Korn - Shoots and Ladders

What this video is

Released in 1995 as the third single from Korn's self-titled debut album on Immortal/Epic Records, 'Shoots and Ladders' arrived at the precise moment nu-metal was coalescing as a genre distinct from both grunge and traditional heavy metal. The song's subversive deconstruction of childhood nursery rhymes — exposing their historically dark origins including references to the Black Plague — embodied a generational…

Why it matters

A foundational artifact of nu-metal's genesis, 'Shoots and Ladders' introduced bagpipes as a tonal device into the genre's vocabulary and established Korn's template of subverting innocent cultural symbols for confrontational effect. The music video's raw performance aesthetic, directed by…

The director

McG, born Joseph McGinty Nichol, is an American director and producer who began his career directing music videos in the early-to-mid 1990s before transitioning to feature films. He directed multiple videos for Korn from their debut era, including 'Blind,'…