It's fair to say that nu metal has recently made something of a come back. In fact, a 2023 study found that the genre is more popular than it's been in almost twenty years, most likely bolstered by the returning of bands such as Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Mudvayne and Linkin Park, who have either reunited, released new records or hosted huge, highly-attended tours.
Plus, there's rising-artists Spiritbox, Wargasm, Tallah and Tetrarch, who have all been revisiting hallmarks of the genre within their music, pushing the sound forward to newer generations.
In spite of nu metal's restored relevance within the musical landscape, we can't imagine everyone is too happy about it. After all, during its heyday from the late 90s to early/mid 2000s, it was often considered unserious, silly and unimportant in the wider metal scene - at times, nu metal fans were even laughed at.
One such critic includes My Chemical Romance's Gerard Way, who in an 2007 interview, once lambasted the genre, comparing its rise to the image of giving "a bunch of neanderthals a microphone", while also suggesting that bands within the scene encouraged discriminatory views.
"I detested nu metal," he said. "I thought it kind of set us back to the stone age, as far as rock's concerned. I'm not trying to generalise about it too much, but of the bands that kind of led that thing - and I won't name them - it seemed to me that they encouraged sexism, homophobia, and other forms of ignorance."
The frontman continued, "And their music wasn't very good...so, it's like you gave a bunch of neanderthals a microphone for like 8 years, and everybody had to deal with it."
Over the last few days, the interview has resurfaced online via YouTube and TikTok. It was also recently picked up by the "crazy ass moments in nu metal history" X account, reeling in 200k views.
Commenters under the clips have been quick to try deduce which bands in particular Way could have been referencing.
Whichever band it was that sparked Way's dislike of the genre, the owner of the historical nu metal profile points out that the Fred Durst-headed group were often seen as the genre's figureheads, explaining how people who weren't a fan of their music were then discouraged to explore nu metal further, limiting its appeal. The account says in the comments, "After Limp Bizkit fully captured the cultural idea of 'nu metal' everyone disavowed the genre as such when, really, they were only referring to that one band".
Another fan says, "Tbf, this is also why bands like Linkin Park and Deftones didn't want to be called nu metal at first - especially after Woodstock '99, that's a hard image to shake."
While another adds: "It’s crazy to think how early on in the 2000s nu metal became very out of style and talked about in the same way grunge musicians talked about hair metal".
Watch the interview below:
Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance falls victim to anti-nu metal propaganda, says some untrue things he probably regrets (2003) pic.twitter.com/xLpKbzHQRvNovember 5, 2024
