Korn

• Genre: Alt Metal
• Hometown: Bakersfield
• Korn Website

About

Between the mid-'90s and the early '00s, Korn was the de facto nu metal band, spawning the nu metal movement and even the term itself; armies of disenfranchised 13-year-old fans flocked to stadiums to see them and innumerable copycat bands sprang up on MTV and the radio looking to get in on the action. Today the band is still cited as a major influence on most radio metal, with Taproot and Breaking Benjamin being prime examples. Before them it was Alien Ant Farm and, to a degree, even System of a Down. Since their self-titled first album came out in 1994, Korn has had nine consecutive records debut in the Top Ten, one of which was just a greatest-hits collection. Musically, the band has messed with prodigious amounts of funk and hip-hop from the beginning, folding sheets of abrasive noise into the mix and ultimately being identified by Jonathan Davis' soul-baring mania delivered in a stricken yelp-and-growl freakout and James "Munky" Shaffer's banking, spiky guitarwork.

- Mike McGuirk