OK, I'm a little drunk and already realize that this will probably not be a well received post. I'm sure some of you have already closed this thread, but hear me out.

Nu-metal drew heavy inspiration from hip hop, which I remember many back in the day naming as one of the reasons for hating it. Sure, there are so many terrible white boy rappers in the genre, but as we know many nerds have a burning hatred of rap to this day, and it's almost certainly at least partially thinly veiled racism.

A band having a DJ was definitely singled out as a reason to dismiss them, and since DJs grew out of the hip hop scene, it reeks of us-foreign-policy to me.

You could also argue that it's just narrow minded rock and metal enjoyers dismissing anything outside of their genre, but I definitely don't remember them having nearly as much of a problem with industrial bands like NIN, Ministry, Godflesh etc. using samples, drum machines and electronic music elements. It sure seems like hip hop influences were far less tolerated thinking-about-it

Am I onto something or is this just weird overthinking that randomly came to my mind?

  • WashedAnus [he/him]
    ·
    8 months ago

    There was definitely a big reaction against what a lot of people called "rap rock" at the time. Now, this wasn't a terribly new concept when nu-metal started, having already been done by groups like Rage Against the Machine and Run DMC/Aerosmith, but a lot of it was really badly done in nu-metal (see: Limp Bizkit, etc).

    I would agree that a lot of it was based in specifically anti-black racism. That's what drove the reactions of people like my dad and uncles at the time. I was really into it when it was new, being a middle school-aged white suburban boy, and I didn't see a lot of negative backlash among my peer-group until some years later. As for me, I kind of 'aged out' of it and got into punk in high school, so I look back on it through the lens of cringing at my middle school self and am not a fan these days, but that really stems from self hatred.

    • BelieveRevolt [he/him]
      ·
      8 months ago

      I was really into it when it was new, being a middle school-aged white suburban boy, and I didn't see a lot of negative backlash among my peer-group until some years later.

      I recall none of my friends were into it at the time (around the same age as you), and online a lot of people used the W-version of the N-word to refer to nu-metal bands and fans.

      • WashedAnus [he/him]
        ·
        8 months ago

        Oh yeah, that was definitely the peak "W-version of the N-word" usage era, between nu-metal and Eminem (something I was also into at the time).