"Freak on a Leash" is a song by the American

nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu met ...

band

Korn Korn (stylized as KoЯn, or occasionally KoRn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The band is notable for pioneering the nu metal genre and bringing it into the mainstream. Originally formed in 1993 ...

, featured on the group's 1998 studio album, '' Follow the Leader''. After ''Follow the Leader''s release, the song was released as a single on February 25, 1999, and since then, it has been re-released over ten times. The song uses dissonance, distortion, various guitar effects, and a heavy, aggressive style. The "Freak on a Leash" music video was released on February 5, 1999. Directed by

Todd McFarlane Todd McFarlane (; born March 16, 1961) is a Canadian comic book creator, artist, writer, filmmaker and entrepreneur, best known for his work as the artist on ''The Amazing Spider-Man'' and as the creator, writer, and artist on the superhero horro ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, the video explores both animations and live performances mixed together. As a result, the band released a music video that won three awards and was retired from ''

Total Request Live ''Total Request Live'' (known commonly as ''TRL'') was an American television program broadcast on MTV that premiered on September 14, 1998. TRL featured popular music videos played during its countdown, and was also used as a promotion tool by ...

''. The single peaked at number six on the

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart, 10 on the

Mainstream Rock Songs Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...

chart, and 24 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

Origins

Following the release of ''Follow the Leader'', Korn promoted the studio album by headlining the

Family Values Tour The Family Values Tour was an annual rock and hip hop tour held by the American nu metal band Korn since 1998. The first tour took place in 1998 and the second tour in 1999, but the tour took a hiatus in 2000 due to heavy competition from the A ...

in 1998. The tour ran from September 22 until October 31. "Freak on a Leash" was the first song played on their first tour date. The original composition had a "noisy guitar break in the middle," but, after the group found out that radio stations are not fond of "noisy guitar breaks," they voted 4–1 to remove the break, with

Jonathan Davis Jonathan Howsmon Davis (born January 18, 1971), also known as JD or JDevil, is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman of nu metal band Korn, who are considered a pioneering act of the ...

being the lone holdout. The band described the break as "the

Biohazard A biological hazard, or biohazard, is a biological substance that poses a threat to the health of living organisms, primarily humans. This could include a sample of a microorganism, virus or toxin that can adversely affect human health. A bioh ...

part.""Please Love Them: They're Korn", ''Billboard'', November 1998. p. 86 "Freak on a Leash" was written in 1997 and recorded in May 1998 at NRG Recording Studios in

North Hollywood, California North Hollywood is a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. The neighborhood contains the NoHo Arts District, the El Portal Theatre, several art galleries, and the Academy of TV Arts and Sciences. The North H ...

. It was released as their second single, on May 25, 1999, and is considered to be one of their most successful singles. Since its first release in the United Kingdom, it has been released over ten times. It was released in the United Kingdom three times, twice in Mexico and Australia, once in Germany, once in France, once in the United States, and once in Switzerland. Guitarist

Brian "Head" Welch Brian Philip Welch (born June 19, 1970), also known by his stage name Head, is an American musician. He is one of the guitarists and founding member of the nu metal band Korn and his solo project Love and Death, where he also provides vocals. ...

said that the song "was about Jonathan Davis being a freak on a leash—sort of a kinky

dominatrix A dominatrix (; ) or femdom is a woman who takes the dominant role in BDSM activities. A dominatrix can be of any sexual orientation, but this does not necessarily limit the genders of her submissive partners. Dominatrices are known for inflic ...

thing." Leah Furman said that the song "revolved around the mixed blessings of fame".

Composition

"Freak on a Leash" is four minutes and 15 seconds long. The song uses dissonance,

distortion In signal processing, distortion is the alteration of the original shape (or other characteristic) of a signal. In communications and electronics it means the alteration of the waveform of an information-bearing signal, such as an audio signal ...

, and various effects to bring the song "to life." David Lloyd from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

said that the song was an example of a " nonsense-utterance" technique used by lead vocalist Jonathan Davis. Lloyd also noted that the song contained "fragments of English-language words," and said that they "can be perceived in the midst of Davis' gibberish". Lloyd went on to say that "Davis is giving voice to his inner basic feelings which are trying to resist being shaped or conditioned by utterances of others." Elias Pampalk said that the song was "rather aggressive" and said it was heavy metal/

death metal Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep growling vocals; aggressive, powerful drumming, feat ...

. Pampalk proclaimed that "melodic elements do not play an important role in 'Freak on a Leash' and the specific loudness sensation is a rather complex pattern". There are reoccurring elements throughout "Freak on a Leash". The song contains vocals, guitars, bass and percussion. It expresses moods such as anger, drama, and sarcasm.Stephen Thomas Erlewine "allmusic_(((_Freak_on_a_Leash_[Australia>_Overview_)))".html" ;"title="ustralia.html" ;"title=""allmusic ((( Freak on a Leash [Australia">"allmusic ((( Freak on a Leash [Australia> Overview )))"">ustralia.html" ;"title=""allmusic ((( Freak on a Leash [Australia">"allmusic ((( Freak on a Leash [Australia> Overview )))" Allmusic. Retrieved 2010-06-28 An acoustic rendition of the song was recorded with Jonathan Davis singing a duet with Amy Lee of Evanescence, at MTV studios in Times Square, New York City for Korn's MTV Unplugged: Korn, acoustic set on December 9, 2006.

Music video

A music video for "Freak on a Leash" was released on February 5, 1999, and debuted on ''Total Request Live''. It was directed by Todd McFarlane who was assisted by

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris Jonathan Dayton (born July 7, 1957) and Valerie Faris (born October 20, 1958) are a team of American film and music video directors who received critical acclaim for their feature film directorial debut, ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006). Later the ...

. The music video contains a mixture of animation and live performance footage. Although it was expected to be released in January 1999, it was pushed back to February 1999. The video starts with an animated segment directed by McFarlane, where the children (including a cameo appearance of Korn as some of the children) playing hopscotch on a cliff the artist drew for the ''Follow the Leader'' cover are interrupted by a policeman. An accidentally-fired bullet from the policeman's gun breaks out of the animated world into the real world and wreaks much property damage while narrowly avoiding hitting people. The bullet then enters a Korn poster exactly at the break in the middle of the song and flies around the band members before Jonathan Davis shouts "go!", signaling the end of the break, to send the bullet back the way it came until it returns to the animated world. Once back in the animated world, the girl in red (also from the album cover) catches the bullet and gives it to the policeman. The policeman stares at his hands bewildered as the camera then focuses on the loose "No Trespassing" sign; which then leads up to the follow-up video for "

Falling Away from Me "Falling Away from Me" is a song by American band Korn. It was released as the first single from their fourth album '' Issues'', debuting in an episode of Comedy Central's animated series '' South Park'', entitled "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost My ...

" featured on the band's then next album ''Issues''. The directory work was described as combining "special effects and clever camera moves in the live action portion of the video."(1999-02-04
"Korn "Freak" Video To Debut On Friday"
MTV. Retrieved 2010-06-28 The video won awards for Best Editing and

Best Rock Video The MTV Video Music Award for Best Rock was first given out in , one of the four original genre categories added to the VMAs that year. In its first year, the award was called Best Heavy Metal Video, and from 1990 to 1995, it was renamed Best Meta ...

at the

1999 MTV Video Music Awards The 1999 MTV Video Music Awards (stylized as 9999 MTV Video Music Awards) aired live on September 9, 1999, honoring the best music videos from June 13, 1998, to June 11, 1999. The show was hosted by Chris Rock at the Metropolitan Opera House in N ...

,''Billboard''. March 11, 2000. p. 7''Billboard''. Mar 11, 2000. p. 79 and later received the

Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video The Grammy Award for Best Music Video is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality short form music videos. Hon ...

in 2000. It became the ninth video that was retired from ''Total Request Live'' on May 11, 1999. The music video was also featured on ''

Deuce Deuce, Deuces, or The Deuce may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Deuce, in the ''Danger Girl'' comic book series * Deuce, a character in ''Shake It Up'' * Deuce, in the ''Wild Cards'' science fiction universe * Deuce Biga ...

''. As of December 3, 2022 the song has over 255 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

Reception

David Lloyd said it was Korn's most popular song, and on July 8, 1999, the song was the ninth most-infringed song on the Internet.

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

said that "Wright and Thompson bring a brighter, sharper sheen to Korn's sound, which helped make huge hits out of 'Freak on a Leash'." Allmusic editor highlighted the song. David Fricke described: "caged-animal babble (the Busta Rhymes-in-Bellevue outburst in "Freak on a Leash")..." Yahoo Music! concluded that Davis delves into his own personal demons, in this song present. It was rated the sixth-top single of 1999 by ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

''. It reached number six on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Modern Rock Tracks chart and number ten on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, and was successful on the

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...

charting number 89. It was also immensely popular in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

where the single was certified

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

for shipments in excess of 35,000 units. The song appeared on VH1's list of the "40 Greatest Metal Songs" at number twenty-three. The music video debuted at number eight on MTV's ''Total Request Live'' on February 9, 1999, and peaking at number 1 on its thirteenth day, February 25. and spent ten non-consecutive days at the top position until its "

retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

", on May 11, 1999. It won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video and the 1999

Metal Edge ''Metal Edge'' was a magazine covering heavy metal music published by Zenbu Media. The magazine was founded in the summer of 1985, during the height of glam metal's success. Zenbu Media acquired ''Metal Edge'' in February 2007. Both ''Metal Edge ...

Readers' Choice Award for "Music Video of the Year". It was also nominated for nine 1999 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Direction. It won two, Best Rock Video and Best Editing. The song made VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the 90s" list at number sixty-nine, and VH1's "100 Greatest Hard Rock Songs" at number forty-eight. In 2017, ''Spin'' ranked it as number one on their list of the 30 greatest nu metal songs of all time. In 2019, ''

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August of 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive ...

'' ranked the song number one on their list of the 50 greatest Korn songs, and in 2021, ''

Kerrang ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one-off ...

'' ranked the song number four on their list of the 20 greatest Korn songs. Freak on a Leash won five awards and was nominated fifteen times. The song won two MTV Music Awards, one Billboard Music Award, one Grammy Award, and one Metals' Edge Readers Choice Award. The song also debuted in 13 countries worldwide, and topped three Modern Rock Radio Station charts, and one Mainstream Rock Radio Station chart in 1999.

Accolades

Digital Dream Door

* "100 Greatest Songs From 1998" - No. 9

Spinditty

* "100 Greatest Rock Songs of the 90's" - No. 42

Billboard Music Awards

!Ref. , - , rowspan=2, 1999 , rowspan=2, "Freak on a Leash" , Best Hard Rock Clip , , rowspan=1, , - , Best Modern Rock Clip , ,

Grammy Awards

The

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

s are awarded annually by the

National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American Learned society, learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous f ...

. Freak on a Leash has received one award from two nominations. , - , rowspan="2", , , rowspan="2", "

Freak on a Leash "Freak on a Leash" is a song by the American nu metal band Korn, featured on the group's 1998 studio album, ''Follow the Leader (Korn album), Follow the Leader''. After ''Follow the Leader''s release, the song was released as a single on February ...

" , ,

Best Hard Rock Performance The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards until 2011. The academy recognized hard rock music artists for the first time at the 31st Grammy Awards (1989). The category was ori ...

, , , - ,

Best Short Form Music Video The Grammy Award for Best Music Video is an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to performers, directors, and producers of quality short form music videos. Hon ...

, , , -

Metals Edge Readers' Choice Awards

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MTV Video Music Awards

, - , rowspan="9", , , rowspan="9", "Freak on a Leash" , , Best Rock Video , , , - , Breakthrough Video , , , - , Best Direction , , , - , Best Special Effects , , , - , Best Art Direction , , , - , Best Editing , , , - , Best Cinematography , , , - , Viewer's Choice , , , - , Video of the Year , , , -

MuchMusic Video Awards

The

MuchMusic Video Awards The iHeartRadio MMVAs were an annual awards show broadcast on Much to honour the year's best music videos that was last held in 2018. Originally debuting in 1990 as the Canadian Music Video Awards, the awards were renamed in 1995 to the MuchMu ...

is an annual awards ceremony presented by the Canadian music video channel

MuchMusic Much (an abbreviation for its full name MuchMusic) is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. MuchMusic launched on August 31 ...

. Freak on a Leash has one nomination. , - , 1999 , , "Freak on a Leash" , , Best International Video , , , -

Appearances in media

In early February 1999, "Freak on a Leash" was used in a Puma television advertisement that debuted during the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

pre-game show A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger fixt ...

, featuring Korn's live performance interspersed with

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American inactive professional tennis player. Considered among the greatest tennis players of all time, she was ranked world No. 1 in singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for ...

and

Vince Carter Vincent Lamar Carter Jr. (born January 26, 1977) is an American former professional basketball player who serves as a basketball analyst for ESPN. He primarily played the shooting guard and small forward positions, but occasionally played Powe ...

competing in their respective sports. The song was briefly played in a 2007 episode of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...

'' titled "

Stop! Or My Dog Will Shoot "Stop, or My Dog Will Shoot!" is the twentieth episode of the The Simpsons (season 18), eighteenth season of the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. It first aired on the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network in the United State ...

", while the family pet

Santa's Little Helper Santa's Little Helper is a fictional dog in the American animated television series ''The Simpsons''. He is the pet greyhound of the Simpson family. He was previously voiced by Frank Welker, and is currently voiced by Dan Castellaneta. The dog ...

is looking for

Homer Simpson Homer Jay Simpson is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the American animated sitcom ''The Simpsons''. He is voiced by Dan Castellaneta and first appeared, along with the rest of his family, in ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' short "G ...

in a corn maze. In 2008, the song has been featured in the video game ''

Guitar Hero World Tour ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' (initially referred to as ''Guitar Hero IV'' or ''Guitar Hero IV: World Tour'') is a music rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the ''Guitar Hero'' ...

''.(2008-10-02
" 'Guitar Hero World Tour' Trailer Featuring Zakk Wylde Available"
. Blabbermouth.net. Retrieved 2010-06-30

Formats and track listings

;European single #1 ;US single #1 ;UK single #1 ;Swedish single #1 ;Australian single #1 ;European single #2 ;Mexican single ;US single #2 ;UK single #2 ;UK single #3 ;UK single #4 ;Australian single #2

Chart performance

Charts

Weekly charts

;MTV Unplugged rendition ft. Amy Lee

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Bibliography

* {{authority control Korn songs 1999 singles Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video Animated music videos Music videos directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris Immortal Records singles Epic Records singles 1998 songs Songs written by Jonathan Davis Songs written by James Shaffer Songs written by Reginald Arvizu Songs written by Brian Welch Songs written by David Silveria Songs about BDSM Amy Lee songs