10 Reasons Why Nu-Metal Was the Worst Genre EVER
You had me at Limp Bizkit. From The NME:
Something’s rotten in the state of popular music. Nu-metal, the skidmark that appeared in the late 90s, is staging a comeback. To wit: Korn are resurrecting the Family Values Tour, a horrendous marrying of nu-metal and hip-hop that kicked off in 1998 and saw Method Man and Red Man share a bill with Staind, and Ice Cube alongside Limp Bizkit.
At this year’s Reading & Leeds festivals, System Of A Down and Deftones were high up the bill and drew significant crowds. And Limp Bizkit are back with a new album and somehow persuaded Lil Wayne to join them on a turd of a song called ‘Ready To Go’ earlier this summer.
The popularity of nu-metal dramatically deteriorated when music started getting better in the early 00s. Let’s face it: guitar music was pretty shoddy at the turn of the century until The Strokes came along and washed it all away. In its place, nu-metal became insanely popular – stomach this, Linkin Park’s ‘Hybrid Theory’ is the fastest selling debut of the 21st century – but only because guitar music was in the doldrums.
Now, like cockroaches crawling out of a log after a long winter, these bands are rearing their baseball-cap-clad heads, clawing for a revival. Earlier this week Al Horner asked whether the genre was really all that bad and shared fond memories of watching Slipknot’s Corey Taylor vomit at Download. Try listening to Slipknot these days without puking.
Here’s 10 reasons why nu-metal was the worst genre of all time and should definitely not be resurrected.
I don't agree with the sentiments all that much. As far as I'm concerned, Nu-Metal had two waves: the first wave that was a unique new sound and had a lot to offer, despite the movement being swept up in the second wave cutting its lifespan VERY short. In the first wave we saw Korn's first two albums, Slipknots first two albums, Mudvayne's LD-50, Deftones hitting their stride at All Around the Fur and White Pony (who arguably are the only band who's sound survived through the second wave, and continues today), Sepultura's Roots album, Kittie's first three albums, System of a Down's first three albums (and their last two also bear strong Nu Metal elements). All really good music, as far as I'm concerned. This was a fresh new idea, that was sadly destroyed from within by….
The second wave. Parallel this with Grunge, and the Post-Grunge movement if you will. The difference being that Grunge had about five years to substantiate itself before the imitators came along, and soured the sound of it all. Nu-Metal, however, had almost no time before the derivative second wave hit. Arguably marked at the release of "Three Dollar Bill, Y'all". Nu Metal suffered from the fact that it had little to no time to percolate in the underground to grow and develop. It was thrust into the spotlight nearly from moment one. It imploded on itself because it became fratboyish and poppy, and so very formulaic. It was rehashing the same thing over and over again; with bands like Limp Bizkit, Disturbed, Godsmack, Creed, Drowning Pool, Hollywood Undead, Kid Rock, Papa Roach, Seether, and of course Linkin Park. The mainstream popularity of the genre suffocated the genre and sucked all the creativity out. The bands who had come up with the new ideas were forced to fall into the formula of it all to stay afloat (with a few notable exceptions).
I could go a whole lot more in-depth, but I'll spare you that fate.
TL;DR: The very early days of Nu Metal were awesome, and the berth of something with major potential. The second wave, however, ruined this for everyone.
-Chris.
That was a poorly written article to attach yourself to, Alan. Two of the "reasons" were just pictures with no explanation at all. The first of those was the cover of a bad album, basically saying that no other genre has put out a bad album\cover art. The second was a picture of Mudvayne (who were good in their own right) insinuating no band can be creative with their look. The lyrics reason had no actual factual backing, just generics. I'd recommend distancing yourself from fluff like this. They don't even have a comments section on that article…
You cannot slag Deftones, and then praise the Strokes in the next paragraph.
… well actually you can (as demonstrated above); it just completely devaluates your opinion.