OK, I’m a little drunk and already realize that this will probably not be a well received post. I’m sure some of you have already closed this thread, but hear me out.
Nu-metal drew heavy inspiration from hip hop, which I remember many back in the day naming as one of the reasons for hating it. Sure, there are so many terrible white boy rappers in the genre, but as we know many nerds have a burning hatred of rap to this day, and it’s almost certainly at least partially thinly veiled racism.
A band having a DJ was definitely singled out as a reason to dismiss them, and since DJs grew out of the hip hop scene, it reeks of to me.
You could also argue that it’s just narrow minded rock and metal enjoyers dismissing anything outside of their genre, but I definitely don’t remember them having nearly as much of a problem with industrial bands like NIN, Ministry, Godflesh etc. using samples, drum machines and electronic music elements. It sure seems like hip hop influences were far less tolerated
Am I onto something or is this just weird overthinking that randomly came to my mind?
Old metalhead here. Hated the nu-metal phase, because it took metal off the air. At least where I lived the radio stations that had been playing heavier alternative and metal switched entirely to nu-metal.
I didn’t like most nu-metal because it lacked the main part of metal for me - which is guitar focus. Nu-metal was all about the huge bombastic intro and then drop everything but a simple bass line and drums while someone sings or raps. Maybe a feeble little guitar solo midway through, but very little guitar work.
In my mind they are two different genres of music, and I’m a metalhead, not a nu-metalhead.
there’s a bunch of 70s music like this too with ripping intros and then the rest of the song is just incredibly mid basic shit that sounds like somebody else composed it
Makes sense, I was too young to have really cared about music at the time, but after listening to a lot of it later I definitely prefer the early-mid 90s alternative/metal stuff to nu-metal.
I genuinely think some of Wes Borland’s guitar work is great. Sure, there might not be solos, but Nookie and My Way have genuinely good guitar parts and a unique sound.
I think it’s been generally accepted that the rest of the band were actually good musicians, but unfortunately everything was centered around Fred Durst, who is terrible.
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
Link 1:
Link 2: