sign in sign up
<<
Home , Beatboxing, Fred Durst, Hybrid Theory, Limp Bizkit, Rapping, Rap rock

Epsiode 20: Happy Birthday, !

So, we’ve hit another milestone. I’ve rated for 15+ before like 6am, when it made 20 episodes of this podcast – which becomes a Top 50 countdown. When I was is frankly very silly – and I was trying younger, it was the quickest way to find to think about what I could write about new , and potentially accidentally to reflect such a momentous occasion. see something that would really scar I was trying to think of something that you, music-video . Like that time I was released in the year 2000 and accidentally saw ’s Come to was, as such, experiencing a similarly Daddy music video. momentous 20th anniversary. The answer is, unsurprisingly, a lot of things But because I was tiny and my brain – Gladiator, Bring It On and American was a sponge, it turns out a lot of what Psycho all came out in the year 2000. But I consumed has actually just oozed into I wasn’t allowed to watch any of those every recess of my being, to the point things until I was in high school, and they where One Step Closer came on and I didn’t really spur me to action. immediately sang all the words like I was in some sort of trance. And I haven’t done And then I sent a rambling voice memo a musical episode for a while. So, today, to Wes, who you may remember from we’re talking , baby! Hell yeah! such hits as “making this podcast sound any good” and “writing the theme tune I’m Alex. This is Pop Culture Boner, the for this podcast”, explaining the idea of podcast edition, and today, I’m thinking 20th anniversaries or something, and about ’s Hybrid Theory. they went me a text message back that just said, “Linkin Park, Hybrid Theory”. Ok, the intro to this is a little bit Now, because I struggle with time as a misleading… again. The ol’ bait and concept, I immediately had to double switch. It’s how I keep you coming back check that Linkin Park’s seminal for more. Anyway, you might remember was, in fact, 20 years old. It is. me saying at some point that I’m not particularly good at music. That hasn’t My second thought was, “I dunno if I changed. I like things I like, even if they’re actually know that many Linkin Park objectively bad, I will write essays to .” I was incorrect. One thing I defend those bad things (welcome to the was allowed to do as a youth, for some podcast) and I don’t really understand reason, was wake up at 3am and watch the kind of territorial pissings that come Rage for hours at a time. For the very with dedicating your life to one . tiny percentage of foreigners listening, Which is why, despite my introductory Rage is an all-night music video show enthusiasm re: discussing Nu Metal, I was that airs on the public broadcaster that’s actually a little bit surprised to discover that people consider Linkin Park to be a watched on Nu Metal in the last two Nu Metal . Despite the turntables days) also mentions that down-tuned and the / screaming combo, it seven string guitars are a hallmark of the hadn’t occurred to me that they would genre – this means nothing to me, but technically fall under that genre. perhaps one of you is musical and this is a revelatory moment… I don’t know. It And then, the more I was talking to other also says that the genre rarely features people I knew who were a couple of years any display of technical competence. It’s younger than me and didn’t obsessively referring to guitar solos, but like… same, watch music videos for 8 hours a day on ya know? Anyway, sound-wise, it’s a lot their weekend, the more I realised that of heavy riffs that kind of reverberate Nu Metal was such an obscene blip on your rib and vocals that seem to the pop cultural radar, that anyone who lean toward a kind of hip-hop style. didn’t immediately express loathing for Sometimes one guy has turntables. A its very existence actually didn’t even surprising number of them have silly face really know what it was. One particular paint. Which doesn’t necessarily sound friend sent me a voice memo saying, “I like such a bad thing on paper, or like… know that New is spelled N U. Because I at least the stuff prior to the face paint… am cool… also I thought , was but in practice Nu Metal is perhaps one spelled biscuit… like a bicky… which I of the most reviled , to the point realise now is silly.” Which is hilarious that it is almost impossible to bring up but also made me a little bit concerned without having someone explain why it that this particular episode might be deserves to be wiped off the face of the even more of a scream into the void than earth. NME called it a skidmark on music usual. But then I remembered, it’s my history in a 2013 article titled 10 reasons podcast, and I can do what I want. why Nu Metal is the worst genre of all time. Lots of artists from cool-guy bands So, we’re gonna spend some time looking credited with kickstarting the whole thing at what Nu Metal is, why Nu Metal is, have given scathing interviews claiming and why, if the genre is so universally that this is not the case. reviled, Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory still bangs so hard 20 years later. Is it even So… why the hatred? Great question. I’ve Nu Metal at all? Do we even care? done a lot of reading, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t have a huge Alright, lets start with what Nu Metal is amount to do with the music itself, if I’m for the uninitiated. Like, I said, I’m not being totally honest. Because sonically, a music guy, so I’m just going to pull the there’s not actually anything really wrong definition from Wikipedia: “Nu metal with smushing metal with other genres, is a subgenre of that and especially not . Rap music combines elements of and together wasn’t even a with elements of other music genres little bit new in the early 00s, and in fact such as hip hop, , , as a combination had found quite a bit of industrial, and .” The intro (and popularity. and Run DMC had every single documentary piece I’ve released in 1986, which peaked at number 4 on the Billboard with the actual music itself in most cases, Hottest 100 and was actually the first hip what I mean is that I think a lot of the hop to chart at all in the UK. Hip hop hatred has to with this kind of, extremely artists had been yanking heavy samples macho, jock-ish energy that sprung up basically forever. Alternative metal around the scene. It went from being a bands had been experimenting with kind of insular playground for weird kids more groove-oriented riffs throughout doing heavy things with bass guitars and the late 80s and early 90s. turntables, to the biggest genre in the world, headed up by the worst guy you’ve This background already existed. And ever seen. I’m talking about Limp Bizkit then happened. Metalheads love and , obviously. You are just as a documentary about themselves. I’ve likely to remember Limp Bizkit from front watched so many of them over the last man Fred Durst’s shitty behaviour as you couple of days and I can’t tell you how are from their shitty music. But let me funny it is to watch a guy try and explain give you a little refresher. Musically, they succinctly how he accidentally invented leaned hard into the element, a genre to a guy who is extremely and had huge hits with songs like Break invested in the response. But lead- Stuff, Nookie and Rolling. Where Korn’s singer has to do that lyricism at least had a kind of intimate or like once a year for the rest of his life, personal element to it, Limp Bizkit’s was because Korn released their self-titled aimless, violent and stupid. Behaviour- debut album, which sounded completely wise, Limp Bizkit is embedded in the batshit and effectively birthed Nu Metal Australian cultural psyche as the band as a thing. While they don’t rap, to me, it who had a 16-year-old girl die in their almost seems to kind of take everything mosh pit at the , paused for including the guitar and the vocals as 8 minutes, then kept going. Or perhaps, like a weird percussive instrument. None you may remember their Woodstock 99 of the instruments are doing any of the performance a couple of years prior to the things that you really think they should Big Day Out, where Durst was accusing of be, and on top of that a lanky white guy inciting a riot while the festival burned to in an adidas tracksuit is flailing his arms the ground and a number of women were around like he’s been hit with 240 volts sexually assaulted. and whisper screaming about his feelings of isolation and rejection. Kids loved it. With this ugly legacy in mind, I think Korn and Jonathan Davis’ feelings are when people say that they hate Nu important because, on the one hand, Metal, what they’re often talking about the emotive that come with a lot of is the way that Limp Bizkit tapped into Korn’s early work lay the groundwork for this kind of aimlessly violent rage that what comes later with Linkin Park. But on kind of rattled around in white boys from the other hand, they’re responsible for the suburbs. And rather than letting it Limp Bizkit. And I mean that literally – collapse in on itself, channelled it, so they helped get Limp Bizkit signed to a it exploded outwards into this weird label. When I say that I I think people’s nightmare where a guy with a goatee and loathing of Nu Metal has very little to do a backwards baseball cap, dressed like an even worse version of was Now, when I’ve revisited these videos I suddenly on every TV channel trying to can see that they’re cheaply made using stir up shit and making weirdly defensive recycled concert footage, but as a very jokes about getting pussy. It was hugely small child they felt kind of forbidden – prevalent, and hugely of-putting, and probably because technically they were, I think it forms a huge part of people’s and that tension combined with the contemporary response to the genre. general uneasy feeling that the videos But, as quickly as it sprang up, Nu Metal were designed to create meant that I was gone again, existing only in the never committed to full enjoyment of a memories of rural kids who owned 7 Korn lot of Nu Metal acts in this vein. shirts, and music critics who periodically needed something to rag on. But I do remember the first time I saw Linkin Park’s video for . It was So, given that this is a 20th anniversary in daylight hours, for a start – I’d finished episode that’s supposed to be about breakfast and other people were up. And Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory – where do while it opened on a CGI monolith in the they actually fit in to all of this? Speaking middle of a barren wasteland, it was again as a child who watched a million using sci-fi and high fantasy aesthetics music videos, I think the best way to that I already loved (are you getting a kind of show how Linkin Park slotted picture of who I was as a 10 year old?). into the Nu Metal scene is to talk about It had whales flying through the air, and how I first encountered the genre at all. gargoyles springing to life, , I mentioned at the top of this episode the band hanging perilously close to the that I used to spend hours and hours edge of the ledge they were playing on. every weekend watching music videos on And the song was catchy – it had screamed Rage. Now, Rage had an extremely clear vocals sure, but in a way that felt cool divide between things that were rated to me – it was legible in a way that MA15+ - i.e. not for children and played Slipknot’s screaming, or Korn’s twisted at 4am – and things that were allowed muttering had never been. I understood to be played in the daylight hours, where it, and I didn’t feel threatened by it. tender young eyes might see them. But And I know in a genre that’s full of edgy I snuck out of bed early when I thought boundary pushing that saying that kind no one could hear me, and watched when of sounds like a knock, but I mean it in I wasn’t supposed to. Which meant that the most genuine way possible when I I saw things like videos for Slipknot’s say that and Mike Spit It Out video, which features every Shinoda just seemed like nice men with conceivable horror movie trope, made feelings. Chester had a lip ring and somehow worse by the fact that Slipknot flames tattooed on his wrists, but both insists on wearing scary clown masks of them sang directly down the camera, as their whole schtick. Or Korn’s video with none of the puffed-up or threatening for Clown, which isn’t so much scary as posturing that a lot of other rock bands filled with a vaguely threatening aura had. The public broadcaster had decided of violence that ends in a cheerleader that their video could appear uncensored stripping off to reveal a Korn back tattoo. before by tiny 10 year old eyes, next to things like NSYNC or the , light, wishing for a way to disappear. In and for my part I loved it. making themselves small, they became colossal.” I think there’s something This isn’t to say that they had no edge. significant in that. By tapping into Sound-wise, they do lean toward the the parts of themselves that were poppier elements of genre. Their songs uncomfortable and openly explaining are catchy, often more melodic, and their pain in a fairly straightforward with the kind of scream-along choruses way, they ended up resonating further that light up the stadiums they ended than they probably imagined possible. up playing. But at the same time, the Which brings me to the hardest portion of lyrical content is dark. Not in a stupid this podcast. In 2017, Linkin Park vocalist way like Limp Bizkit, where the core of Chester Bennington took his own life at the darkness is the oozing misogyny that the age of 41. Listening to Hybrid Theory you find if you drill into it even a tiny 20 years on is a nostalgic experience on bit. And not in the kind of graphically some levels, and on others, profoundly violent way a lot of other bands in the upsetting. The kind of raw honesty that he genre were. While Slipknot’s Corey approached their debut with, resonated Taylor was saying that he was going to throughout his entire career, in art, in fan slit someone’s throat and fuck the wound interactions and his community outreach. (an actual lyric from Disasterpiece, in The huge shock of his passing really case you were wondering), Bennington weighs heavily over the whole record on and Shinoda were talking about the relisten. substance abuse, depression and suicidal ideation, and not in an allegorical way, But in forcing myself to pay attention, or through grandiose threats of extreme it’s also really obvious that they have an violence. I think one of the reasons that influence that probably extends further Crawling has become such a meme with than most contemporary bands would like Gen Z in a post-irony era is that it is to admit. The combination of heaviness painstakingly earnest in a way that’s and a sort of tortured introspect laid a kind of uncomfortable. Like one of the pretty solid groundwork for a lot of the lines is, “The lack of self-control I fear is bands that would form the core of the never-ending, I can’t seem to find myself / explosion that came in the again.” Which is feels so personal, that mid-00s. And that’s the thing – I think it’s a little bit like reading someone’s good Nu Metal was actually pretty good. diary. Rather than screaming “I’m crazy Beyond Linkin Park, I still revisit some of and you don’t know what I’ll do!” they this stuff today. I still play the ’ leaned into a fear of becoming something once every 6 months, and they didn’t like. will probably do so forever. The early Korn records are weird, but they hold up I was reading a few of the articles about in a lot of places. Maybe not the Freak on the 20th Anniversary, and one of the Leash … or maybe definitely lines that stuck out to me in ’s the beatboxing depending on your review is, “They sang about being filled perspective. with tension, feeling betrayed by the Point is, I think some of the more excessive This episode premiered on 21st October elements of the scene have really tainted 2020. people’s ability to say anything positive about it. But fuck it. I’ve got no skin in Episode written by Alex Johnson and the game. I’ve never been cool. There produced by Wes Fahey. are bits of Nu Metal that are really good. Combining the bits that sound good from Theme tune by Wes Fahey. (Soundcloud: different genres has never been a musical lee snipes) crime – it’s why we’ve got so much genre bleed now. Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory Visit us: is a good thing that emerged from Nu Metal, and we should be able to say that Web: www.popcultureboner.com without adding qualifiers. It still bangs 20 years later. : @popcultureboner

Welp, that was the Nu Metal episode I Instagram: @popcultureboner never thought I’d write. But you learn something new about yourself every day, I guess. That’s ‘Nu’ spelled NU. Anyway. Happy 20th anniversary to Hybrid Theory. I’m not kidding when I say it still goes hard. I highly recommend gently setting aside all the pretences you’ve learned as an adult and just letting yourself enjoy it this October. And when you’ve done so, come find me at the pub. Peace.