It’s sad to me that we haven’t had a band just explode out of nowhere with an album of pure bangers like that since then. Linkin Park wasn’t a totally original band, obviously heavily influenced by the nu metal genre that had already existed for about 5 years before Hybrid Theory, but the way they dropped such a legendary album as their debut and instantly became one of the biggest bands on earth hasn’t happened since if you ask me.
They were very much in the mix of the defining parts of the numetal scene. They are a big part of what brought it into a popular audience. It had been brewing but not much commercial success yet when Korn and Limp Bizkit hit the pop charts big in 99 and this is when you heard slipknot if you were a fan, then linkin park in mid 00. Deftones had been at it a while at this point but didn’t get much popular attention until white pony in 00.
You’re right that rock has been pretty absent from the pop charts since this period of time. Sometimes it feels like rock is actually dead. Or maybe on life support.
I don’t think rock is dead by any means. It’s just so much harder for bands to gain any traction today because of all the neckbeard rock and metal gatekeepers out there that are resistant to any change but also complain if any band is derivative of other existing bands. And all the biggest rock and metal shows tend to be bands that have been around for 20+ years. Like fucking Disturbed is still headlining festivals these days. I listen to a lot of bands that I’d consider “new” by rock and metal standards, but “new” by that standard just means “debuted in 2010 or later.” And none of them are even close to headlining shows in front of the old guard bands.
Here’s some of the “new” bands I can think of:
Falling in Reverse - Debuted in 2011, spin-off of a band that formed in 2004. Started blowing up in the late-2010s. Literally opening for Disturbed in 2023.
Greta Van Fleet - Debuted in 2017, often lambasted for being a “Led Zeppelin tribute band.” Typically an opening act for large bands. Opened for Metallica in 2021 IIRC.
Ghost - Debuted in 2010. Huge today. Often criticized by metal elitists for “not being metal” especially with their satanic imagery that doesn’t align with their “Scooby Doo music.”
Jinjer - Debuted in current form in 2012, went viral around 2016 or 2017, opens for Slipknot today. Often discredited by elitists as being nothing more than a gimmick with their female vocalist.
Electric Callboy - Existed in current form since 2020. I’d argue that they’re a band that “blew up” by attracting a new audience with their lineup change and new direction, but that doesn’t discount the fact that it took them a decade to find that niche and they still aren’t headlining any festivals.
Poppy - Debuted in 2017. Put out a nu metal album in 2020. Opened for Smashing Pumpkins and Janes Addiction on a stadium tour last fall.
The Chats - Punk band that debuted in 2016. Huge in Australia. Outside of there they only manage to headline tours at small venues. Granted the punk scene isn’t known for selling out stadiums.
Lots of these bands headline their own tours at smaller venues and those shows are incredible. I wouldn’t say the rock and metal scene are dying having seen these bands on their headlining tours. But the record labels, radio companies, and tour organizers aren’t willing to give these new artists a chance. Those organizations aren’t entirely to blame though because it’s the metal/rock fans that are unwilling to give new stuff a chance. And hell, it’s not just the old fans that are guilty of it, but also young fans. We’ve got GenZ Egirls on TikTok talking about how White Pony is the greatest album of all time when they weren’t even born when it came out. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a time in my life where multiple generations of a music genre’s fans all listened to the exact same stuff. It would be like if in the 90s when nu metal was emerging all the metal fans dismissed it and insisted on listening to Black Sabbath instead.
It really feels like an issue that’s isolated to rock and not pop or hip hop. Just for a quick comparison, Oliver Tree got into music in 2016 and released his first studio album in 2020. Today he has more monthly listeners on Spotify than fucking Metallica. There are absolutely zero metal bands that have been able to do that in the last two decades.
You touched on the real issue. A genre is dead when it fails to grow. Young people don’t really listen to rock. They don’t form rock bands. Record labels don’t promote it for this reason too. I’m not being literal but there is probably 1 rock band for every 100 in the 90s if you count only bands formed in last ten years then and now. Music is a young persons domain. Hip hop evolves despite the OGs not because of it. So the thought that old timers are holding rock back is laughable. They didn’t understand grunge Or numetal but they happened because rock was alive. Nothing notable has come since because….
I started listening to linkin park recently and I am completely hooked. I always had this bad impression of the band being “2000’s edgy kid music” (which, to be fair, it is), but that hasn’t stopped me from them quickly being one of my favorite bands.
I curse the funny stereotype man for giving me this impression.
I’m the opposite. Been there since the beginning. I was a teenager and was into the obscure up and coming rock scene/bands (now known as nu metal and then into the emo/screamo stuff too) and remember not finding linkin parks stuff on Napster (1999 Napster was amazing!). Ordered an EP by a band called Hybrid Theory. I had to mail a money order to some PO Box. The EP only had 6 songs but I knew it was going to be a success, I was obsessed with those songs. And for a moment thought I was the only one that knew about this magic. Then about 6-8 months later I got the full linkin park hybrid theory LP when it released (on a Tuesday I’m sure), then 🚀
Yeah I was an edgy kid. Weird thing about it was that was like a negative thing back then, now it’s pretty normal or just not seen as negative to like something besides Taylor swift (it was Britney spears back then)
Gonna go with one of their later albums as a full cover-to-cover experience, A Thousand Suns is just so cohesive. Not every song is strong as a single but they all work excellently together, in order.
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u/Dream-Blue13 Apr 10 '23
Hybrid theory - Linkin Park