How/Why Did Nu Metal Become Our Generation's Disco/Glam Rock/Hair Metal (i.e., Our Go-To Genre We All Agree Is "Bad?")

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Why Is Nu-Metal Our Generation's Disco Or Glam/Hair Metal?

The PS3 video game "classic" Haze marked a somewhat dubious milestone this year in that it celebrated its 15th anniversary. Haze, an FPS from the team that birthed the TimeSplitters games, was almost universally panned for dubious graphics, confusing and bland level design, and a story that bled a turn-of-the-century "extreme" oeuvre that felt dated by 2008. However, whenever the topic of Haze comes up, one of the most common targets for mockery stems from its odd and downright bizarre collaboration with the nu-metal group Korn. Now, this blog is in no way a defense of Korn's wild single meant to get Haze street cred with the metal community, nor will I be reviewing the musicality of said song. Nonetheless, there is a different form of introspection to be had in looking at the photoshopped image of the then bandmates of Korn standing next to a super-imposed image of a Haze soldier. That question is simple: Why does our generation hate nu-metal as much as it does? When did this happen? When did we all seemingly universally agree to use nu-metal as the doyenne example of a dated musical genre or one that is rotten to its core?

Our parents turned to Disco or hair metal when pressed on this topic, dismissing those music genres as "trash" and using them as their designated "worst genre." We saw them do that, and yet, here we are essentially guilty of the same behavior. Yes, there are outliers. Most people agree that Linkin Park, specific eras of Pantera, Helmet, and Faith No More, were a net positive for the music industry. Ask any Millenial or Zoomer to speak ill of Hybrid Theory or Meteora, and they would rather pull a gun on you instead. But outside of those acts and bands? Most people are curiously embarrassed by nu-metal and the time they invested in listening to it during its heyday from the 1990s to the early 2000s. To a degree, I understand the perspective that says large swaths of nu-metal feel icky by today's standards or by the adult moral and ethical compasses you have hopefully developed with age. That's a fair point, but other genres are equally dated, and others relished in misogynistic or homophobic language or lyrics as much as or more than nu-metal. Other aberrant musical groups or bands from the 1990s spawned cheap imitators far worse than most of what Korn inspired. So why are both points major indictments against nu-metal specifically?

Before I continue, I'll briefly review the "ground rules" in how I approach nu-metal and its many musical acts. Nu-metal, at least in my books, is a branch of alternative metal or heavy rock that combines those two base genres with elements of hip-hop, industrial, grunge, and rap by varying degrees based on whichever musical act you are looking at. Nu-metal largely rejects metal and heavy rock's use of guitar solos and instead emphasizes syncopated rhythms or riffs, which are more facilitative to free-flowing and rapid lyrical delivery. Like many genres, pinpointing a progenitor or definitive starting point is challenging, but Pantera, Helmet, and Faith No More are collectively acknowledged as the bands that got the ball rolling. Most agree that nu-metal's popularity blossomed in the late 1990s with the rise of artists like Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Slipknot, and its popularity cracked into the mainstream with the release of Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory. From that point, however, the genre became oversaturated with imitators, and it eventually fell out of favor with metal fans in favor of metalcore, though there have been multiple nu-metal revivals since the 2010s. Take my summary with a massive grain of salt, as music genres are "weird," with dates fuzzy and statistical anomalies commonplace. Nonetheless, that mid-2000s timeframe, shortly following the release of Hybrid Theory, is the crease or era of nu-metal most people have in mind when discussing it, especially those who use nu-metal as a venerable whipping boy.

Don't Like The "Bro-Ness?" Fine, But Why Did 90s And 2000s Heavy Metal And Rap Get A Pass?

To clarify, I'm not a close follower of nu-metal, nor have I ever been. Yes, I bought Linkin Park albums when they came out while I was in high school, but honestly, it was Chester's rapping and vocals that hooked me more than the other nu-metal trappings. I am a 90s kid who was, and still is to this day, very much into alternative rock and electronica before discovering classical music through the likes of Yo-Yo Ma, Leonard Bernstein, and Claudio Abbado of the Berlin Philharmonic. That said, in being a part of the classical music community, I am all too familiar with musical elitism. Trust me, I know it when I see it. The fact those three were my gateways to the genre, rather than Toscanini, Simon Rattle, or Pierre Boulez, has been used against me on multiple occasions by generally shitty gatekeeping bullshitters. That's partly why I'm more sympathetic to nu-metal enthusiasts and its diehard defenders who aren't recalcitrant ne'er-do-wells. If you discover a love for music, regardless of the genre, who am I to judge? When music speaks to you, it sometimes just "happens." To anyone still cocking their eyebrows at my generosity, fundamentally, I ask you this question. Why are we all so generally comfortable dogging on nu-metal as a mostly bad thing?

There's no denying that there is material to raise as legitimate criticism of nu-metal. For a nu-metal musical act that embodies most of these in one potent package, look no further than Limp Bizkit and frontman Fred Durst. There's no denying that Limp Bizkit is dated, and Fred Durst's antics, both at the time and today, speak to an immaturity that seems baked into its lyrical DNA, as well as its fan base. The "bro-ness" that Limp Bizkit fields and revels in feels icky today, and there's no denying that. The crowd Durst and his many impostors attracted weren't great, and both they and their fans have long-documented examples of misogyny and homophobia. None of what I am about to say should absolve these artists for dragging their heels in condemning such behavior if they ever did in the first place. However, let's not sit here and pretend like 90s heavy metal didn't have a well-established issue with white supremacy. I remember when Phil Anselmo got on a live stage, did a Nazi salute, and troves of his fans ate it up and came to his defense when he got fired from Pantera. The genre during the late 80s and early 90s seemed to produce act after act that advocated far-right sentiments, and only a few, like Darkthrone, abandoned those leanings over time, but some did not. Yes, the metal of today is very different than what it was twenty or thirty years ago, look at Cynic or Rob Halford as examples, and the Nazis have generally been pushed to black metal. But then you read about Iced Earth needing to go on hiatus because their lead singer participated in the January 6th insurrection, and you realize those elements are still there.

Then there's the contemporaneous rap that existed alongside nu-metal. With 90s and 2000s rap, we can't help but recognize that people died at the cost of the genre as it reached its zenith in mainstream popularity. None of that should be used against current artists who continue to use rap to surface historical and current inequities in society. However, beef culture and its viciousness seem ingrained to such a degree that even Questlove, in an interview with NPR, admitted he couldn't help but feel despair at how little progress on that front had been made since he started making music. At the heart of that angst and hopelessness is, more often than not, the normalized attitudes advocating hypermasculinity in rap. Likewise, there's the issue of how common homophobic and misogynistic language is with the contemporaneous rap that existed during the "Golden Age" of nu-metal. Now, I will be honest: this issue is very often used to condemn rap and hip-hop as musical genres in general, and invoking this specter is, more often than not, a very public dog whistle designed to impune people of color and their mediums of expression. However, suppose the "bro-ness" of nu-metal is considered a legitimate scathing indictment of everyone associated with the genre. In that case, it's tough to say that and let other genres of that era slide. Byron Hurt's documentary Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, which interviewed over twenty of the biggest names in rap and hip-hop at the turn of the century, couldn't help but admit that there was a continued pattern of homophobia, the objectification of women, and the domination of hypermasculine men over equally gifted or qualified females or LGBTQ people. Looking at things in rap today, it doesn't feel entirely valid to hold the sins of that era against the entire genre because legitimate progress has indeed been made. Missy Elliott, Nicki Minaj, and Lil Nas X are the first figures that come to mind.

And what's to say that nu-metal hasn't undergone a similar maturation? The datedness of nu-metal's "bro culture" isn't something worth praising, but it shouldn't be treated like a massive black mark, either. And the last thing I'll say in Limp Bizkit's defense is to cite a prescient excerpt from the music magazine Alternative Press. They masterfully summarize the group's legacy with:

"As the years have gone by, some nu-metal outfits have progressively downplayed their bracket's hip-hop sensibilities. Even so, you can guarantee one of their primary influences were Limp Bizkit... the happily mismatched band from Jacksonville, Florida, established the ground rules of nü metal... blur(ring) the lines between the two most polarizing genres in music... Limp Bizkit created timeless odes to teenage angst that, in time, we've discovered still apply right into adulthood."

What seems to be the struggle for many my age is the same logic rooted in the rejection of disco or glam rock by previous generations. New genres and musical styles often frame themselves as a rejection of a past style or genre, and that's very much the case with nu-metal. Multiple movements and off-shoots of metal directly trace their origins as a rejection of nu-metal. However, with age, we can play an important role in correcting that narrative while recognizing past follies. You can say you think the "bro-ness" of classic nu-metal is an issue to your enjoyment. That's an entirely valid point. Where things become morally hazardous is to use that discomfort to demean the whole genre and its legacy while letting other frequent fliers with equally sized skeletons in their closet scot-free.

Nu-Metal's Mass Commercialization Was Dawrfed By Multiple Contemporaneous Pop Acts

So, what "killed" nu-metal? Most tend to agree that with the rise of Korn, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park, the genre became oversaturated with cheap facsimiles that rarely possessed the musical production values associated with what started it. There's no denying that nu-metal's starting acts spawned many, MANY awful imitators, but where I would start to caution critics is to name a single music genre that hasn't when it reached the peak or zenith of its popularity. In fact, you don't even need to look that far from nu-metal's inception to find an example of the weird unequal metric by which it is judged. Nu-metal formed as a reaction to the drecks of grunge after Nirvana made it mainstream. In the case of Nirvana, after pioneering the genre they championed, they became the Aerosmith of a subsequent generation. Before that, Aerosmith became the disco of a different generation after playing poppy rock tunes that gutted the hard rock core that had made them popular in the first place. Similarly, disco lost favor with younger generations via the same trajectory. We have seen this rigmarole before. Our parents and grandparents, by differing grades, used it to make snap judgments about music we liked because they "didn't get it." We went through that, and now we're starting to fall into the same behavior pattern. This is a stark reminder of the undeniable fact that we are getting older.

And for goodness sake, we are talking about the 90s and the turn of the century! How can ANYONE harp on nu-metal's overexposure say that and not realize that contemporaneous pop music and boy bands are the far larger dragon worth slaying? 90s boy bands cared demonstrably less about the art of music-making than whole swaths of nu-metal. And yet, while those acts have been allowed to be embraced by some communities, especially the LGBTQIA ones, nu-metal is our go-to punching boy from the era. Never mind that groups like NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys indisputably sold more CDs and had far more mainstream success at the height of their popularity. If you want to talk about phases of music that were contemporaneous to nu-metal that spawned dozens of cheap and shitty copycats that belted out godawful lyrics and verses? Look no further than boy band pop from the 90s! Also, nu-metal's bro-ness was bad, but HOT DAMN, were gender roles, the concept of consent, and relationship advice in boy band lyrics from that decade worse. The Backstreet Boys' "As Long As You Love Me" gave us "Doesn't really matter if you're on the run," and their lyrics in "We Got It Goin On" graced us with "Well, I'm creepin' up on your left. Straight up funky when I get with you. Keep it ruthless when I get wet." And then there's 98 Degrees' "Can I Touch You There," which features a chorus where "Baby, can I touch you there" is repeated five times, thus implying that the singer is pressing their partner multiple times after being declined, and also contains "I wanna see those legs in the air. Wanna see them up in the air."

Let's also return to rap because there's another component of nu-metal's current normalized malaise that rubs me the wrong way. It sure is SOMETHING that some of the most widely panned and hated nu-metal groups today are the ones that rapped more. Korn, Limp Bizkit, Godsmack, Disturbed, etc., are far more likely to catch a stray in a conversation about music than Pantera, Rage Against the Machine, or Faith No More. Yes, part of that stems from the latter group having more substance or depth. Nonetheless, merging genres generally leads to the crossing of communities in music, and that's a good thing. Additionally, the nu-metal groups that have fared better over time were those more likely to evolve or abandon the genre as their performers matured. Linkin Park and Chester Bennington eventually went down the alternative and even pop-rock route, and Deftones today relies HEAVILY on shoegaze to keep things "hip" with the kids. Rage Against the Machine is an edge case. Still, many of the stalwarts of nu-metal during its inception sold the genre out and were rewarded massively for it. Anyone who stayed with it, however, became a punching bag.

Why Are We Ashamed By Musical Phases In Our Lives?

Centrally, I must ask another question that is unlikely to have a single, uniform answer. Why do we struggle to stand by entertainment phases in our lives? Nu-metal is likely but one of many genres that are emblematic of eras that exist primarily within a small crease of time, and the minute you deviate even slightly from that groove, it might as well be dead and buried. You don't have to like or love nu-metal anymore, but using it as a scapegoat after it provided comfort to millions during a small sliver of time? That's shitty. The reason I am presenting this query and many others is, in part, because of how natural all of this behavior seems. Most people grew out of nu-metal just as people who grew out of 90s boy bands. There's no reason to drag an entire genre through the coals that you don't associate with anymore. You can be perfectly content with where your musical tastes and preferences stand today and accept your musical past as being that: the past. And yet, we don't. We're embarrassed no differently than how our parents feel about talking about disco or frequenting go-go bars. For all that we would like to say to the contrary, we are, in many ways, like our parents or grandparents; the way we speak of nu-metal speaks to an odd human commonality. Once something overstays its welcome, for even a scant few minutes, it's "uncool" and therefore "the worst."

Not everyone is in this camp. As a final aside, I relay one final personal anecdote. Many years ago, I attended a Pride Festival in San Francisco. The event billed itself as having a "special musical performer" who remained a closely guarded secret, known only to a few event organizers. The surprise performance would take place around noon while the parade was at its virtual peak. I remember thinking at the time that that time slot was entirely unfair to whoever would be playing or singing; people would be fully engaged in activities, eating, drinking, and participating in political action committees, among other things. Then, the surprise performance was revealed to be the Backstreet Boys, with all of the band's original members. The minute the first bar for "I Want It That Way" hit, I saw something I had never seen in my entire life. It didn't matter if it was the L, G, B, T, I, Q, or As of the community that was there; everything stopped to watch the Backstreet Boys. Everyone was fully engaged in watching them and started singing along to every song they performed. They did something I never thought possible: they caused an entire Pride Parade to stop in its tracks.

There was no sense of shame. The gay community has long embraced the pop music of the 1990s and early 2000s as a catalyst for self-discovery and expression. That music, however you or I may feel about it, is essential to them, and they don't give a fuck about the haters. And goodness, there's something beautiful in that and something about that I hope we can learn from, especially in how we continue our conversations about genres or eras of music that are considered "the worst," whether it be nu-metal or any flavor of pop. It doesn't have to be this way.