D major · Camelot 10B · 103 BPM
Freak on a Leash
by Korn
- 103
- BPM
- D major
- Key
- 10B
- Camelot
- 36
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
Korn wrote "Freak on a Leash" in 1997 and recorded it in May 1998 at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood, California. The original composition contained a noisy guitar break in the middle, which the band called "the Biohazard part." After learning that radio stations were not fond of noisy guitar breaks, the group voted 4–1 to remove it, with vocalist Jonathan Davis the lone holdout.
Guitarist Brian "Head" Welch said the song was about Davis being a freak on a leash, describing it as a sort of kinky dominatrix thing. Davis offered a different reading, confirming in a track-by-track breakdown that the song rails out against the music industry, saying he felt like a prostitute. Leah Furman wrote that the song revolved around the mixed blessings of fame. The track appeared on Korn's 1998 album Follow the Leader, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200.
Released as a single in February 1999, "Freak on a Leash" peaked at number six on the Alternative Songs chart, number ten on the Mainstream Rock Songs chart, and number 24 on the UK Singles Chart. The song's music video, directed by Todd McFarlane, mixed animation with live performance footage and won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 2000. At the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards, it took home prizes for Best Rock Video and Best Editing after being nominated nine times.
Freak on a Leash runs at 103 BPM, the tempo of mid-tempo pop, dancehall and indie. In classical terms it sits in andante territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 2.33 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 583 ms. It is in D major, Camelot 10B, which shares its notes with B minor and mixes cleanly with G major and A major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.