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Korn's debut album was recorded in 1993 and marked the beginning on nu-metal. This fact has been forced down our throats until we choked on it and begged for decent music to return to this accursed land.
More important than the start of nu-metal is the change it demonstrated on who was making music. Music used to be made by the popular kids; the rock bands of the 1980s played with a broad smile of their faces and were seen as gods. The ultimate example of this being Bon Jovi. Just looking at them and hearing the music you know that they were adored whilst at school by anyone worthwhile.
The music was the ultimate reflection of this fact; songs by Bon Jovi, KISS or Aerosmith are overwhelmingly happy and about women wanting to be with them, the money and how great life is.
Korn changed this, ugly outcasts with messed up backgrounds they were never the popular kids at school. They inspired pity or scorn but not admiration. Korn's lyrics tend to be about how much they hated everyone at school who had bullied them. From screaming "I'm not a faggot you motherfxcking queer" ('Faggot') to "girl you aren't shit" (Clown) to the ultimate "fxck you, fed up with you, not as good as you fxcker? I'm better than you." The anger is real but just breeds more anger and contempt from those who hated them to start with; Korn were a million miles from KISS and 'Hotter than hell'.
Following in Korn's wake were Limp Bizkit with 1997's 'Three dollar bill yall$'. When you have a lousy tattooist as your lead singer there are obviously going to have a few axes to grind lyrically. However, instead of mimicking Korn's "fxck you faggot" approach to venting, Limp Bizkit opted for the "fxck you pussy" approach.
This is pretty weak: "can't you just leave me alone you leech" (Leech) is not exactly telling someone how much you hate them, nor is "well I'm sick of you too" (Counterfeit), but at least Limp Bizkit put all their effort into it and the worst was yet to come.
In the lull between nu-metal getting old and Roadrunner reissuing all the albums with one extra bonus remix track, Eminem somehow became popular. Eminem's first album appears to be nothing but him whining about how bad his childhood was and what a dysfunctional family he had. He is angry at being a freak at school but is too whiny to do anything proper.
Eminem is in fact Korn's bitch. Korn conveyed that they hated people by screaming "fxck you faggot" at the tops of their tuneless voices, Limp Bizkit's "You are mean, fxck you" touch a chord with Alco-pop drinkers, while Eminem bleated "poor me" with swearwords thrown in to convey that he was feeling the pain. P.O.D. briefly stepped into the fray to say that God forgives you and that "we would agree to disagree" (Ghetto) before being shipped back to Bible study class.
Avril's revenge on those who bullied her at school was to wear a sock on her arm and a school tie. To be fair it got far far worse than that; 'Sk8er boi' is as embarrassing as it is feeble, the lyrics telling how a girl turned down Avril's new boyfriend years previously but Avril still feel threatened by her. I am sure that the film based on the song will be the new 'Save the last dance' and make a killing at the box office Avril will not see a dime as she is not capable of writing even that half-cocked trash.
Korn effectively breathed life into Avril's career and in the same way they are responsible for Amy Studt. As the nice kids on the official Amy Studt message board helpfully pointed out to me in response to an earlier article, Amy writes her own songs. This is commendable but does not change the fact that she spends most of her videos hiding in the school toilets crying because pink spandex girl tripped her over - a fact that somehow manages to be more contrived that Nine Inch Nails' 'Pretty hate machine.'
Despite the apparently different musical styles and vocal abilities from Korn to Amy, via Eminem, Limp Bizkit and Avril, they are all basically pale imitations of L7's 'Shitlist.' Even Butch Vig's involvement can not dent the sheer power and amused hatred that is conveyed by the line "You've made my shitlist."
If 1980s hair metal has taught me anything it has been that revenge is best served with a smile and happy songs about sex, money and fast cars. That or Type O Negative's anathematic 'Unsuccessfully coping with the natural beauty of infidelity.'
