Blood Makes Noise

"Blood Makes Noise" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega. It was released as the second single from her fourth album, 99.9F°, in August 1992. It debuted at number 14 on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart^[2] and reached number one a month later.

"Blood Makes Noise"
Single by Suzanne Vega
from the album 99.9F°
B-side	"Bad Wisdom"
Released	August 1992
Genre	Industrial rock[1]
Length	2:28
Label	A&M
Songwriter(s)	Suzanne Vega
Producer(s)	Mitchell Froom
Suzanne Vega singles chronology
"99.9F°" (1992) "Blood Makes Noise" (1992) "In Liverpool" (1992)

Content

The song is notable for its clangy percussion, which has been compared to industrial music. Vega said that the percussion was meant to recreate the sounds the "blood makes" in someone's head when someone's afraid and that she had never heard of industrial music.^[3] The song doesn't clarify what the fear is in response to, but some have argued the song is about a patient taking an AIDS test.^[4] Suzanne Vega has denied this; in a 2001 interview with The A.V. Club, she says she likes "to take a moment out of its context. It makes you identify with it, without knowing why. In a way, its kind of eerie, because it means you can hear the song, identify with it, and not really know what the circumstances are. And in some ways, that's more satisfying to me."^[5]

Music video

The music video was directed by Nico Beyer.^[6] It was added to MTV the week of August 29, 1992.^[7] The video was featured on Beavis and Butt-Head.^[8] The song was also featured on an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street.

Charts

Weekly charts Weekly chart performance for "Blood Makes Noise" Chart (1992–1993) Peak position Australia (ARIA)[9] 61 Canada Top Singles (RPM)[10] 63 New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[11] 42 UK Singles (OCC)[12] 60 US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[13] 1

Year-end charts Year-end chart performance for "Blood Makes Noise" Chart (1992) Position US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)[14] 13

Release history

Release dates and formats for "Blood Makes Noise"

Region	Date	Format(s)	Label(s)	Ref.
United States	August 1992	Cassette	A&M
Japan	September 26, 1992	Mini-CD		[15]
United Kingdom	December 7, 1992	7-inch vinyl 12-inch vinyl CD cassette		[16]