Other generations get to cast their formative musical experiences in a delightful golden haze of nostalgia and deify their earliest musical heroes, from grandparents somehow being moved to unsheathe their straight razors by Bill Haley to your Dad tripping balls to Cream and Jimi and your Mum getting eye make up tips from Marc Bolan and Bowie, up to your cool aunt and uncle learning to mope properly from Ian Curtis and Morrissey. I, on the other hand, spent my first, magical evening of live music listening to Fred Durst tell a cavernous indoor arena that he wanted to break a fucking face. What's worse, that means the first real band I ever saw live was fuckawful fourth tier post-grunge dickwads Godsmack, who were supporting. I'm sure many of you have the same sorry tales to tell.
There was some bullshit failed attempt recently to scrounge together a cash-in compilation (which I remember getting a review on here) which totally failed to even understand what, if anything, nu-metal was. So, I say why not have a stupid, protracted series of arguments about it on here, and in the process, try and nail down a definitive 2 CD compilation so we can all put this sorry period behind us. I want to try and get in the big hitters and the no-mark hangers-on (Hoobastank, who I also saw live, Manchester Apollo, 2001). Do bands people actually like, such as Deftones and Glassjaw, make the cut? What is Korn's definitive song? Should we put in bands best tracks, or their best-known?