30 Years Ago, Korn Introduced a New Sound With Self-Titled Album
You can never predict when a single band will create an entire musical movement, but that’s pretty much what happened with Korn’s self-titled debut album. Korn dropped on Oct. 11, 1994, and ushered in a novel sound that mixed hip-hop and metal. Nobody could have predicted that it would take off like it did.
Korn vs. Grunge
Korn’s sound was totally different from the grunge of the early-1990s. Jonathan Davis and company had the foresight to mix dark, moody guitar riffing, inspired by hip-hop music, and drop-D tuning, along with slap-and-pop bass, and it really sounded like nothing before it. Davis’ vocals also stood out. His moody, introspective lyrics and fluid musical style wasn’t a total contrast to grunge vocals, but it certainly didn’t sound like anything you’d hear from Kurt Cobain or Eddie Vedder.
The timing of Korn’s self-titled debut was also perfect for a band poised to take over the rock world. Cobain of Nirvana had passed away in April of that year, marking the beginning of the end of the grunge movement. Anything that came after it and sounded like grunge was really “post-grunge,” but there was also an audience out there yearning for something new. Nobody could replace Cobain, so plenty of rock fans were itching for a new sound and style.
“Alternative music was a depressing time in rock. I’d go to those shows and just fall asleep,” Davis said in an interview in Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal, by authors Jon Wiederhorn and Katherine Turman.
Many rock fans who were ready to move on from grunge embraced Korn. On top of that, there were still some listeners who never really dug grunge or “alternative” music and were looking for something heavier, but still something different than hair metal.
Davis was among the latter.
Davis added, “I didn’t even know what Black Sabbath was until I joined Korn. The thing that changed my life was when Pantera released Vulgar Display of Power [in 1992]. Then Fieldy turned me on to Sepultura. But we never wanted to do anything that was typically metal. If we ever write something that sounds like Judas Priest or Iron Maiden it’s out the door.”
Korn and Other ‘Nu-Metal’ Bands of the 1990s
One thing that separated Korn and their peers from Judas Priest and Iron Maiden was their embracing of hip-hop music. While most of the groups denied being part of a “scene,” bands such as Deftones, out of Sacramento, and Linkin Park, out Agoura Hills, also had big hip-hop influences. But, Korn’s music was darker and more dissonant than many of their peers. It was also more serious-sounding than some of the rap-rock that went mainstream in the late-1990s, such as Limp Bizkit.
While Korn is often credited as pioneering the nu-metal genre, band members weren’t always happy with that label.
“For me, we were making Untouchables, and that was when so many bands were coming out and jumping on the bandwagon. Now I don’t mind the tag ‘nu-metal’ — they named an entire subgenre after my band? … That’s cool!” Davis told Metal Hammer.
“It had become a parody of itself, [like] ‘I don’t want to be defined like that!'” he said. “Nowadays, I don’t care, but back then I hated it. I make the music I make… You don’t call Metallica ‘some thrash band!’ … You don’t call the Chili Peppers a funk rock band.”
So, they may have hated the term “nu-metal,” but today, Korn can crack a smile knowing that they started an entire movement that’s still thriving in 2024.
