LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) -- Embattled shock jock Howard Stern has found a theme song: Korn's "Y'All Want a Single." The song, and especially its video, is an attack on radio conglomerates and the music industry, Korn lead singer Jonathan Davis says.
Clear Channel pulled Stern's morning radio show off its stations last month because of indecency concerns, and Stern has since positioned himself as the poster child for free speech. The Korn song has fallen so in line with Stern's political rants that a remixed version featuring Stern is available at the band's official Web site,
http://www.korn.com.
The video to "Y'All Want a Single," which Stern hails as "the most inspirational, the most spectacular understanding of what's going on in this country right now," was shot at an out-of-business Los Angeles record store. In it, Korn, joined by fans, storms through the aisles smashing the display cases and CDs with crowbars.
While the store is being destroyed, statements taking the music industry to task cross the screen, including: "One corporation owns the 5 major video channels in the U.S."; "90% of the bands signed to a major don't make a profit"; "Two radio conglomerates control 42% of listeners"; "The music industry releases 100 songs per week."
"The stuff we said in the video (is the stuff) the music industry doesn't want kids to know about," Davis says. "Everyone is in bed with everyone in the industry. One corporation owns all the video channels, one corporation owns all the radio stations, and all the venues we play at are also the promoters. It's a whole monopoly. They basically deem what kids are going to hear."
Davis says getting the band's record label, Sony, to approve the video was an uphill battle, but Korn eventually won. "They let it go under artistic freedom," Davis says.
The video has been put into regular rotation on Fuse Network. In fact, Fuse president Marc Juris calls the video "the true rebellious spirit of rock 'n' roll as a vehicle for change."
'People are too uptight'
The FCC's crackdown on indecency hit the fast track following the Super Bowl halftime incident. Davis in part blames the FCC's actions on the religious right and the fact that it's an election year.
"People are too uptight," he says. "It's the God squad. They have a chance just to turn the knob off. If it's a radio station, if it's a CD, they don't have to listen to it. It's ridiculous."
Davis contends that restricted radio play and the music industry's big-business, hit-machine mentality is why record sales have been floundering.
"I think one of the reasons why the music business is failing is because there is nothing out there new that is exciting for kids to get into," he adds. "These corporations only put so many bands out, and they play those same 12 bands over and over again on the radio. It kills it."
Although Davis admits that music has never been more popular, thanks to the Internet, the business practices the band attacks in the video are stifling both artists and fans.
"[This video] is making a statement to stand up for every artist that's been screwed around," Davis says. "Ultimately, it's the fan getting screwed over [too] -- screwed out of a lot of new entertainment. There are those kids that have the energy to go out and look and find underground bands, but the average 14-year-old is fed what is cool by what the corporations are behind."
Korn, a hard-rock outfit founded in 1992, has reached multiplatinum sales but has never taken up a sociopolitical issue before.
"We've never been a political band," Davis says. "But if I can't say the [F-word] in the United Sates of America, I'm going to say something about it. If it gets to the point, period, where you can't cuss on TV, I'm moving to a different country."
