10 Perfect Albums That Started Rock Genres

One of the common threads throughout most '90s music was just how dark and depressing it could get. While grunge was associated with a bunch of disaffected heroin addicts who just wanted to play their hearts out for any audience that would hear them, metal was still thriving as well, with Metallica and Pantera still playing to huge crowds around the world. Korn was a bit of a different breed though, and the disturbing stories behind their debut shifted the entire musical landscape.

While the songs on this record are definitely heavy, what was different was the delivery, from the guitars being detuned insanely low to Jonathan Davis sing speaking in a register that made him sound like he was just let out of a mental institution. With a steady emphasis on rhythm and taking a few cues from the world of hip hop, this was the more natural melding of genres that bands like Faith No More were leading towards, culminating in the nu metal movement that would come to fruition just a few years later.

If you had asked the band what they were doing though, they were never looking to create a new genre by any means, with Davis always saying that he wanted to sing something from the heart most of the time. This may have just been what naturally happened when they jammed, but when you hear a song like Blind, you can hear the seeds of bands as diverse as Deftones and Limp Bizkit. Make of that what you will.