Nu-Metal

Nu metal (also called new metal, aggro metal, neo metal or nü metal using the traditional heavy metal umlaut) is a musical genre that has origins in the mid 1990s. more...

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It typically fuses influences from the grunge and alternative metal of the early 1990s with hip hop, electronic music and other metal genres, most often thrash metal and groove metal.

Overview

The origins of nu metal can be pinpointed to the Lollapalooza music festival in the 1990s which increased the exposure of bands who performed brands of metal and metal-influenced alternative music separate from traditional genre approaches (see Alternative metal). The funk influence of Primus, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone, the hip hop/metal crossover of Rage Against the Machine, the industrial metal of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, and Ministry, and the aggressive experimental rock of Faith No More, Tool and Helmet have been mentioned numerous times as influences who toured on the festival by nu metal bands who gained mass-media exposure at the end of the millennium.

The tour featured the band Body Count, who were fronted by the rapper Ice-T. This attracted attention from the rap audience, and many record shops classified Body Count under "rap" despite Ice-T's claim that the band was supposed to be a rock group.

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's death in 1994 would signal the beginning of the decline of alternative rock (and grunge in particular) as the driving force in modern American rock music, paving the way for nu metal to gain ground with the public. Lyrics and song structure of a style previously associated with grunge are common in nu metal songs, including those with a reputation for integrating hip hop into their sound.

While Korn, P.O.D., Deftones, Limp Bizkit and Slipknot are typically cited as the genre's instigators, bands like Fishbone, Body Count, Faith No More, Rage Against the Machine, Helmet, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and others are also proclaimed as progenitors. Linkin Park is the best selling nu metal act with 40 million copies sold out of their first two full-lengths (Hybrid Theory and Meteora) as well as other non-traditional albums. Producer Ross Robinson was labelled by some as "The Godfather of Nu Metal" due to his producing of several notable Nu Metal albums. Nu metal bands also typically claim influence by more conventional metal acts, particularly Black Sabbath; it also has some sonic similarity with death metal as well as thrash metal bands like Metallica and Megadeth . Entertainment!, the 1979 debut from British post-punk group Gang of Four has been cited as an indirect influence. The term "nu metal" was coined in the late nineties to denote the resurgence of metal in the public eye with the rise in popularity of bands such as Korn and Limp Bizkit, as well as the success of the traveling Ozzfest festival. Ozzfest, unlike Lollapalooza, provided a venue solely for the metal scene. Ozzfest demonstrated that a sizable audience existed for new heavy metal sounds. Unlike previous eras who held bands such as Led Zeppelin and Judas Priest as their icons, the newer bands typically drew direct inspiration from more recent metal movements (particularly thrash and alternative metal).

Read more at Wikipedia.org