Musicians Reacting to Nu Metal
Some people love it, others hate it, but everyone has an opinion when it comes to nu metal. Here’s a compilation of rock and metal artists reacting to the polarizing genre.
Who gave love to nu metal during its hay-day? You may be surprised to learn that Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan was extremely supportive of hip-hip and metal fusing together. “I think it’s fantastic,” Corgan told MTV two decades ago. “I think the more people are cross-pollenating between different musical styles… it not only has musical implications but it has cultural ones as well.”
It’s no secret that Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello dislikes being lumped into the nu metal space, especially since RATM helped plant the seeds for the genre. “There’s a lot of great music in that genre, a lot of great musicians in it, but the ethos of it tended to be much more misogynist in nature, anti-women, fratty and there was a political and intellectual content to Rage Against the Machine that is singular in that broad genre of music that I’d like to keep clean.”
Sebastian Bach was another defender of nu metal, praising Limp Bizkit’s “Break Stuff” during an MTV interview. “I love the riffs, I love that guitar player [Wes Borland] dressing up and looking like an alien, I think that’s awesome. I love the attitude, ‘I wanna break some shit tonight, how ‘bout your fucking face?’ Who can’t relate to that?”
Check out these Musicians Reacting to Nu Metal in the Loud List below.