A garbage term where anything new, which people can't reconcile with straight archetypal Hard Rock, Metal, Punk, or Rap, goes. To give an example, while Linkin Park may be more closely associated with the 'mainstream' sides of punk, Slipknot is undoubtedly a prime figure of aggro metal. This is where the often misunderstood value of nu metal lies. It attempts an unconscious vocalization of primordial anger, perhaps even without deeper meanings, complex metaphors, or beautiful or technical instrumentals. And that is why it does something that no other genre has ever been successful in doing. It does not try to appeal to intelligence or to a technically minded ear. It appeals to anger, rage, frustration, and, yes, even to angst but all of these things only to feed Hatred. To truly arrive at hatred, it is necessary to sometimes incorporate a grabbag of other emotions, or even to disregard any sort of musical sanity. For example, it is to numetal we owe the completely original vocalization of hatred that is offered by Johnathan Davis in the popular song "Freak on a Leash." We hear insane grunts and intake of breath before we arrive at the end of the song, where Davis breaks into a hate filled nonsense utterance rap that is could never have existed in another genre. In short, the point of aggro is to bypass the conscious, to claw it away, and to reach and agitate the subconscious death drive and hatred of all living things, all humanity.
John Pobbleton sat down, unwound his dirt laden white ipod headphones, and turned on some nu-metal, specifically, "Freak on a Leash." For the next couple of minutes he began to furiously rip all of the skin off his index finger. After about three minutes, he bolted up from his seat, and commenced to systematically drive the bone of his index finger through the now seemingly paperthin skulls of everyone in the room. Luckily, the nu-metal drowned out all of their resistance and screams, and by the time the song was over, Pobbleton was the only sentient organism left in the room. Additionally, he felt much, much better.
by DomINick February 9, 2012
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The best insult around. The worst music around. No nu-metal bands are tolerable. They all suck. But it's good; it keeps those d-bags away from my music.
Kid A: Dude, want to go play 'Spot The Nu-Metal Kid'?
Kid B: Yeah...<walks into local mall> I win.
by Q-Tip McVicker January 22, 2005
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Monkey strummers with knit caps jumping up and down. Playing only two or three muddy bar chords. NO LEAD. They call this nu-metal? I call it Neutered Metal!
by zilla November 30, 2003
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Nu Metal is a fusion genre that mixes metal with funk, hip hop, and sometimes Industrial. They're often groove-based and they're guitar and bass is usually tuned very low.

In the late 90s Korn's "Follow The Leader" had gained a massive amount of popular and featured the hit singles Freak on a Leash and Got The Life. This album opened the door for many Nu Metal and Rap Metal bands to become popular. In 1999 Korn's Issues, Limp Bizkit's Significant Other, and Kid Rock's Devil Without a Cause were extremely succesful.

2000 and 2001 was possibly the best time for Nu Metal with Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, Deftones, System of a Down, Disturbed, Godsmack, Staind, Drowning Pool, Static-X, Mudvayne, P.O.D., Mushroomhead, Papa Roach, Soulfly, and Linkin Park (who's debut was the highest selling album of 2001) all having succesful albums.
2002 showed signs of Nu Metal declining. Korn's long awaited 5th album Untouchables and Papa Roach's Lovehatetragedy both sold less than expected.
Some of the reasons behind this is MTV started focusing more on Pop-Punk and Emo-Pop in 2002.
Even though many of these bands have gained criticism Deftones and System of a Down are highly respected among critics and rock fans in general.

Korn are often considered the pioneers of this style of music.
Dan - What is Nu Metal
John - It's basically grooved-based, aggresive modern hard rock. Despite popular belief you do not have to have some sort of rap/hip hop influence to be Nu Metal.
by JTP393 January 13, 2010
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Sucks, lacking instrumentally and in musicality.
If you listen to Slipknot, Korn, or System of a Down, Please find better music, other than Nu metal.
by Anynms August 20, 2006
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A genre of music that appeared in the 90's. It uses elements of Hip-Hop and Hardcore. The style is not Metal, it is associated with Metalcore. Examples of Nu-Metal are:

Korn
Linkin Park
Slipknot

Nu-Metal is hated with a passion by Metalheads, yet, without Nu-Metal tons of Metalheads wouldn't exist. Nu-Metal provides a good middle ground for people who like pop music but aren't ready for the growls, and shrieks of Metal. Most people who get into Nu-Metal end up listening to Metal afterwards.
by joe725 March 9, 2008
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Nu-metal is a non- existant sub-genre of metal. Though common cited as a "genre" it is merly a segregation between the larger family of metal.

Nu-metal is classified by it's heavy, downtuned guitar riffs, complementary bass riffs, and unique drumming/pecussion style.

Nu-metal comes under fire constantly because of it's "simple" guitar riffs, angry singing/screaming style, and the appearance of it's bands.

These arguements are very closed minded and ignorant, however. Those who complain about the simple guitar riffs fail to elaborate on how this is detrimental to the actual music: the repetitive arguement is that the guitarist fails to show any talent, but music isn't about the band, it's the sound they make. That is a fact, as any self respecting band of any genre will tell you that. There is also the arguement that "all the bands sound alike". This is true, but is just as common in other musical genres. For example, the nu-metal band "Limp Bizkit" can be closely compared to the band "Reveille". However, you can also say that Jack Johnson sounds similar to Jason Mraz, and AC/DC sounds like Guns N' Roses, and Green Day sounds like Sum 41 and so on. Every genre has bands that sound alike, because they are a genre! They are the same kind of style!

People, open up your eyes! Music is for everyone! There is no reason to critize an entire fanbase of people because they like something different than you.

Coming from a guy who likes Dave Mattews and Slipknot at the same time. C'mon, times are tough, share some love.
Some Nu-metal bands include: Linkin Park, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Reveille, Genuflect, Taproot, and what ever other bands you think "should" be nu-metal, but remember, it's not really a genre.
by Foxtrot127 March 1, 2009
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