Collegiate Times

It seems like a lifetime ago that the metal/hip-hop or "nu metal" bands dominated the charts. The 90s were a decade of fads, whether it was the boy bands, Seattle grunge — and toward the end of the decade — this subgenre of metal and hip-hop.

It was Korn and Limp Bizkit who led the way in this peculiar era of music. To remind us all of what once was, Korn is releasing another wonderful fad of the nineties: an unplugged album.

Yes, an unplugged album. From a metal band that has hip-hop flare, unplugged. I guess the technical aspect of unplugged no longer applies. Call me Larry David but this "Unplugged" concept seems a little bit misleading. It comes off as a case of false advertising. Then again, it is an MTV production, and if ever there is a case of false advertising, then it's "Music Television." If Jay-Z can make an unplugged album, then I guess it's open game.

Korn's rise to the top of the music world began in 1998, four years after its formation. The band's third album "Follow the Leader" came as an alternative to the corporate giant that was the boy band. Korn was the opposite and presented themselves as suburban outcasts, borderline trench coat mafia. The success of "Follow the Leader" as well as Limp Bizkit's "Three Dollar Bill Yall$" paved the way for the "Family Values" tour that made a lot of bands a lot of money. It was the "Family Values" that was the official launching pad of the "nu metal" genre. Korn continued to flourish with the successful releases of "Issues" in 1999 and then "Untouchables" in 2002. Both albums went platinum and "Here to Stay" off "Untouchables" managed to win the band its first and only Grammy. These three albums put Korn on top as the official king of the 'burbs, well before John Brown.

However, after 2002 the music world saw the boy bands such as N'Sync and the Backstreet Boys mercifully disintegrate. Their demise seemed to also mark the end of "nu metal." It's ironic that the two genres, as opposite as can be, managed to feed off one other. Korn, and other bands like it, almost needed the cookie cutter imagery given by the boy bands to juxtapose themselves against. Despite the fading glory, Korn released a best of album in 2003. The album hardly made a dent in sales. Korn garnished little attention as hip-hop and R & B pushed the "nu metal" bands out of the limelight.

Things would only get worse from there. Not only had their fan base grown out of their "woe is me" teenage angst, they managed to lose their lead guitarist, Brian "Head" Welch to the Christian right. Korn trudged on without Welch and released "See You on the Other Side" to mixed reviews and mediocre success. Just to make matters worse, the tour for "See You on the Other Side" was trimmed due to lead singer Jonathan Davis falling ill for a number of weeks.

So what do you do when your band is down and out and on its way to mediocrity? Release an unplugged album. MTV's unplugged has always been a way for a band to pull the musical cliché of "reinventing" itself. Nirvana found its way into coffee shops when they went unplugged, Jay-Z, too.

This unplugged album includes all the old Korn classics such as "Freak on a Leash," which features Amy Lee from Evanescence, "Falling Away from Me," "Make Me Bad" and so forth. Consider it another best of album attempting to reignite the interest they gathered at the end of the 90s.

Korn "Unplugged" is what it is. If you were a fan and can tolerate listening to a band on its way out, then go ahead pick this up. Just remember it's not the band you listened to in middle school. There's a great line in "High Fidelity" in which Jack Black's character asks "is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?" This is a question that anyone contemplating about buying this album might want to think about.