Get Up!
agitated, self-lacerating, explosive
This track, notably a collaboration with Skrillex, runs on Korn's familiar machinery of self-disgust and psychic fragmentation, but channels it through a dubstep-inflected drop that turns the chorus into a literal command to physically snap out of paralysis. It's less a song with a narrative arc than a repeated collision between confession and compulsion, mirrored by the push-pull of the production itself.
self-fragmentation compulsive pain/pleasure paralysis and avoidance aggression as catharsis shame and memory
Who's speaking
A first-person narrator addressing an unnamed 'you' who seems to be both a source of harm and a stand-in for the self being punished; the voice is unstable and not fully reliable, oscillating between confession and command.
What happens
The song doesn't progress so much as cycle: it opens with an admission of being shattered, moves into descriptions of an itching, uncontrollable urge, stalls in a verse about being stuck and unable to set boundaries, and then erupts into a barked directive to rise. The bridge introduces a brief image of hiding and being haunted by the past before the cycle repeats, suggesting the 'getting up' never actually resolves anything.
How it's built
Built on tight verse-prechorus-chorus repetition rather than development; the hook functions almost as a drop in electronic music terms, with the vocal command landing right where a bass drop would. The lack of a bridge until late, and the return to the same chorus with added lyrical detail the second time through, reinforces a loop rather than a journey.
Section by section
Opening verse
The narrator announces damage and an inability to fit into expected shapes, then pivots to inflicting that same brokenness onto someone else, framing harm as something passed along rather than contained.ponsors
Pre-chorus ('itching' section)
“Itching is the pulse inside”
The urge driving the song is described as a kind of bodily restlessness that doesn't need justification; it simply demands expression, setting up the chorus as its inevitable release valve.
First chorus
The shift from sung complaint to shouted command marks the song's central device: self-directed aggression dressed as motivation, blurring whether the narrator is telling themselves or someone else to stop wallowing and move.
Second verse
“I can't wait to rip my eyes”
The violent self-image intensifies the self-punishing tone, while the following line about finding peace through pain delivered by another suggests a masochistic dynamic layered onto the self-hatred already established.
Bridge
“hiding in this empty space”
This is the one moment of stillness in the song, a brief admission of retreat and haunting by the past, which makes the subsequent chorus feel less like triumph and more like forced momentum covering unresolved pain.
Craft
- personification
- The internal urge or 'itch' is described as having its own will and momentum, as if it acts independently of the narrator, externalizing compulsion as something almost parasitic.
- paradox
- The pairing of pain and peace suggests the narrator finds relief through suffering, collapsing opposites in a way that reflects a genuinely contradictory emotional state rather than simple metaphor.
- repetition/mantra
- The blunt chorus command is repeated like an incantation, function more as a jolt of energy than a statement with nuance, pushing the song's catharsis through sheer insistence rather than imagery.
- imagery of brokenness
- Early language about puzzle pieces and physical self-harm (imagining tearing out one's own eyes) renders psychological damage in visceral, bodily terms.
Reading it
The most persuasive reading treats this as a song about the gap between wanting to heal and the mechanics of simply forcing yourself through a day you can't fully face — the chorus's command isn't wisdom, it's a desperate, almost violent self-coaching that papers over the stasis described in the verses. An alternative reading hears the 'you' as an abuser or ex-partner, making the chorus an act of rejection rather than self-address, with the narrator telling someone else to be quiet and leave; the lyric is ambiguous enough to support both.
Context
This song appears on Korn's 2011 album 'The Path of Totality,' a project built around collaborations with electronic/dubstep producers (this track features Skrillex), which explains the drop-style arrangement of the chorus. That era of Korn was explicitly experimenting with bass-music production layered under their usual nu-metal aggression and confessional lyrical style, a hybrid that was divisive among longtime fans.
Listen for
- How the shouted chorus functions almost like a bass drop, syncing lyrical aggression with the track's electronic production
- The tonal shift between the more melodic, confessional verses and the blunt, percussive chorus
- Repetition of the 'itching'/pulse imagery as a way of externalizing compulsive urges
- The brief quieter bridge section and how it changes the emotional weight of the final choruses
- Whether the 'you' being addressed shifts across the song, altering who the aggression is aimed at
About Korn
Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, originally formed in 1993 by James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and David Silveria, who were members of the band L.A.P.D. Their current lineup features Shaffer (guitar), Brian "Head" Welch (guitar), Jonathan Davis (vocals), and Ray Luzier (drums), the last of whom replaced Silveria in 2007.
1993 - present / United States
Full biography and catalogue