page_title: Nu metal
section_title: 1998–2003: Mainstream popularity
hierarchical_section_title: Nu metal / History / 1998–2003: Mainstream popularity
caption_attribution_description: Disturbed playing live in 2005.
context_page_description: Nu metal is a subgenre of alternative metal that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu metal bands have drawn elements and influences from a variety of musical styles, including multiple genres of heavy metal. Nu metal rarely features guitar solos or other displays of technical competence; the genre is heavily syncopated and based on guitar riffs. Many nu metal guitarists use seven-string guitars that are down-tuned to play a heavier sound. DJs are occasionally featured in nu metal to provide instrumentation such as sampling, turntable scratching and electronic backgrounds. Vocal styles in nu metal include singing, rapping, screaming and growling. Nu metal is one of the key genres of the new wave of American heavy metal.
  Nu metal became popular in the late 1990s with bands and artists such as Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Kid Rock all releasing albums that sold millions of copies.
context_section_description: In 1998, nu metal became one of the most mainstream genres of music when Korn's third album Follow the Leader peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200, was certified 5x platinum by the RIAA, and paved the way for other nu metal bands. At this point, many nu metal bands were signed to major record labels, and were playing combinations of heavy metal, hip hop, industrial, grunge and hardcore punk styles. Hip hop artists Vanilla Ice and Cypress Hill, along with heavy metal bands Sepultura, Primus, Fear Factory, Machine Head, and Slayer released albums that draw from the nu metal genre.
  In 1999, Korn's fourth studio album Issues peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200. The album was certified 3× platinum in one month. The album sold at least 573,000 copies in its first week of release and its first single "Falling Away From Me" peaked at number 8 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. A little before the album was released, Korn appeared on an episode of South Park titled "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery", in which "Falling Away from Me" was premiered. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, multiple nu metal bands such as Korn, Limp Bizkit and P.O.D. appeared repeatedly on MTV's Total Request Live.
  The Woodstock 1999 festival featured multiple nu metal artists and bands such as Korn, Kid Rock, Godsmack, Limp Bizkit and Sevendust. During and after Limp Bizkit's performance at the festival, violence occurred and people tore plywood from the walls during the performance of the band's song "Break Stuff". Several sexual assaults were reported to have happened during the festival; a rape that was reported during Limp Bizkit's performance, and gang rape was reported to have occurred during Korn's set at the festival. Despite the incidents at the festival, Limp Bizkit's popularity and the sales of their then-recent album Significant Other were not affected. The album peaked at number 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 643,874 copies in its first week of release, topping over one million sold in two weeks, and eventually being certified 7x platinum in 2001. Significant Other sold at least 7,237,123 copies in the United States.
  Orgy became popular in the late 1990s with their album Candyass, which was certified platinum by the RIAA in July 1999. The band's cover of "Blue Monday" by New Order peaked at number 56 on the Billboard Hot 100. Godsmack's self-titled debut album was released in 1998 and was certified 4× platinum in December 2001. In April 1999, Kid Rock's album Devil Without a Cause was certified by gold by the RIAA. The following month, Devil Without a Cause, as Kid Rock predicted, went platinum. The album sold at least 9,300,000 copies in the United States and was certified 11x platinum. In 1999, Slipknot emerged with an extremely heavy nu metal sound, releasing their self-titled album, which was certified platinum in 2000 and 2x platinum in 2005. In a review of the band's self-titled album, Rick Anderson of AllMusic wrote about Slipknot, "You thought Limp Bizkit was hard? They're the Osmonds. These guys are something else entirely."
  In 1999, Staind's second album Dysfunction was released; the track "Mudshovel" peaked at number 10 on the Mainstream Rock chart. Dysfunction was certified 2x platinum by the RIAA. In 2000, Limp Bizkit's third studio album Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water set a record for highest week-one sales of a rock album, selling over 1,000,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release—400,000 of which sold on its first day of release, making it the fastest-selling rock album ever and breaking the world record held for seven years by Pearl Jam's Vs. Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water by Limp Bizkit was certified 6x platinum and sold at least 8,000,000 copies in the United States. That same year, both Papa Roach's second studio album Infest and Disturbed's debut studio album The Sickness were released. The RIAA certified The Sickness 4× platinum and Infest 3× platinum. Disturbed's song "Down with the Sickness" was certified platinum by the RIAA. Papa Roach
caption: Disturbed performing in 2005
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