Whitehouse was founded and ended as a duo consisting of electronics player Philip Best and vocalist William Bennett, however the group is perhaps best–recognized for their 20-year-tenure as a three-piece with synthist Peter Sotos as a member, who joined the band in 1983 and left in 2003.

"[4] Eventually, Whitehouse re-emerged with a series of albums, recorded by the American audio engineer, Steve Albini, beginning with 1990's Thank Your Lucky Stars.

The band had numerous other members in the 1980s including Kevin Tomkins, Steven Stapleton, Glenn Michael Wallis, John Murphy, Stefan Jaworzyn, Jim Goodall and Andrew McKenzie, though many of these participated only at live performances, not on recordings.

They were known for their controversial lyrics and imagery, which portrayed sadistic sex and rape through the point of view of notorious serial killers such as Peter Kurten and Dennis Andrew Nilsen.

Whitehouse emerged as earlier industrial acts such as Throbbing Gristle and SPK were pulling back from noise and extreme sounds and embracing relatively more conventional musical genres.

In doing so, they drew inspiration from some earlier experimental musicians and artists such as Alvin Lucier, Robert Ashley, and Yoko Ono as well as writers such as Marquis de Sade.

The signature sonic elements included simple pulverizing electronic bass tones twinned with needling high frequencies, sometimes combined with ferocious washes of white noise, with or without vocals (usually aggressive frenzied screams alongside sinister whispers).

"[2] Beginning on the controversial 1999 release Mummy and Daddy, the band phased out the analog equipment responsible for their prior sound, instead relying more heavily on computers.

Fast forward a decade, and ... Whitehouse ... were enjoying an unlikely vogue, universally hailed by Noise makers from Peter Rehberg to Wolf Eyes ... and their work officially inducted into the avant garde canon through a collaboration with the German New Music ensemble Zeitkratzer.