Nu metal is a genre of music that blends heavy metal elements with other styles, such as hip hop, funk and grunge. The genre, which became popular in the 90's and early 2000's, demonstrated that "pancultural metal could pay off." Nu metal gained mainstream success through MTV and Ozzy Osbourne's 1996 introduction of Ozzfest, which led the media to talk of a resurgence of heavy metal.
The resurgence led to many traditional heavy metal bands, such as Black Sabbath, gaining popularity amongst a much younger audience. While nu metal was widely popular, traditional metal fans did not fully embrace the style.
Origins
The term "nu metal" was first used for a review of a mid-October 1995 Coal Chamber concert in Spin magazine in the form "new metal". Like the bands of its antecedent, funk metal, many nu metal bands came from California (such as Korn, Deftones and P.O.D.).
Nu metal initially began with the band Korn. Korn's signature sound came from an attempt to emulate chords used by Mr. Bungle's guitar player Trey Spruance, which they referred to as "the moveable Bungle chord". They have also cited Mike Patton's other band Faith No More in Kerrang!' s The Greatest Videos of All Time in 2006, saying that Korn was influenced by them because they did something unusual with a metal band. Nu metal bands also often state more conventional metal acts as an influence, such as Black Sabbath.
Korn use 7-string guitars over traditional 6-string guitars. Steve Vai had originally introduced them onto the market for technical guitar players. Munky, the guitarist from Korn, was not a technical player so decided to take the 7-string guitar in a different direction. The sound created by the 7-string guitar became a nu metal trademark.
Producer Ross Robinson was labelled by some as "The Godfather of nu metal" due to his producing of successful nu metal albums, such as Korn's first album.
Mainstream popularity
Nu metal's mainstream popularity came in 1998 with the success of Korn's third album Follow the Leader , which sold 9 million copies worldwide. Another contribution to nu metal's popularity was festival tours such as Family Values Tour, Lollapalooza and Ozzfest. The 30th anniversary of Woodstock also featured nu metal bands.
Through the turn of the century, more bands broke out like Linkin Park whose debut album "Hybrid Theory" became a diamond hit, Static-X's Wisconsin Death Trip which went platinum in 2001 and Papa Roach whose major label debut Infest also became a platinum hit. Other bands like P.O.D. and Disturbed also had mainstream success. Established bands who helped start the genre had successful hit albums like Staind's Break the Cycle , P.O.D.'s Satellite and Slipknot's Iowa .
By 2002-2003, signs that nu metal's mainstream popularity was dying down were apparent. Nu metal bands became less played on rock radio stations and MTV began focusing on pop punk and emo bands.
Musical traits
Application of the term is often inconsistent, and there is no clear definition of consistent musical traits within bands associated with nu metal, and bands are often categorized as such more for association with popular bands on tours such as Ozzfest.
Bands associated with the term often feature aggressive vocals ranging from melodic singing, guttural screaming, and shouting from various forms of metal, hardcore punk, and like funk metal; rapping is sometimes used.
Korn's Jonathan Davis, Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington, Chevelle's Pete Loeffler, Slipknot's Corey Taylor, Taproot's Stephen Richards, Disturbed's David Draiman and Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst have all cited Maynard James Keenan's signature style as their main influence, with Durst also calling the band Tool both his biggest musical influence and favorite band. Mike Patton of Faith No More is also credited for vocally influencing nu metal associated bands.
Bass parts in nu metal are often reminiscent of hip hop or funk grooves, and in some songs, slap bass technique is used. The bass in nu metal is occasionally the driving force behind the music. Many nu metal bassists use 5-string over 4-string bass guitars.
Many nu metal bands feature a DJ for additional rhythmic instrumentation (such as music sampling, scratching and electronic backgrounds).
See also
- List of nu metal bands
References
- ^ allmusic
- ^ Christe (2003), p. 329
- ^ Christe (2003), p. 324
- ^ http://www.vh1.com/shows/heavy_the_story_of_metal/series.jhtml
- ^ Christe (2003), p. 328
- ^ Iannini, Tommaso (2003). Nu Metal . Giunti. ISBN 8809030516.
- ^ Christie, Ian (2003). Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal . HarperCollins. ISBN 0380811278.
- ^ McIver, Joel (2002). Nu-metal: The Next Generation of Rock & Punk . Omnibus Press. pp. 123. ISBN 0711992096.
- ^ Elfman, Doug (November 23, 2001). "Not an Easy Fit". Las Vegas Review-Journal . http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=LVRB&p_theme=lvrb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0FD3949AAF719641&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM . "They call us 'nu metal' because we were on Ozzfest"
- ^ Biography on Fred Durst's website
External links
- MTV.com:
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