what is industrial music?  

"Industrial music" identifies many different musics to many different people. For some, the association is made to recent popular bands utilizing harsh (distorted, percussive) or lo-fi electronic sounds/samples in the context of already established pop song structures or club (dance) mixes. Some are aware of the literal coining of the genre when the band Throbbing Gristle formed Industrial Records in the 1970's. But perhaps, "industrial" is a much more broad term that suggests the sonic or structural influence of modernized and automated society into music.

Using non-traditional instrumentation ranging from raw materials (glass, metal, wood, etc) to the tools and machines that process these materials (hammers, drills, presses, etc) to the manufactured objects themselves (phones, vaccuum cleaners, televisions, radios etc) as a way of drawing the character of a modern, mechanized era into music is well recognized.

Electronic manipulation of such sounds further emphasized the nature of process in the structure and components of industrial music: sound loops, complex textures, repetitive yet intricate rhythms that mirror the assembly line, manufactured, processed elements of the industrialized world.

The process itself of creating industrial music often involves taking raw materials (samples, soundbites) and manufacturing them into a new and more complex machine.

The applications of these techniques and the wide variety of uses reveals the influence of industrial music elements in almost every modern music genre. Composers of the early 20th century Edgard Varese and George Antheil began using non-standard instruments such as sirens, anvils, car horns and airplane propellers as percussion and sound effect elements in their works. A few years later, composers including John Cage and David Tudor began using variable speed phonographs, amplified household objects and radios as primary instruments in their work. And it went on from there with these instruments and techniques spidering into every musical field from modern classical concert halls to anti-establishment rock bands to power electronics and noise artists to popular music for the masses.

So "industrial music" is just another term that becomes only a point of reference; it suggests general sounds and techniques and perhaps a processed/automated character of the music, but beyond that it is purely relative.

Additional source of info: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/industrial-faq/part1/

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