Genres cycling in and out isn't anything new, and that includes the recent rebirth of nü-metal. Plenty of younger bands are incorporating the bounce riff into their music, and with rap being arguably more popular than it's ever been before, it's not shocking that nü-metal has come back around.
In a recent appearance on Kerrang! Radio, Linkin Park multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda said the genre's rebirth is exciting and not at all shocking. Shinoda also said he feels genres have far less boundaries than they used to, which is definitely true.
"Honestly, I've lived through I don't even know how many iterations of, 'This thing being dead, and that thing being corny…' And that comes back around. Nu-metal went from the biggest thing on the planet to the corniest thing on the planet to the coolest thing again.
"This stuff is typical and we have a new generation of artists, not just rappers, but artists in general who are infusing lots of rock and other styles into their music. It's exciting – I don't hate them for that.
"From Ian to 24KGoldn, and Kid LAROI, and even Post Malone! Post is a rockstar, Post is a singer, guitar player, and people think of him as a rapper because he presents himself that way sometimes, but music is just music. I'm not stuck on any of that genre garbage.
"We, the band, were called the Hybrid Theory before the album, and we played a role in it – none of us tried to claim that we broke the boundaries between genres, but we played a role in breaking boundaries between genres. Some of the new generation don't even know the way things were before bands like us, and then how albums like Hybrid Theory and so on changed the way people looked at music.
"They were born after that, and they were born into the things that they are, the mixed genres. 'Hey, what’s your favorite type of music?' 'Oh, whatever.' When I was a kid – when somebody said, 'What's your favorite type of music?', you had an answer. It was rap, it was metal, it was a specific kind of metal, and that was it.
"'Do you listen to this?' 'No, fuck those things.' It would be that serious. And now people don't even think about it. I heard Led Zeppelin because Beastie Boys sampled them.
"My first concert was Public Enemy with Anthrax and Primus. Those guys were paving the way for what was teaching me about blending genres. Rage had just come out! It was crazy."
Check out the full interview below.
[via Ultimate Guitar]
