From Toys R Us to the state of Gary Lineker’s upper lip and chin, many things fared better in the 90s. 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.
It was where Nirvana offered up obscure cover versions and the adorable sight of Dave Grohl trying his damnedest to drum quietly. Pearl Jam made a feminist statement when their singer scrawled “pro-choice” on his arm in magic marker. Alice in Chains had their own Woody Guthrie moment via a bass guitar emblazoned with a slogan denouncing Metallica’s short hair.
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.
Unfortunately, MTV’s curatorial nous went awry. Unplugged had once semaphored an act rising to significance. 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.
Poorer still were the next generation of angst-ridden white boys. 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. Nu-metal was a genre less suited to acoustic reinterpretation than Michael Bay is to direct Phantom Thread II. Unplugged even neglected to book the superior nu-metal bands such as Deftones and Kittie. Instead, they chose Incubus, Staind and, ropiest of all, Korn.
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. 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.
More fascinating is the interview snippet where Smith extols Korn’s virtues. Is he being ironic? Trying to conceal his embarrassment? Why is he involved in this debacle? Has he been taken hostage? In 200 years’ time, when the mystifying Mona Lisa has perished beyond restoration and the public can no longer countenance tediously two-dimensional portraits, La Gioconda’s place in the Louvre will be taken up by a holographic ad infinitum loop of Smith repeating the words “I … I’m actually a big fan of Korn … they’re a phenomenal live band”.
With Unplugged’s credibility now in tatters, anyone could appear on it. So fewer people did. One of just three Unplugged performances in 2015 came from Placebo, who had peaked in 1998 with a song that rhymed “weed” with “need” and “dawning” with “morning”. For MTV Unplugged, we were mourning.
