There’s one thing eerie about returning to Korn‘s 1999 album, Points. In a single sense, the album represents the apex of an period and the start of its finish, each by way of heavy music, and in fashionable tradition normally — as each reside downstream from the final historic surroundings of the time. Listening to it in 2024 is akin to rewatching an homicide thriller flick, in which you could nonetheless really feel the suspense of all of it although you realize what occurs subsequent. Stylistically, it signifies some extent of departure for Korn followers, because it’s actually the final “basic” Korn album.
In late 1999, Korn was on the absolute pinnacle of their recognition, and will principally do no unsuitable within the eyes of their followers. That they had even dodged a number of the controversial warmth affecting their contemporaries on the time. Their very own efficiency on the doomed Woodstock ’99 had gone off with out incident. Likewise, they escaped a number of the ire of parental teams that bought geared toward artists like Marilyn Manson and ICP for “inspiring” the Columbine bloodbath.
Nu-metal was the predominant type of heavy music, with out query. Positive, plenty of bands like Converge, Shadows Fall, and Darkest Hour had been rising to prominence within the underground, and black steel was steadily rising in popularity (particularly in Europe), however a suburban 7th-grader like me did not have entry to the precise avenues to find out about these bands till a couple of years later.
When you listened to 92.3 Okay-Rock, watched MTV’s Complete Request Stay and watched South Park (which featured Korn on a basic Scooby-Doo-themed episode), Korn, Limp Bizkit, Orgy, Deftones, and shortly sufficient, Slipknot, had been the large bands of the day. Korn’s 1998 album, Observe the Chief had generated gigantic and iconic fashionable rock hits like “Freak on a Leash” and “Received the Life” and these songs had been EVERYWHERE. Take into account, whereas the MP3 period, unlawful downloading, and the cultural Balkanization spurred on by the web had been all in play, the post-war monoculture was nonetheless very a lot intact within the late-Nineties.
Launched on November 16, 1999, Points arrived simply in time for the vacation season (I bought my copy for Christmas that yr) and capitalized on the momentum of the earlier album such that it bought greater than 500,000 copies in its first week and debuted at No 1 on the Billboard 200. The music video for its lead single, “Falling Away from Me,” stylized as a sequel to “Freak on a Leash” was an immediate hit on MTV. The video stands as the proper summation of Korn‘s basic work, turning agonizing childhood trauma into cathartic, probably liberating, works of musical artwork.
However therein lies the rub and the principle problem that confronted Korn after this album. By 1999, the band’s lead singer, Jonathan Davis, was not a troubled younger grownup, however a totally grown 28-year-old who was profitable past his wildest desires. How do you retain on mining your adolescence for inspiration because it falls additional and additional into the previous? Even on this album, you may hear Davis and the remainder of the band wrestle along with his new actuality on songs like “Trash,” “4U,” and “Counting.”
Likewise, the album is the final that actually sticks to the musical palette they created on Korn and LIfe Is Peachy and paints its logical conclusion. Firming down the hip-hop components from Observe the Chief, the band emphasised their penchant for catchy rock hooks, backed up by heavy guitars and Fieldy‘s attribute slap-bass. It is the final album the place the fruits of this strategy really feel contemporary, as you may hear on necessities just like the infectious “Make Me Dangerous,” the rousing “Wake Up,” and the fan-favorite “Any individual Somebody.”
However from my vantage level, so a few years later, at the same time as somebody who has long-since left my Korn fandom behind, the actual gem on this album is “Let’s Get This Social gathering Began.” Regardless that I deeply linked with the tune as an adolescent, there’s one thing that also resonates concerning the lyrics that make up the 2 sections of the pre-chorus:
“… So I fall face down in a rut
I can not seem to get out of
Please wake me, please give me a few of it again
The emotions I had
… Generally I want I may very well be robust such as you
It does not matter
Every time I wake, I am by some means feeling the reality
I am unable to deal with”
Take heed to the tune and you’ll hear why followers voted for it in such excessive numbers when the band put out a survey of what songs to play on their Sick and Twisted tour in 2000. Most nu-metal (like hair steel earlier than it), particularly its lyrics, has aged terribly, mired in overcooked cliches and cringe-worthy bravado.
However this was good things.
To not over-intellectualize the album, however there’s something very “Finish of Historical past” about it. (I’m wondering if Francis Fukuyama is into steel?) In a creepy approach, Korn‘s basic albums are completely located between the top of the Chilly Warfare and the Warfare on Terror that started with 9/11. Just like the film-noir period of the Forties and early 50s, it is artwork that appears inward on the troubled core of home life in America on the pinnacle of its energy. It is a voice that whispers a warning to you as you have a look at all of the constructive metrics of the Nineties (falling crime charges, rising requirements of residing, relative peace overseas): “The whole lot was NOT okay.”
I am certain some followers will quibble with me designating this the final “basic” Korn album, nevertheless it’s onerous to disclaim that 2002’s Untouchables was a notable departure from the band’s 90s materials. Positive, songs like “Right here to Keep” hit all of the acquainted notes, however Korn had undoubtedly grown weary of its signature sound and started to experiment. After backtracking a bit on Take A Look within the Mirror (the final album I actually loved, the primary 4 songs are fireplace), the band’s story since 2005’s See You on the Different Facet has been one among exploration vs. returning to type — normally to blended reception from followers and critics alike.
There’s an irony to this predicament that should grind the band’s gears. In spite of everything, their complete type was a creative threat after they set out within the early-90s. Korn was a giant experiment in smashing tons of types collectively. However what the followers linked with was the actual mixture the band perfected over the course of 4 albums.
With the band hitting their peak in recognition with their 1994 to 1999 output, their core fanbase is generally composed of youthful members of Technology X and the older half of the Millennials. This may clarify the feedback the band usually will get of “I want they might return to their outdated type,” a method that reached its finish on this album. Notably, nevertheless, the band shares the fortunate destiny of Slipknot and the Deftones in that they have been in a position so as to add new followers over time as properly. In different phrases, Korn is a strong legacy band, relatively than one relegated to pure nostalgia.
Moreover, Korn was one of many final heavy bands to really cross over into mainstream success, to the extent the place they might pack arenas and even stadiums on their very own. And Points was the album that solidified their catalog as having the ability to draw these numbers and create that massive fanbase. After Korn, Slipknot, Linkin Park, and Avenged Sevenfold are the one bands that actually come near having the ability to get THAT massive of an viewers with out some novelty or gimmick (e.g., Ghost).
When adjusted for inflation, 1999 was essentially the most profitable yr for the music trade. It was a rising tide that lifted quite a lot of fortunate boats, together with Points, which bought greater than 3 million copies by 2003. For certain, the dominance of some types of music (e.g., teen pop, nu-metal, pop nation) was suffocating on the time. Nonetheless, it additionally allowed for gateway albums like Points to create an upstream viewers for heavy music. And hey, a few of these Korn-kids caught with it and wound up at Ozzfest a couple of years later and talked to individuals who advised them about Loss of life, Carcass, and On the Gates. (Me, I am speaking about me.)
That stage of cultural cohesion round a single band simply is not attainable anymore. Effectively, apart from at a Korn present itself, the place I assure each soul within the crowd nonetheless screams “Beating me down, BEATING ME, BEATING ME DOWN” simply as loud as they did 25 years in the past.