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Warning!
The following opinion may not coincide
with your own. The thesis of the
review is that nu metal, basically,
spanks ass. If you will experience
anger or sadness because of this
opinion do not read any further. |
I
felt that I needed to put a disclaimer
at the beginning of this article because
I don't want my email box to fill with
poorly spelled, whiney, illiterate barrages
of cursing from 14 year old children
that are the willing victims of 'non-conformist
conformity attempting to defend the
'best band in the world.'
Since
I've began teaching guitar professionally
I have been forced to become more familiar
with the trendy music of today: most
notably nu-metal bands in great proliferation.
Linkin Park, Slipknot, Mudvayne, Limp
Bizkit, Sevendust and others are among
the favorites of many of my students.
Although I told my students I'm not
too interested in listening to these
bands I'd check them out so I can make
sure to optimize their lessons for playing
these songs. This is what I've learned
so far about nu-metal....
So
far the defining element of nu-metal
seems to be a complete lack of originality
coupled with an apparent ignorance of
past musical styles; it's a really strange
phenomena—the ability of bands
to so blatantly rip off entire musical
styles and offer no innovation whatsoever,
and the seeming ignorance that they
are even doing so. However, there is
one important filter that seperates
older metal styles from that of nu-metal:
nu-metal, in keeping with the zeitgeist
of the times, offers nothing new but
makes ample use the tested and true
technique of 'dumbing down' everything
for the youth of today.
Like
everything else offered to teens
today, Nu-Metal is a dumbed down
version of heavy metal.
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That's
right: nu-metal is nothing more than
dumbed down Pantera often coupled with
a gimmick or two to add an illusion
of band individuality. The music is
dumber, the beats are dumber, the riffs
are dumber, and—based on the few
interviews with the musicians I've read—the
performers are dumber too. This really
makes me begin to wonder about the fans
of nu-metal music. Are they dumber too?
It's frightening to think of metal fans
being dumber (and I was one for many
years in the 80's).... so I won't even
go there. Hopefully the youth of today
are just too naive to realize that the
entire nu-metal trend is a marketing
gimmick and that when they get older
perhaps they will find (or write) the
truly cutting edge music of tomorrow.
Maybe I ask too much.
The
thing that amazes me the most about
nu-metal fans is their belief that their
music is HEAVIER than any music before.
To quote one of my students concerning
a Mudvayne CD: "I can't listen
to it for too long because it is soooo
heavy!" I listened to a few
songs, completely unimpressed, and proceeded
to put on some old Mayhem (the black
metal band from Norway); his jaw dropped
in disbelief by how brutal that
was compared to Mudvayne. Then I had
to explain a few things to him:
Me:
"Look, I know this stuff seems
heavy to you... but trust me, there
is nothing that you could show me that
will blow me away. I grew up on Slayer,
Anthrax and Megadeth... as well as listened
to bands like Voivod, Kreator, Coroner
and Obituary. It doesn't get much more
caustic than that."
Student:
"Ummm......" (Still
in shock from the Mayhem song.)
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Teens
covered in what appears to be
the music of today.
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Now
I'll admit that the youth of today got
cheated because their music didn't get
heavier, or faster, or more obscene,
or crazier sounding than the previous
generation. Granted, the many underground
movements of the 1980's from goth, industrial
to thrash would be a hard act to follow,
but surely musicians today can find
something remotely original to do. For
teens nowadays I suppose it must really
suck when they figure out that a lot
of thirtysomethings listen to more abrasive
music than the so-called 'bad-ass' teenagers
of today. Unfortunately for them, instead
of innovating new types of music or
exploring frontiers, the bands of today
settled with a safe pseudo-edgey sound
that garners them Mtv rotation, radio
play and enough volume to be considered
rebellious by today's teens.
Besides
the stale conformity of the pre-packaged
and safe rebellion that nu-metal presents,
the overall instrumentation irritates
me. Virtually none of these bands play
in anything but subterraneanly low tuned
guitars in a 'dropped-D' configuration.
Other than the occasional dissonant
high frequency noise, almost all of
the guitar work are single-finger power
chords. Some bands make use of a DJ
or someone to scratch records, although
the only appearance of such a player
that I have evidence for is in the liner
notes because I can't hear any turntable
skills being flexed on any recordings.
Once in a while a keyboardist will be
onhand to deliver very stale string
lines or the occasional semi-analog
bleep or blurp—and then nothing
for the rest of the song (man, I wish
I had their job!)
Some
of the better known nu-metal bands are
particularly irritating, with Slipknot
being number one on my list. For one,
they are a total rip-off of Pantera;
secondly they have nine members in their
band performing music that any four
normal musicians should be able to do.
But foremost on my list is the fact
that they all refer to themselves by
a number and wear stupid looking masks.
Generally, Slipknot strike me as a Gwar
imitation without the sense of humor
and a fixation on White Wolf Game Studio's
Werewolf: The Apocalypse role-playing
game. In general I gather that Slipknot
are considered among the heavier of
the nu-metalers but I wasn't too impressed
by their primitive sludge and nascent
antisocial five year old trapped in
a man's body vocal style. I did chuckle,
however, as I think one of their lyrics
said: "C is for cookie...
is good enough for me... FUCK YOU SHIT!"
Slipknot prove that it is still
financially viable to substitute potty
mouths for real thought or controversy
and manage to be considered a rebellious
band. I suppose in this manner you could
consider Slipknot to be influenced by
hip hop, because rappers have been milking
this cow for years.
Please
be scared of us or we will be
forced to cry.
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On
the other end of the spectrum are Linkin
Park. Where Slipknot fails to be
heavy these guys don't even try. To
my ears Linkin Park are the modern Poison
without any talent... contemplate the
meaning of that last phrase very carefully.
Same rules apply as other nu-metal bands:
tune down, one finger power chords,
verse-chorus-verse, lip service to hip
hop stylings, write three minute songs
and before you know it you're a media
sensation. Sometimes I got the feeling
that Eminem was somehow involved with
the song writing and spoken-word white-boy
metal rap cliche fest that is Linkin
Park. In all other ways, except their
mediocrity, Linkin Park is unnoteworthy,
although not as generic as Papa Roach,
who should be considered to be a one-hit
wonder along the lines of M. Oh, you
don't remember M? Well, in twenty years
nobody will remember Papa Roach either
so it's no matter.
Possibly
the heaviest, or so my students have
told me, band is Mudvayne. Strangely
I felt that sense of nostalgia when
listening to Mudvayne's songs and then
it hit me: Mudvayne are what the death
metal band Obituary would sound like
if they were remixed by a techno weenie.
Needless to say I wasn't very impressed.
Like all other nu-metal bands Mudvayne
try very, very, very hard to scare you
with their over-eager guitars and screamed
vocals; however I was only reminded
of that episode of Jackass where they
try to eat all those eggs and end up
having a major puke fest instead. Honestly,
their banality was beginning to put
me to sleep.
Some
may think I'm just picking on the younger
generation and trash their music as
a way to feel superior, or I don't like
it because I'm too old and out of touch
with the youth movement of today (very
true and thankfully) but I assure you
that neither is true. The way that nu-metal,
as well as the rest of today's youth
culture, affects me is sadness for the
teens of today who will know nothing
better than the crap they allow themselves
to be spoonfed by a cynical, marketing-mad
corporate entity like the music business.
All they will ever know is dumbed-down,
imitatitive music that sells an image
of rebellion, the fashion of revolution
and the uniform on non-conformity—as
rebellion is first and foremost an intellectual
choice, it seems that the youth of today
are doomed... that is if their music
is any indication of their inner convictions
and substance.
Flame
away I suppose,
-James Meeker
