

But Deftones were once undoubtedly rap-metal. White Pony may have transcended the dubious genre by fashioning a truly new form from post-hardcore, industrial, trip-hop, shoegaze, ambient electronics, and synth-pop. It also created a context where Deftones could make an album about sex, drugs, and druggy sex that cemented their reputation as rock’s most unmarketable weirdos. Yet, this was the music that moved millions of units during a prosperous time for the music industry. Nu-metal was angry music-some of it sourced from childhood trauma and the despair of rural and suburban America outside the so-called monoculture some of it sourced from the toxic masculinity ingrained in that monoculture.
