Korn frontman Jonathan Davis recently sat down with Philly radio station 93.3 WMMR for a interview regarding some of the band's upcoming doings. There's a lot of interesting little bits in there, including the band's plans to play their debut album in full to celebrate its twentieth anniversary soon! Pretty cool, if not making a lot of fans feel really old. Then there's the bit where Davis goes off about Korn being labeled nu metal and how he hates it, or doesn't hate it but hates it at the same time. It's very confusing.
"I've always rejected the fact that us getting pigeonholed into some kind of genre that we helped create, they said. It seems like when a band comes out and we do something new and something different, that's all great."
What?
"When a whole bunch of bands jump on the bandwagon and start copying what that one band did, then it gets called something. And those bands are cheap knockoffs of what the original thing was. So, to me, that's why I never liked the 'nu metal' term. You don't call the Red Hot Chili Peppers a funk band. You don't call Metallica just a thrash band. These are bands that have been around over 20 years that have paid their dues and have made amazing music that lots of people have ripped off and they get pigeonholed into these little genres [people] make up. But, to me, that's why I've always… I never liked it. But that's my personal opinion, I mean, if people want to call us that, go ahead — I don't care. That's just for me, that's just the way I look at it. So take my opinion with a grain of salt, I guess."
So Davis doesn't care what you think, but also don't call Korn nu metal. Honestly, I don't remember the last time I've referred to them as nu metal, or anything really. I've just voiced my opinion on their works album by album, as I'm sure most fans have over the past however many years. I get that Davis is saying he won't refer to the band as nu metal but doesn't care if other people do, but realistically what's the point here? Korn makes Korn music, regardless of label.
