Big Black's music challenged convention, pursuing an abrasive sound that was more aggressive than contemporary punk rock. Albini explained that the band strove for intensity, stating that their goal was to make "something that felt intense when we went through it, rather than something that had little coded "indicators" of intensity. Heavy metal and stuff like that didn't really seem intense to me, it seemed comical to me. Hardcore punk didn't really seem intense most of the time — most of the time it just seemed childish. I guess that's how I would differentiate what we were doing from what other people were doing." Both Albini and Riley described Big Black as a punk rock band. AllMusic has associated their sound with both hardcore and post-punk and described them as influential to indie rock as well as pioneers of noise rock and post-hardcore.