Exploring Korn part 1

First of all, I'd like to say that I do like Korn. It's because of this that I started noticing things while listening to them one day after reading MKCulture. It was these lyrics that caught my attention:

"Hate something...somewhere...Each day...feel'n ripped off for gett'n off

Why? This shit inside

Now everyone will follow

so...give...me...nothing...Just feel

and now a sheep will follow"

Is he hating the thing that's making him feel ripped off?
Getting off...There's probably a double meaning to this. Sexual satisfaction (or masturbation) being the obvious one, and money/success/fame/glamour being the other.
He seems to be venting a lot of anger, then mentions everybody following and referencing sheep. Hmm.

"God thanks me...the more I see the lie...Didn't want us to see

God told me...I already got the life...oh, I say"

"Each day I can feel it swallow

Inside something they took from me

I don't feel your deathly ways

Each day I feel so hollow

Inside always beating me

You will never see

So come dance with me..."

Clearly the song is about his unhappiness with the "joys" of success in the industry, yet there seems to be a lot more to it. Let's check out the music video for Got the Life.

Anyone familiar with the asian-esque (apologies if that's offensive; I don't know if that's Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or what, lettering. When I don't know, I say "asian-ese", or "asian-esque", to avoid calling someone/thing the wrong one. Sometimes a Korean-for example gets pretty dang upset if you call them Thai-for example. I am not being racist.) letters on the door at 0:53? If so, would you mind telling us what they mean?

I don't like to give much thought to things like star shapes in the shot. Yes, they have black stars in the background while they perform. Does that automatically mean we're looking at pentegrams? Sometimes people just like stars. However, given the rest of the video, they may very well be pentegrams.

At 1:13 one of the band members gives Jon a disapproving look when Jon asks to be given something he can feel.

A bunch of suits, a political looking broad, and a cowboy watch the band perform. They all shake hands and smile as if they're responsible for Korn. This pisses off the band, and Korn has left the building.

Jon goes to his car, which is swarmed by paparazzi, and seems to be half-praying/half-having-some-kind-of-attack. I can't help but notice his necklace. He exits the car, starts swinging a bat at the paparazzi, and strikes a pose like Jesus on the cross.

The remaining four members "story" kind of over-laps. Head and Fieldy give their car to a black squeegie man, who is over-joyed with their generosity. He speeds off, only for the car to explode. Munky and David Silveria observe the explosion. Then the band walks off together and is next seen at a party with a bunch of rappers.

WTF?! So they basically murdered a homeless black man then go off and party like it ain't no thang? Yeah Jon, I'm not feelin' those deathly ways.

                                           Other strange Korn videos

      What do dead bodies have to do with this sex he's dreaming about all day?

    Was he in women's underclothes strictly to be funny, or was he hinting at other hidden things? (No, I'm not calling him a transvestite or drag queen.)

Handlers keeping an eye on Korn, weird bug-like thing under their skin. The lyrics alone speak for themselves.

Angelina Jolie's in this video. There's also a lot of symbolism literally flying around.

Breaking mirrors, world crashing down around them, just to start

                            

Featuring Lil Jon as Jon Davis, Xzibit as Fieldy, David Banner as David Silveria, and Snoop Dogg as Munky. David models for Sexy Beast Cologne...I doubt he modelled for this company! Regardless of anything, I still find this video to be amusing.

Disturbing album covers

The sheep will follow the girl in red right off the cliff

I believe this is the album cover that a fan designed. I remember Korn held a contest while at the top of their game, and it was for a fan to design the cover of their (then) next album. I'm pretty certain this was the winner, or at least one of them. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Woah! WTF?

Lyrics from Korn's first single, Blind:

"This place inside my mind

A place I'd like to hide

You don't know the chances

What if I should die?

A place inside my brain

another kind of pain

You don't know the chances

I'm so blind!"

"...deeper inside, wanting to live a life that seems to be 

A lost reality, that I can never find

A way to reach my inner self, I stand alone

How deep can I go, in the ground that I lay?

If I don't find a way to see through the gray that clouds my mind

This time I look to see what's between the lines..."

In 2005, Brian "Head" Welch left Korn and found Christianity. In an interview with MTV News he made some interesting comments:

"I love everybody in the band — I was afraid to leave. It made me sad to think that I would be hurting the band if I left. For the last year and a half, I wanted to leave, but someone would always talk to me and convince me to stay," Welch said. "But I've had a problem with the way things were going since the second record. I mean, we would do things, and I would be like, 'Oh, this is metal! This is the rock and roll life!' But inside, I thought they took it too far. It was a little too crude for me."

"I think it made the guys mad. It confused them. I left at the worst possible time. We got off Sony, and all the money was there, we were going to own all of our songs, but I had to prove to myself that money wasn't my God," he said. "I talked to Jonathan [Davis] and he said, 'I don't get it, man, you're all happy and we're sitting here grieving because our band is breaking up. And I wanted to tell him, 'Well, for years, you guys were out partying while I was sitting on the tour bus wanting to die.' "

In retaliation to Head's leaving and newfound Christianity, this t-shirt was released.

Sources:

http://music.ign.com/articles/075/075411p3.html

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1497484/brian-head-welch-explains-why-left-korn.jhtml

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/