![]() ![]() More fascinating is the interview snippet where Smith extols Korn’s virtues. At one point, Robert Smith mooches onstage resembling The Last Days of Elizabeth Taylor for a medley in which the Cure’s In Between Days segues into nu-metal turkey Make Me Bad. With Jonathan Davis’s whiny, whispered singing and his band’s lack of refinement starkly exposed, Korn: MTV Unplugged almost transgresses the boundaries of unintentional hilarity to become a masterpiece of a misstep. ![]() Instead, they chose Incubus, Staind and, ropiest of all, Korn. Unplugged even neglected to book the superior nu-metal bands such as Deftones and Kittie. Nu-metal was a genre less suited to acoustic reinterpretation than Michael Bay is to direct Phantom Thread II. Taking the riffs and roars of metal, adding the scratches and raps of hip-hop, and upping the misogyny quota of both, a scene was born wherein shorts were acceptable stagewear. ![]() Poorer still were the next generation of angst-ridden white boys. Then horn-voiced Katy Perry arrived after one album to perform lounge-jazz versions of her clumsily problematic songs I Kissed A Girl and Ur So Gay. Unplugged had once semaphored an act rising to significance. ![]() Unfortunately, MTV’s curatorial nous went awry. The show allowed older statesmen such as Neil Young to reach a younger audience, too, but let’s not be rockist because it wasn’t only white guitar dudes who shone: Mariah Carey stormed it thanks to her invincible vocal range Jay-Z’s appearance marked the latest chapter in hip-hop’s infiltration of the mainstream. Alice in Chains had their own Woody Guthrie moment via a bass guitar emblazoned with a slogan denouncing Metallica’s short hair. Pearl Jam made a feminist statement when their singer scrawled “pro-choice” on his arm in magic marker. It was where Nirvana offered up obscure cover versions and the adorable sight of Dave Grohl trying his damnedest to drum quietly. This includes the acoustic performance show MTV Unplugged, which, for a while, showcased stripped-back and often surprising performances from a range of worthy musicians. From Toys R Us to the state of Gary Lineker’s upper lip and chin, many things fared better in the 90s. ![]()
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May 2023
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