Information AboutKorn |
Korn (or '''KoЯn''') is a Nu-metal 1 band from Bakersfield, California , and are credited with creating and popularizing the nu metal genre. Along with other bands of the time, they have also inspired many nu metal, industrial metal, and alternative metal bands through the mid-1990s and early 2000s. Since their 1994 self-titled debut album, Korn has sold over 30 million records worldwide, including 18 million in the United States, making them one of the best-selling nu metal acts of the last fifteen years. The band's catalogue consists of nine consecutive debuts in the top 10 of the ''. To date Korn has scored 6 Grammy nominations, and won 2 such awards. The band released their Eighth Studio Album on July 31, 2007 through EMI/Virgin. The album debuted at #2 on Billboard , selling 123,000 copies in its first week.3 HISTORY Formation, first demo, and ''Korn'' (1993-1995) Korn formed after the group L.A.P.D. folded, and after their original singer, Rich Morrill, left the band to take care of his drug addictions. Musicians Arvizu, Welch, Shaffer, and Silveria wanted to continue, and began the search for a new lead singer. One night in 1993, Welch and Shaffer were in a nightclub together, and were intending to stay for only a few minutes. That all changed once a band called Sexart took to the stage. They were intrigued by the singer, Jonathan Davis, who hooked up with them after the gig was finished. At first, Davis did not want the position of lead singer, but after consulting a psychic who told him he would be stupid not to do it, he signed on. The group found they were quite cohesive early on and so, formed a brand-new band by the name of Korn in 1993. Welch took the pseudonym "Head", Arvizu became "Fieldy", and Shaffer took the name "Munky". In 1993, Korn began a working process with friend and producer ", " Daddy ", and "Alive". "Blind" was originally written by Davis and Sexart, but was revised with new lyrics by Korn. The style changed as well: the original version was heavy metal-oriented; Korn's version is still heavy metal, in fact heavier, but also adds hip-hop influences. Korn had problems getting signed during its first year, mainly because of their unique style. The band did not fit with the rock scene of the 1990s, which was primarily Seattle grunge rock. Horrified record executives and producers turned the other way at the sound of Davis' painful lyrics and the vicious musicality. But one night in 1994, Paul Pontius from Immortal/Epic Records heard the band in a nightclub. He was so impressed with the band that, he signed them on the spot. With two producers, Robinson and Pontius, and a label, Korn produced their self-titled debut album in 1994, '' Korn ''. Musically, its tracks mix both heavy metal and hip-hop, the latter of which in rhythms and beats. It also features scat-type vocals on the song " Ball Tongue ", and bagpipes on the song " Shoots And Ladders ". "Daddy", the closing track, is musically and emotionally heavy. "Blind" was the 1st single from the album; it was extremely well-liked by fan-bases and quickly became their most popular song to this day. Critics have agreed that ''Korn'' was the very first nu-metal album. Korn toured incessantly to promote their first album. With no radio play or MTV, they relied solely on their intensive live shows which created a large cult following of dedicated fans. It was through the effort of this cult that gave ''Korn'' the #1 spot on the Billboard Heatseekers charts in 1995, with "Shoots and ladders" being their first nominee for Best Metal Performance and the Grammy Awards later that year. On their first large tour, Korn opened for Glenn Danzig , alongside Marilyn Manson . Other bands for which Korn opened in 1995 included Megadeth , 311 , Fear Factory , Flotsam And Jetsam , and KMFDM . However, the first tour that widely exposed the band was opening for Ozzy Osbourne alongside the Deftones . After opening for lesser-known bands such as Dimestore Hoods , Sugar Ray , and Life Of Agony , Korn returned to Immortal to record a second album. ''Life Is Peachy'' (1996-1997) Korn teamed up with Pontius and Robinson once again for their second album, '', similar to many 1970s porn movies. They covered War 's " Lowrider ", with Davis' bagpipes and Head on vocals. "Twist" was only 49 seconds long, and featured Davis' scat vocals backed by extremely heavy guitars. " A.D.I.D.A.S. " was the first single, seemingly in reference to the popular clothing line. In actuality, the song title was an acronym for "All Day I Dream About Sex", as apparent in the lyrics. Korn then turned to one of the newest resources available—the ", spawned a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance. Another key factor in raising the band's popularity was coheadlining the Lollapalooza 1997 music festival with Tool . Ross Robinson parted ways with Korn in 1997, but his role in the music production industry was far from finished. He went on to produce records for bands such as Limp Bizkit , Machine Head , Slipknot , Glassjaw , Cold and Sepultura . Also that year, Korn augmented their growing crossover appeal by collaborating with Los Angeles based producer duo Dust Brothers on the track "Kick the P.A.". This track appeared on the motion picture soundtrack of the film '' Spawn ''. In late 1997, Korn formed their own label, Elementree Records. The first band they signed was Orgy (featuring former members of Davis' band Sexart), who gave Elementree its first Platinum album with '' Candyass ''. Over the next few years they signed acts like Videodrone , rapper Marz , and Deadsy . ''Follow the Leader'', mainstream success (1998-1999) Prior to the release of the band's third album, Korn produced a weekly internet TV show, KornTV, that documented the making of the record and featured special guests such as Porn Star Ron Jeremy , Limp Bizkit , and 311 . The project also gave fans the chance to call in and ask the band questions -- an approach that represented one of the first times a band utilized the internet in such a way. October 1998 saw Korn at their peak as they released their third album, '' Follow The Leader '', which featured a number of guest vocalists such as Ice Cube , Tre Hardson from the Pharcyde , Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit and actor Cheech Marin on the hidden track "Earache My Eye" (written by Marin himself) Korn launched a political campaign-style tour to promote the release of ''Follow the Leader''. The tour took the group all over North America to spread the news of their "Family Values" platform to fans at special "fan conferences" that were organized at every stop along the tour route. Korn chartered a jet, which took them to record stores in cities such as Riverside, Mt. View, Sacramento, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Atlanta and Disney World. They talked to fans at every stop, answered questions during the special "fan conferences" and signed autographs. Jim Rose hosted the entire "Kampaign" tour. Celebrities at various stops included Jeffrey Star and John Waters . The album was a success, reaching No.1 on the U.S. and Canadian charts and spawning the singles "Got the Life" and "Freak on a Leash" . ''Follow The Leader'' debuted at the #1 slot in Canada, New Zealand and Australia; #4 in Finland; #5 in France, the UK and Norway; #8 in Japan; #10 in Holland; #12 in Germany; and it registered the highest debut on the Pan European "Music & Media" chart (at #6). The animated bullet segments in the video for "Freak on a Leash" were directed by Todd McFarlane (creator of the Spawn comic book and a former artist for Spider-Man comics). Greg Capullo, long-time Spawn penciler, drew the cover art for the album. The live action in the video, directed by Jonathan Dayton And Valerie Faris , used innovative techniques which allowed the camera to follow a bullet in flight through various scenes. "Freak on a Leash" won a Grammy for Best Video (Short Form) and earned nine MTV Awards nominations for Video of the Year, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction, Best Special Effects, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Viewer's Choice. Eventually it won two, for Best Rock Video and Best Editing. ''Follow the Leader'' is the band's most commercially successful album, being certified 5x Platinum by the RIAA and having sold almost ten million copies worldwide. The same year ''Follow the Leader'' was released, Korn started their own annual tour called the " Family Values Tour ". That year, Korn headlined the highly successful tour along with Incubus , Orgy , Limp Bizkit, Ice Cube, and Rammstein . A live CD and DVD from "Family Values Tour" '98 earned gold and platinum statuses, respectively. In 1999, Limp Bizkit headlined, along with Primus , Staind , The Crystal Method , Method Man & Redman , and Filter . System Of A Down was kicked off the tour by Fred Durst in retaliation for System's role in Taproot signing with a record label other than Durst's. Korn were not featured on the bill and instead only made surprise appearances at a few of the tour's stops to perform their first single off of their next album, " Falling Away From Me ". The tour took a break in 2000. In 1999, Korn performed at Woodstock '99 on July 23 . Other memorable moments include a feud with Ben Folds during which Folds released his " Rockin' The Suburbs " music video with a "Korn Sucks" protest frame in the middle of it. ''Issues'' (1999-2001) The band's fourth album, '' marching drum and bagpipe band conducted by Richard Gibbs as well as a group of back-up singers to enhance the more melodic choruses and backing vocals Davis used on the album. Earlier that year, Korn had appeared on an episode of South Park , titled Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery , in which the first single from Issues, " Falling Away From Me ", was premiered. In the episode, the band helped the boys solve a Scooby-Doo style mystery. Korn released two more singles off of Issues, " Make Me Bad " and " Somebody Someone ", both of which fared well on US charts. Videos were also shot for all three singles, with longtime friend Durst directing " Falling Away From Me ", and Udo Kier and Brigitte Nielsen starring in a concept video for " Make Me Bad ". The video for " Somebody Someone " was a simple performance with some CGI effects. All the videos were staple of MTV Total Request Live . ''Issues'' is considered by some critics to be less metal-influenced and closer to Alternative Metal than Nu Metal ,4 however there is still the same signature aggression of other Korn albums present. In 2000, Jonathan Davis commissioned Swiss surreal artist H. R. Giger to create a special microphone stand. The idea was suggested to him by one of his friends who knew that Davis was a fan of his artwork. He started doing some sketches of plantlike snakes and vertebrae mixed with technical elements. Davis called him from his dressing room and told him that he had complete freedom to design the microphone stand as he wanted and his only concern was that it had be totally functional and as movable as possible, as well as biomechanical and erotic. The band visited his museum and met him in July of 2000 when they were touring in Europe. The bio-mechanical microphone stand was finished in 2001.5 It was introduced to fans one year later during Korn's ''Untouchables'' tour. ''Untouchables'' (2002-2003) In June 2002, after a year and a half of hard work and a long creative process, Korn re-emerged into the media spotlight with their fifth album, '' Untouchables ''. The release of this album was preceded by the show at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York on 10th June 2002, one day prior to the album's release, broadcasted digitally through the theaters in U.S. The album had a very dark feel while featuring synths, strings and various effects the band had never used in an album before. The overall feel was drastically different from previous efforts particularly tracks like " Alone I Break ", "Hating", and the haunting "Hollow Life", which singer Jonathan Davis claims is one of his favorite Korn songs to this day. ''Untouchables'' had disappointing sales. The band has blamed Internet Piracy for the drop in sales, as an unmixed version of the album had leaked a whole five months prior to its official release date. The album's first single "Here to Stay" earned a Grammy for Best Metal Performance. ''Untouchables'' has since been certified Platinum by the RIAA . The first 2 videos from Untouchables were directed by the Hughes Brothers (best known for their films, Menace II Society and From Hell ). The first video, "Here to Stay," has the band playing inside a TV on a static background along with controversial news stories and world issues being presented. The video was nominated to MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock Video and won the MuchMusic Video Award for Best International Video (Group). The second video, " Thoughtless ", was a nod back to Jonathan's childhood as the character in the video is picked on and constantly beaten. The character ultimately gains revenge in a rather grotesque but deserving way (the original video showed the character shooting the bullies at prom, but was changed to him puking jets of bile onto the bullies instead). Although "Thoughtless" would be one of the more popular tracks on the album, it did not appear on Greatest Hits Vol. 1 . The third video for Untouchables, "Alone I Break," was directed by Sean Dack who won the honor of directing Korn's video through an MTV contest. The video kept with the darkness of Korn, showing Jonathan Davis killing off the members of the band after a supposed mistake made by Munky when they were performing. The band admitted it would have been more fun to do the video had the director been an actual Korn fan. Prior to their next album, Korn released the single "'' in early 2003. Angelina Jolie appeared in the video. Due to scheduling conflicts, however, the band and Angelina Jolie recorded their parts separately. ''Take a Look in the Mirror'', ''Greatest Hits'', Head's Departure (2003-2005) Korn's sixth album, '' Take A Look In The Mirror '', was released in November 2003. Korn produced this record themselves. The album featured the singles " Right Now ", " Did My Time ", " Everything I've Known ", and " Y'All Want A Single ". "Right Now" and "Everything I've Known" were animated videos, while "Y'All Want a Single" and "Did My Time" were performance video. "Y'all Want a Single" featured Korn and a large group of fans destroying a record store. The album peaked at No. 9 on The Billboard 200. |
|
|