=] worth'' of remixes and earlier versions of these.

** "Beat Box" itself was released first as a relatively minimalist four minute long version on "Into Battle", and then expanded and iterated upon to create "Beat Box (Diversion One)" for ''Who's Afraid''.

* SpokenWord: The vast majority of ''any'' "lyrics" used in Art of Noise's music are this. There are hardly any sung lyrics across their entire discography (the main exceptions being Music/TomJones' contribution to "Kiss", Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens on "Yebo!", and the operatic vocals on ''The Seduction of Claude Debussy''.)

* StudioChatter: Opens up "Beat Box (Diversion One)" with Anne Dudley's appalled "Oh no... oh no, I don't believe it!" Similarly Dudley's "can I say something?" makes up a lot of "Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise?".

** "Instruments of Darkness" is a commentary on [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra Apartheid]]. When played live in 2017, the samples of speech from South African politicians defending it were replaced instead with samples of Creator/DonaldTrump and UsefulNotes/TheresaMay.

* AGoodNameForARockBand: Named after Luigi Russolo's futurist manifesto ''The Art of Noises''.

* RemixAlbum: Plenty, because of the group's influence in the dance and techno communities, although most were issued after the band stopped producing new music (e.g. ''The FON Mixes'' and ''The Ambient Collection'' both came out in the 1990s).

** ''The Best of the Art of Noise'' is actually '''two''' albums, one with a blue cover and one with a pink cover, whose track listings are ''almost but not quite'' identical.

* ''Balance -- Music For The Eye'' (2015)[[note]]Included exclusively in the ''At the End of a Century'' compilation.[[/note]]

'''(The) Art of Noise''' [[note]]The band and their labels used the definite article interchangeably throughout their existence, with no real rhyme or reason to which one is used.[[/note]] were an influential [[AvantGardeMusic avant-garde]] SynthPop[=/=]instrumental HipHop group which existed between 1983 and 1989, and then briefly in 1999 with a different line-up. They are notable for helping [[TropeCodifier codify]] many aspects of synth-pop and electronica which are now ubiquitous, including the extensive use of {{Sampling}} and the sequencing of drum beats using a sampler.