Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Noise rock (also known as noise punk[1]) describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s.[1][2] Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.[2][3]

Originally Posted by RYM

Noise Rock is a vague term that has been used to encompass a wide range of bands and artists that favour dissonance, wild feedback and extreme distortion in the context of Rock music. Unlike Noise, noise rock usually retains the song structures and coherence of conventional rock music.

While the style was predicted in the late 1960s and early 1970s by bands such as the The Velvet Underground, Monks, The Stooges and Les Rallizes Dénudés, Noise Rock came to its own in the 1980s, following the advent of Punk Rock and Post-Punk. The No Wave movement was another important early influence. Pioneering bands include Sonic Youth, The Birthday Party, The Butthole Surfers, Flipper and Swans.