Korn: Lyrics, History, Ideology.

At the beginning of 90s, a great number of underground bands appeared in big western cities and provincial towns. Bakersfield was not an exception. LAPD was one of those bands, where the guys were realizing their music ideas. Once LAPD were present at the performance of the band Sexart and were intrigued by the lead singer, Jonathan Davis, a student-pathologist. He had an impressive voice of great compass. LAPD immediately decided to have the gifted singer in their band. They approached Jonathan with an offer to join a new project, and he agreed.

Since then, in 1992, the history of Korn began. The name Korn appeared due to Davis' vulgar joke from his anatomic past. That was how Korn appeared. Their native town could give them opportunities to realize their project, therefore, the band left for Los Angeles, where they set to work seriously. Fiedly played a five-stringed bass-guitar, the rest - seven-stringed guitars. They sounded rather gloomy and sinister, which distinguished from other performing beginners. The gloomy lyrics by Jonathan only added to it. The lyrics bore a mark of Jonathan's life experience and profession as he had worked as a pathologist. Musically, the first tracks of Korn mix both heavy metal and hip-hop, which was new and made listeners remember them. In other words, the guys got what they wanted - Korn was noticed. Then they were lucky to sign a contract with the label Immortal , and their first album got the name Korn. The lyrics were penetrated with gloominess, and the album was based on the film on "Children of Corn" by Stephen King. Jonathan's lyrics are inspired by everything that surrounded him. He says it makes his work easier, besides, the eternal questions raised in his lyrics touch everyone. Overall, the lyrics present immediate examples and reminiscences of a common person. The album "Korn" is penetrated with childhood;

"Blind" is the main song of the album, its lyrics deal with the problem of drugs. The main character is going to commit suicide, but does not know how to do it, that is why he continues to take drugs.

"Faget" - the lyrics tell us about Jonathan's nicknames at school: "pussy", "queer", etc.

"Daddy" - its lyrics are recollections of Jonathan's childhood as he became a victim of his neighbour's sexual aggression.

Korn toured rather successfully in spite of being the beginners in the world of metal music. At the end of their tour Korn took part in the famous festival Ozzfest. In 1996, Korn started recording their second full-length album entitled "Life Is Peachy". The album immediately sold out and became platinum, while Korn became a hot subject for critics and journalists, who called the guys psychopaths and perverts. Korn's lyrics provide reasons for such accusations. However, all the members of Korn paid no attention to it. Anyway, the album turned out to be a great success with such hits as "Good god" or "Twist".

"Chi" - Korn's lyrics deal with acute problems of alcohol and drugs, which people often use "to solve" their problems.

"Good God" - Korn's lyrics tell about a guy, who was trying to influence Jonathan at school. He told him how to dress, what music to listen to, he was constantly thrusting his opinion on Jonathan, and Jonathan hated him.

Korn were invited to perform with such veterans of metal as Metallica and Marilyn Manson. Their official web site appeared, and the guys started recording a soundtrack for the film "The Crow: City of Angels". All the year 1997, the members of Korn were busy with forming their own studio Elementree, where they later signed contracts with different bands, such as "Videodrone" and "Ogry". In 1998 many clone-bands imitating Korn appeared, which played rap-metal. Korn faced not an easy problem- they had to maintain their reputation, to distinguish themselves on this background as Korn had done with their first album. The invited musicians from other bands (Limp Bizkit, Pharcyde) added originality to their recording. Thus, on August 18, the third album of Korn "Follow the leader" was released. The professional equipment had been used for its recording, and the album became a fresh wind for Korn fans. Korn shot two videos "Freak on a leash" and "Got The Life" to promote the album, which became mainstays on music channels. The lyrics of the new album were also very interesting.

"Freak On A Leash" - the lyrics deal with music industry. Korn tell us, what show business is like in reality and how it uses musicians as a material.

"Dead Bodies Everywhere" - Korn's lyrics tell us, that Jonathan's father tried to prevent him from going in music. It was due to his father, that Jonathan worked in a morgue and got medical education.

"Got The Life" - the point of the lyrics is the following: Jonathan asks himself, whether he behaved right in this or that situation, as a result he remains dissatisfied with himself and his life.

Korn was not going to stop at it, therefore in 1999 they started recording there new album. It was a sad year for Jonathan as he divorced with his wife, so the new album surprised Korn's fans a little. Korn changed. The album "Issues" was extremely sad, penetrated with grief, it directly deal with the topics of insanity and suicide. This album of Korn differs greatly from the previous works.

"Trash" - Korn's lyrics tell us about Jonathan's life; the aggression of his youth found its vent mostly in sex.

"Dirty" - Korn's lyrics present personal experience. He realizes that he is being used as a means to earn money by others. Sex is the only way for him to escape from it for a while.

"Somebody Someone" - "Somebody Someone" was written at the same time as 'Trash'. The lyrics state that a person needs someone whom he can trust 100%.

The drums became lower, the sound - softer, creating an impression of "crying guitars". Nevertheless, the album was soon certified platinum, and following the success of the previous album, debuted at #1 on the Billboard. Before the release, Korn offered their fans to draw a cover for their future album. The fans everywhere were so inspired by it, that Korn got a great number of sketches. At the same time, Korn embarked on the next tour, during which Korn's drummer David had his hand seriously injured. Later on, he was replaced, but due to this problem with a drummer, the release of the fifth full-length album was put off till the next year, and then - till 2002. The best equipment was used for recording the album "Untouchables". The lyrics still dwell on human nature, human feelings and thoughts. The released album sold over 3000000 copies all over the world.

"Here To Stay" - Korn's lyrics tell about those who got advantages over everyone. Jonathan wrote it as he realized he had it, and the envy of his life success irritates him.

"Wake Up Hate" - Korn's lyrics deal with a feeling of despair, namely, when children have no reason to continue living. When a child Jonathan believed, children had future prospects. But nowadays children became robbers, maniacs and other asocial types. The lyrics deal with this problem.

"No One's There" - Korn's lyrics depict a banal, but at the same time extremely actual problem. When a person is rich and famous, he has many people around calling themselves his "friends", but in case of some troubles, they just turn their back on him.

In 2004, to celebrate their 10-year anniversary Korn released "Greatest Hits, Vol. 1". In 2005 Brian, the guitarist announced that he had chosen religion and could not continue his music career in Korn. The other members accepted it and wished him the best. However, soon a t-shirt with an ironic inscription "Korn gave Head to God" appeared. Then Korn started recording their new album. The album "See You on the Other Side" was released in December 2005, but it was an incomplete version. In August 2006, the album was released again, this time it was a double CD; it included two videos, remixes and private videos of "Korn". The title of the album changed, the final variant was - "See You on the Other Side: Shopped, Screwed, Live and Unglued". Jonathan stated, this album was one of the best works of Korn. The musicians of "Korn" compared it to "Untochables", as it was also experimental. Once again, Korn proved they were not going to stop and look around - they wanted to move on.

In November 2006, Korn released the compilation of the acoustic versions of their best hits. Korn recorded the cover on a famous song of Radiohead "Creep" and the old song of "The Cure" "In Between Days", the members of "The Cure" were invited to take part in its recording. After that, David Silveria, the drummer, announced that he needed a break and added that he would not take part in the next album recording and touring. Drumming duties were left up to Terry Bozzio, but David still was not crossed out. Not long before it, Brian said he would rejoin the band, but Korn has not confirmed this information. The latest news about "Korn" - 8 songs have been already recorded for the new album, while there are 40 songs written. We can only hope that this album would be even better than the previous works of Korn.