Three Lessons From Big Black: The Band That Stopped at Nothing to Talk About Everything

There are countless ways to describe Chicago-based proto-industrial group Big Black, but "shy" is not one of them. From 1981 until their split in 1987, they brought to light what was often swept under the mainstream rug. Among other topics, their songs discussed animal abuse, murder, misogyny, pedophilia, racism, corrupt politics, prostitution, and alcoholism. But amidst all of this, they weren't talking about themselves.

In this article, I will outline three lessons I learned from their approach to songwriting and what it means in the context of art.

In art, honesty holds greater weight than beauty.

One of Big Black's most startling songs, titled "Cables," shares how bored kids in Missoula, Montana would go to the slaughterhouse after school to watch the cattle die. (If you're brave enough to listen to this raw, grating song, note how the opening riff represents the noise of cables being pulled.) This is a classic case of living in a town where nothing interesting happens—where eventually, you have to make your own fun.

But that's what makes the song that much more impactful. Big Black's attitude regarding "Cables" was not of flowery imagery or quixotic notions, but of sobering immersion into the life of a high schooler with nothing better to do. To Montana-raised frontman Steve Albini, this was his world, his upbringing, his reality.

Distilling the judgment of art to the beauty it portrays ignores more meaningful characteristics, like truth, as a measurement of its impact. Ultimately, the more honest art is, the more weight it holds, the more it reflects the human condition, and, therefore, the more we can embrace it as a tool to understand ourselves better.