10 Hard Rock Music Songs Artists Want You To Forget
6. Back To School - Deftones
The call of the major labels may be both the best and the worst thing an up and coming band can face. As much as playing to legions of fans around the world sounds fun, you do have to sacrifice a little bit of your artistic integrity in order to really get the job done. When it came to the styles of nu metal though, even Deftones found themselves having to compromise without even knowing it.
During the production for White Pony, the band handed in one of the darkest albums they could muster, only to come under fire when the label said that they didn't hear a single. The only thing that seemed to stand out to them was the chorus to Pink Maggit, which one of them called a "hit chorus." Looking to just troll the professionals, Chino Moreno came up with some of the cheesiest lyrics he could muster and made a joke song out of that one chorus.
To the horror of everybody though, Chino's joke song was actually greeted with enthusiasm by the rest of the suits in the business, who saw this as the perfect song to cater to the Limp Bizkit set of nu metal fans. That turned into the entire promotional plan of the record, getting rid of the dark music and getting the frat bro set of fans down with Deftones. If you were around back in the day and still have an original copy of White Pony without Back to School, consider yourself lucky. Your album wasn't tainted.