Nu Metal Community

This subcategory of heavy metal is known as Nu Metal. This is known to combine different styles of musical elements and styles in their music, such as Grunge, Hip Hop, and Punk. Bands used to use melodic singing, aggressive vocals, and forms of hardcore punk.

An article in Spin magazine featured this style of music as the “new metal” of the community. The term “new” was changed to “nu” after time passed and it appeared in the movie “Get Thrashed”. This genre of metal was introduced by Korn in 1990 and has grown throughout the 90’s until the year 2000.

In 1998, Korn released their third album “Follow the Leader” which sold 9 million copies worldwide, this was the start of bringing nu metal into the community. This opened the doors to other bands and brought the community closer to the public.

Once the community grew, the gangs continued. Staind, Coal Chamber and Limp Bizkit began to find success in the community after the release of Korn’s “Follow the Leader” album. Coal Chamber, Spineshank and Static-X came from Los Angeles, California. Bands like Godsmack, Soufly, Disturbed, Limp Bizkit, Sevendust, and Slipknot begin to make an impact in the community. Most of these bands would join popular tours like the Family Values ​​Tour, Lollapalooza, and Ozzfest. The biggest was the 30th anniversary of Woodstock which featured mostly nu metal bands.

As time went on, more and more bands fell into nu metal. Linkin Park, Papa Roach, POD and System of a Down became huge hits, leading most of their albums to go platinum. The community was at its height in 2001 when it was the most popular metal music in America. Nu metal bands were signing to most major record labels during this time. Since bands were easily signed, this brought poor quality to the community.

In the early 2000s, popularity waned and the bands that started the wave weren’t selling their new albums as well as their old ones. With things slowing down, the metal community moved on to the next generation of metal music, which is pop/emo punk. Nu metal is still and is still quite popular. Some bands have changed their style, others remain the same. Either way, Nu metal will always have that place in society.