Korn - Style and Influences

Style and Influences

The band has stated that their primary influences include Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Sepultura, Faith No More, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Helmet, Rage Against the Machine, Slayer, Pink Floyd, Primus, Tool, Ministry, Mr. Bungle, Biohazard, Nine Inch Nails, Pantera, Beastie Boys, Black Sabbath, and Jane's Addiction. Much of their work has been inspired by hip hop music, as suggested in the cover song "Wicked", and "All in the Family".

They are the first band to be labeled as nu metal, starting the New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Alongside this genre, the band has also been labeled as heavy metal, alternative metal, alternative rock, post-grunge, hard rock, rap metal, funk metal, groove metal and industrial metal. Their debut album mixed metal, rock, hip-hop, groove, and dissonance. Their lyrics focus on pain and personal alienation rather than traditional heavy metal themes. In Nu-metal: The Next Generation of Rock & Punk, Korn was marked as the third biggest nu metal band in the world.

Due to controversies and arguments over the band being heavy metal or not than just with nu metal being heavy metal or not, lead singer Jonathan Davis commented, "I remember when were coming out we were fighting being called a metal band because we weren't a metal band, we were something that wasn't classifiable," Davis says. "Then they came up with 'nu-metal' but that's still cheesy. It's frustrating."

The band's debut album warranted a Parental Advisory label solely because of the album's lyrics. Many of Korn's first works are based on early experiences. The song "Daddy" was described by lead singer Jonathan Davis "When I was a kid, I was being abused by somebody else and I went to my parents and told them about it, and they thought I was lying and joking around. They never did shit about it. They didn't believe it was happening to their son.... I don't really like to talk about that song. This is as much as I've ever talked about it..." "Kill You" was written about Davis's experiences as a child with his step mother. Follow the Leader marked the first album where the majority of the lyrics did not have origins relating to early occurrences, with songs like "Justin" and "Pretty" written about incidents occurring during adulthood.

Bassist Reginald Arvizu plays his instrument using both the techniques of fingerstyle and slapping. Jonathan Davis was said by Doug Small to be "the eye of the storm around which the music of Korn rages." Small described the band as "a basket-case full of contradictions." Although the band virtually had no support by television or by radio broadcasting in its first four years, Korn would go on to influence Pleymo, Adema, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Evanescence, P.O.D., Cold, Staind, System of a Down, Seether, One Minute Silence, Kittie, Endo, Taproot, Disturbed, Crazy Town, Otep, Hoobastank, Suicide Silence, Emmure, Impending Doom, Five Pointe O, Lacuna Coil, Chris Volz, Videodrone, Theory of a Deadman, Thousand Foot Krutch, Avenged Sevenfold, Breaking Benjamin, Bleed the Sky, Papa Roach, Godsmack, Shinedown, Coal Chamber, Three Days Grace, Flymore, Bring Me the Horizon, Trapt, Molotov and other bands. Korn also created a fan-base described by both Doug Small and Eaton Entertainment as extremely loyal.