The term "nu metal" was first used for a review of a mid-October 1995 Coal Chamber concert in Spin magazine in the form "new metal".

Like the bands of its antecedent, funk metal, many nu metal bands came from California (such as Korn, Deftones and P.O.D.).

Nu metal initially began with Korn's demo-tape, Neidermeyer's Mind, released in 1993. Korn's signature sound came from an attempt to emulate chords used by Mr. Bungle's guitar player Trey Spruance, which they referred to as "the moveable Bungle chord". They have also cited Mike Patton's other band Faith No More in Kerrang!'s The Greatest Videos of All Time in 2006, saying that Korn was influenced by them because they did something unusual with a metal band. Nu metal bands also often state more conventional metal acts as an influence, particularly Black Sabbath.

Producer Ross Robinson was labelled by some as "The Godfather of nu metal" due to his producing of successful nu metal albums, such as Korn's first album.

Nu metal's mainstream popularity came in 1998 with the success of Korn's third album Follow the Leader, which sold 9 million copies worldwide. The following year many bands began receiving airplay and were in heavy rotation on MTV. Bands whose albums became hits that year included Deftones, Coal Chamber, Limp Bizkit and Staind.

Many of the bands that formed the first wave of nu metal came out of the Los Angeles scene, many playing the same venues and all knowing of each other. That scene included Static-X, Coal Chamber and Spineshank. There were other bands from outside of L.A, such as Des Moines's Slipknot, Atlanta's Sevendust, Jacksonville's Limp Bizkit, Chicago's Disturbed, Phoenix's Soulfly and Lawrence Massachusetts' Godsmack.

Another contribution to nu metal's popularity was festival tours such as Family Values Tour, Lollapalooza and Ozzfest. The 30th anniversary of Woodstock also featured nu metal bands.

Through the turn of the century, more bands broke out like Papa Roach whose major label debut Infest became a platinum hit. Other bands like P.O.D. and Disturbed also had mainstream success. By 2001, nu metal reached its peak as record labels signed many nu metal bands. Though new bands were breaking out, established bands who helped start the genre had successful hit albums like Staind's Break the Cycle, P.O.D.'s Satellite, Slipknot's Iowa and Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory, which was the year's top selling album.

By 2002, signs that nu metal's mainstream popularity was dying down were apparent. Korn's long awaited fifth album Untouchables and Papa Roach's third album Lovehatetragedy did not sell as well as their previous albums. Nu metal bands became less played on rock radio stations and MTV began focusing more on pop punk/emo bands. Since then, some bands have changed their sound to hard rock or heavy metal.

Nu-metal kids dress similarly to most metalheads, but in darker colors with clear goth and hip hop influences. Band shirts, converses, skulls, and a lot of black and red are common.

Info from wikipedia, last paragraph by me, image from deviantart.