Current Events > Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda: Metal Was Too White Before the Emergence of Nu Metal

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://consequenceofsound.net/2020/10/linkin-park-mike-shinoda-metal-too-white-before-nu-metal/

In speaking with Metal Hammer, Shinoda discussed the music he listened to growing up, and touched upon the topic of diversity in metal. I listened to 90-percent rap music, explained Shinoda. Then Id look at a lot of rock bands and Id be like, Theres something too white [about it]. That was one of the things that turned me off, especially hair metal. He continued, Hair metal felt like very white music and I was growing up in a very diverse city so I didnt gravitate to it. That didnt resonate with me. And it wasnt just about race. I dont mean the color of skin. I just mean the culture of it. When nu metal started at the very beginning, it was a very diverse place.

The Linkin Park vocalist went on to defend nu metal against its critics. There was a moment when that term, nu metal, and what it meant, was actually pretty cool, he said. Its almost impossible to imagine! I remember when Korn first came out and when Deftones first couple of albums came out, and whatever you think about a group like Limp Bizkit, their first album was really raw. Meanwhile, Deftones frontman Chino Moreno was recently asked about nu metal after distancing himself from the genre over the past two decades. The singer said that while much of the music was dumb and stupid, fans shouldnt feel embarrassed about liking nu metal now, because they werent ashamed of liking it back when it was at its peak.



---

Well said, dudes a legend

---

He is an idiot. So Nu Metal, which was 99% white guys rapping over metal was more diverse?

---

Monolith1676 posted...

He is an idiot. So Nu Metal, which was 99% white guys rapping over metal was more diverse?

"I was growing up in a very diverse city so I didnt gravitate to it. That didnt resonate with me. And it wasnt just about race. I dont mean the color of skin. I just mean the culture of it. When nu metal started at the very beginning, it was a very diverse place.

---

Yeah this is a dumb take. metal still has a diversity issue

nu metal isnt any less white boy music than anything that came before it


---

its still angsty edgy white boy music to me...

what's wrong with that quote? He was speaking about his own personal experience, and he grew up around a different culture, a culture that didn't exactly live within Metal, so he stayed away from it until Nu Metal and the mix of genres helped bring him in...

---

hockeybub89 posted...

"I was growing up in a very diverse city so I didnt gravitate to it. That didnt resonate with me. And it wasnt just about race. I dont mean the color of skin. I just mean the culture of it. When nu metal started at the very beginning, it was a very diverse place.

I still don't get what he means by that statement.

---

Monolith1676 posted...

I still don't get what he means by that statement.

its not that hard to understand. The culture of metal was obviously far different from say the culture of hip hop. And He grew up in a more diverse area, probably gravitated towards hip hop culture, so he'd see metal and not connect with it. Like it or not, at the time that was white culture vs black culture. The two weren't mixed yet. they tended to stay away from each other. After things started intertwining and becoming one he started to understand and like Metal more.

Why are you getting butthurt about this lol.

---