Review
Nu Metal? It's only rock'n'roll, but I like it!
Even if you missed it on TV or the radio, just walking down the street you can hardly fail to notice that rock music is currently experiencing a renaissance. Hundreds of kids are sporting clothes bearing the emblems of bands such as Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Blink 182, Papa Roach or Sum 41, confirming that a new generation of youth are getting into nu metal. But what is nu metal?
The term is best used to describe a diverse range of rock bands that are generally characterised by high-energy music, featuring powerful, distorted electric guitars.
A number of different types of extreme rock have influenced this new wave and are benefiting from a new found popularity. Some hardcore purists criticise nu metal as a pop trend cashing in on manufactured angst that will disappear leaving the "true" bands to carry the torch as they always have.
Certainly bands from a number of different extreme rock genres have been plugging away for years, to a minority audience, and all these strands have influenced the new wave. But ALL forms of extreme rock are benefiting from the popularity of nu metal.
Despite the sniping of purist critics, the boundaries between genres are blurred as musicians influence one another and innovate. In nu metal you can hear the influences of death metal (e.g. the brutal Slipknot), rap metal (e.g. the punchy Limp Bizkit), "emo" punk (e.g. Sum 41), and ska punk (e.g. System of a Down).
Nu metal is also generating new interest in stoner rock (e.g. Queens of the Stone Age), grungy bands like Trail of the Dead, and creative punk influenced bands like The Strokes and The Hives.
Probably, the main innovation in nu metal is the importation of the power of extreme rock into a more classic rock form, with a strong injection of melody. Thus heavy bands like Incubus, Puddle of Mudd and The Lost Prophets push out a beautiful wall of sound.
So why the new popularity of this powerful rock? Of course the music industry engages in marketing, but a movement can’t be created by this alone. There is a complex relationship between artists, the industry, critics, the media and the audience.
Innovations may or may not be successful and are gambles for both artists and the industry. Some artists may willingly be manipulated and manufactured. How much can an audience be told what to like by the media, or influenced by critics? Audiences are not homogeneous anyway.
The popularity of thrash metal and hardcore punk waned in the early nineties, perhaps because of the techno revolution which, along with hip hop, broke rock’s monopoly on white youth as an expression of rebellion.
Dance and hip hop saw many innovations and are still hugely popular and influential, but they generally use sampling, sequencing and programming to produce the whole sound, and so don’t have much room for instrumentalists, apart from vocalists.
Although death-metallers like Morbid Angel and stone-rockers like Kyuss outlived the decline of thrash, it wasn’t until the advent of ska punk bands like Rancid and emo punks like NoFX in the mid-nineties that extreme rock started to rekindle interest, perhaps because of the melodic content and danceable rhythms of those genres. Green Day got into the charts.
In 1998 Black Sabbath reformed and Ozzy Osbourne started organising the "Ozzfest" rock festivals, bringing fans of extreme rock together and providing opportunities for heavy bands.
Sabbath are widely regarded as the inspiration for the whole metal scene. Although in the late 60’s acts like Hendrix and Pink Floyd had experimented with the noise capabilities of electric guitars, Sabbath’s whole sound was a powerful wall of noise channelled into heavy blues riffs.
Their reformation perhaps offered something for both the old rockers, who could remember the early 1970s, and new generations who saw the influence of these legends. The Ozzfests, at which Sabbath headlined, could have been the catalyst that facilitated the new popularity of heavy rock.
So what does nu metal represent? Most of the bands are American. Rock seems to have endured in the U.S. more than the U.K., perhaps because it offers a focus for youth rebelling against conservative, puritanical christian fundamentalism which is a major force in America.
Perhaps the power of American imperialism, its control of resources and media, has been enough to export nu metal and usurp the dominance of the Beatlemania that seems to have characterised British guitar-based music in the 90’s.
Youth rebellion in the form of rock is complex and not wholly progressive. The genre itself could be accused of being macho and clichéd. Although metal bands are predominantly male, this is true of most forms of rock, indeed most cultural phenomena of any kind, and this may be just be a reflection of sexism in society.
Nu metal certainly has its fair share of female fans and when the bands tackle the subject of ‘love’ they tend to sing about the complexity of relationships rather than treating women as sex objects. Perhaps nineties girl-power had some influence after all!
Rock is certainly not the most experimental genre, and eighties rock in particular was guilty of cheesiness. However there is a lot of room for creativity in nu metal, not least through the crossover between different genres, and the sheer energy of most of the bands leaves one in little doubt about their sincerity and conviction.
There are contradictions in the fact that loud and obnoxious music that may be originally intended to upset the mainstream is picked up and marketed by business in the capitalist music industry.
Overtly anti-capitalist artists could probably spread their message wider if they used the music business for promotion, but they may come under pressure to compromise their politics in the interests of popularity, or in the face of resistance from the music business.
Some bands however, have been able to remain overtly political and popular at the same time, for instance System of a Down who are critical of American society and the W.T.O., and Brazilian band Sepultura who support the rights of indigenous Amazon tribes. How well their fans digest their message however is another matter.
Most bands are not overtly political, some could be accused of inanity and the complacency of American Imperialism (e.g Fu Man Chu? - sorry, guys!) and others are nihilistic (Slipknot: people=shit).
Luckily, politics is not the only reason to like music! (Did anyone really enjoy Chumbawamba?). Music is not only an expression of identity but also entertainment, a release. The power and energy of nu metal may find resonance amongst angry or alienated youth in a way that pop idols cant.
The nu metal trend will no doubt decline and only a few bands will struggle on, as has happened so many times before.
What seems to be the case though is that rock music continues to endure, not least because guitars are accessible, versatile and fun to play and kids have a lot of energy.
Mosh it up while it lasts!