Hater
by Korn

Album: The Paradigm Shift (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Recorded in part in Bakersfield, California with The Paradigm Shift producer Don Gilmore, this song didn't make the final cut, but was included on the expanded edition of the album, which was released in 2014.
  • Korn frontman Jonathan Davis explained the song's meaning to Billboard magazine: "In the world, everyone has haters," he said. "Everyone has someone who hates on you 'cause you have something they want. It's really, like, the first empowering song I've ever written."

    "The lyrics are: 'You can't bring me down. I've already had my life turned upside down. I ride a downward spiral round and round. But I keep flying, I keep fighting. Don't ever bring me down.' That's like the most positive s--t I've ever written," he added. "And everyone who's heard it loves it, and I think it's going to give people who get down on people picking on them and hating them, like, 'F--k this! I don't give a f--k what you think. I don't give a f--k what you say. You just f---in' are a hater.' I think people will relate with that."
  • The song was put together via long distance. "I did it here at home in Bakersfield, at our studio that we have, with Don Gilmore," Jonathan Davis told The Pulse of Radio. "He came in and me and him just got in there and when it was done, I sent it to [guitarists] Munky and Head and they did their guitar stuff on it, and Fieldy put his bass tracks and Ray [Luzier] played drums and it was done. And it's really good."
  • The song's live video was shot at concerts all over the world with much of the footage coming from shows in Moscow, Texas and Switzerland. "In the past year we've done over 75 shows in 21 countries," said the band. "We wanted to share the experience with all the fans who couldn't make it, so we took all of this footage we had from these shows and put it all together. The great crowds of Korn fans everywhere is what makes it special for us."
  • A second conceptual video was released around the same time. Directed by Yarvo Productions it centers on the stories of fans being bullied along with scenes of models cutting themselves. "Almost everyone has felt bullied, pressured and beat down in their life by their haters," explained Jonathan Davis. "This video helps give a public voice to some of the challenges real people have faced and reminds us all that self-harm and suicide are not the answer."

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