The Nu Metal Mixtape
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If you’re expecting us to wax lyrical on how rubbish nu metal was then you’re going to be a little disappointed. The key thing we learned from doing this episode is that yes, while there was indeed a crazy amount of garbage music floating around at the time (and honestly, what makes that any different to any other era of music?), nu metal represents alternative music’s last great mainstream hurrah.
It was a time when major labels would throw money at bands with downtuned guitars, melodic choruses and screaming. It was a moment in history where literally millions of people thought it was acceptable to fuse hip hop with metal music in the most dull-headed fashion. Yet, despite all that, it could also be seen as the biggest swindle rock ever pulled on mainstream music.
Nu metal was responsible for so much good and bad that we felt it was probably time to separate the wheat and chaff. Much of it has not aged well, and you might be surprised at some of the things we say in this episode, but make no mistake about it – for Mark and Weaver, nu metal is responsible for their love of metal music. Both reflect on this a lot, and actually talk about the stuff they liked from that period.
Chris was in a touring band at the time nu metal had reached its zenith, so he offers a grassroots perspective on just how popular it was in scenes up and down the country. He also finds time to drop some sick Slipknot and Linkin Park knowledge on us, which is nice.
There’s so much to cover – it was popular for about a decade – and we only really scratch the surface. We’ve chosen three albums that we think are the most important nu metal records. Go listen and vote and tell us which one makes it into our discography.
Intro Music: Discose by Marvin