On Korn’s current CD, “Life Is Peachy” (Epic), lead singer Johnathan Davis sprays the f-word countless times, fantasizes about raping and killing his ex-stepmother and, on the song “K@ 0%!,” crams
more vile terms for the female anatomy into three minutes than some alternative bands manage in an entire career.
What may be more shocking than the band’s language is its immense popularity–and the lack of controversy surrounding it.
With almost no previous airplay, Korn’s album debuted at No. 3 in Billboard’s Top 200. Their all-ages show this Saturday at the Aragon Ballroom sold out 4,500 tickets in “a matter of hours,” said John Bell of Jam Productions.
And unlike rap groups such as the Geto Boys, 2 Live Crew and Ice Cube, this all-white quintet from Bakersfield, Calif., has encountered little backlash from parents’ groups or public officials as it winds down a month-long U.S. tour–though their lyrical content certainly is as raunchy and violent.
Young white teenage males love them–they are slated to headline this summer’s Lollapalooza festival–and parents seem to put up with them. “We haven’t had anybody approach us,” said Reggie “Fieldy” Arvizu, Korn’s bass player. “We haven’t really gotten any static from parents at all.”
Some say it is because parents mistake Korn for a wholesome Midwestern group. But Arvizu disagrees: “We do record signings with 10-year-old kids, and their parents say, `Yeah, I listened to the record.’ “
Whether indicative of newfound parental tolerance or massive parental ignorance, Korn’s million-selling brand of industrial hardcore hardly exists in a vacuum. In their taste for the grim and graphic, Korn now shares the turf with groups such as Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson; members of all three bands have worked together and expressed mutual admiration for each other.
Of those shock-rock groups, Manson has attracted the lion’s share of public scrutiny. “Marilyn Manson will get that kind of crap because they’re Satanic,” Arvizu said.
“We get many, many calls on Marilyn Manson, but only one call on Korn, and that was for their last (self-titled 1994) album,” said Barbara Wyatt, president of the Parents’ Music Resource Center in Alexandria, Va.
Yet Korn’s subject matter seems no less controversial than Manson’s; besides using strong language, Korn’s songs embrace topics such as suicide, homicide and misogyny.
While that might not represent good, clean fun, it also is “not psychologically damning,” said Bennett Leventhal, chairman of the child-adolescent psychiatry department at the University of Chicago. “They’re just songs, and to give them more power than that is a mistake. For the most part, teenagers know the boundaries between fantasy, art and reality. Picasso was distasteful in his time.”
So was Vladimir Nabakov, whose 1955 novel “Lolita” presented an in-depth exploration of the life and longings of a pedophile. Viewed in a broader context, Korn’s approach marks the latest chapter in popular culture’s exploration of graphic language and themes.
In music, early blues pioneers such as Bessie Smith, Jelly Roll Morton and Georgia White sang about sex in both explicit and codified ways.
The term “rock ‘n’ roll,” popularly attributed to Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed in 1951, was taken from the blues song “My Baby Rocks Me With a Steady Roll”–a title understood to be a euphemism for sexual intercourse. And in 1966, the Doors were fired from a stint at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles, after Jim Morrison vocalized his Oedipal desires during the song, “The End.”
Unlike the Doors, there’s not much to recommend Korn. Amateurish moments abound on “Life Is Peachy,” and the band’s relentless pursuit of dark themes and creepy, hip-hop flavored textures begins to sound not so much shocking as stale after repeated listens.
Even for those obsessed with content, making out Korn’s lyrics can be difficult, since “Life Is Peachy” has no lyric sheet and Davis’ singing-screaming tends to get drenched in layers of guitar noise and heavy percussion. “I guess you’ve really got to sit down and listen to it,” Arvizu said. “I know there’s some pretty foul lyrics in Korn.”
It’s hard to tell from Korn’s current single, “A.D.I.D.A.S.” (from the adolescent acronym “all day I dream about sex”). An edited version of the song is getting airplay on modern rock stations such as WKQX-FM 101.1.
But learning the words from “Life Is Peachy” is as easy as clicking a mouse. Korn has a strong grass roots following, with dozens of pages on the Internet dedicated to the band, some even offering interpretations of the group’s lyrics.
To Korn’s fans, the music represents the sonic equivalent of “Halloween” or “Nightmare on Elm Street”–just the type of films that have long fascinated teenage boys. Nor is Korn’s hate and rage without context, according to Arvizu. Davis, who writes the band’s lyrics, endured a traumatic childhood and adolescence.
“I guess a lot of people can relate to what he’s saying, because a lot of people had f—ed up childhoods,” Arvizu said. “The band just provides the mood and settings, like a slasher movie where somebody’s about to get murdered.”
“A lot of teenagers like that kind of Gothic imagery,” said Andrew McNaughton, a senior at New Trier High School in Winnetka. “People are aware of what Korn is saying, just like they’re aware of Marilyn Manson singing about Satan or Trent Reznor singing about cutting himself.”
As music director of New Trier’s FM station, McNaughton doesn’t have Korn on his active playlist, nor does he count himself as a Korn fan, but he can understand the band’s popularity among some New Trier students.
“When I was in 4th and 5th grade, I listened to Guns N’ Roses because they cursed in their songs,” McNaughton said. “That was the immediate appeal.”
McNaughton advised parents to think twice before telling their kids to stay home from a Korn show. “Any concert is going to have something bad about it,” McNaughton said. “Even at the wimpiest concert, you take a deep breath and you smell that unmistakable scent of marijuana.”
Would Korn’s Arvizu, who is an expecting father, let his children listen to Korn?
“They can listen to whatever they want,” Arvizu said. “My parents were pretty controlling. If my parents told me not to listen to it, I’d just do it more.”
He added: “I say that now, but the kid’s not here yet.”
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