Sonic Subcultures Episode 1 - Limp Bizkit’s Significant Other and the Nu Metal Resurgence

In July 2021 - amidst a seemingly endless barrage of pandemic misinformation and American political turmoil - an unexpected topic began trending on Twitter: Limp Bizkit. Twenty-two years after their first Billboard number one album Significant Other, the flagship act for turn-of-the-millennium disgruntled youth returned with surprising fanfare and cultural relevance. After nearly two decades of popular media obscurity, Limp Bizkit was the standout act of Lollapalooza 2021, one of the most popular music festivals in the United States. Band frontman Fred Durst, wearing a grey wig accompanied by a dusty handlebar mustache and pink-shaded aviator glasses, refers to himself as ‘Dad’ as the crowd goes wild. Durst’s presentation alongside the energetic crowd transforms what might otherwise be a flaccid nostalgia act into something surprisingly self-aware and curiously resonant for a young modern audience.

How did we get here? How did a genre as maligned as nu metal reenter the cultural moment? Sonic Subcultures Season One looks at nine nu metal records to understand what nu metal even meant in the first place, and how the genre has found renewed cultural relevance.