(S1, E20) Happy Birthday, Hybrid Theory!

Pop Culture Boner has reached 20 episodes! Very silly! We thought what better way to celebrate out 20th episode than to look at something that’s also experiencing a 20th anniversary - Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. How does this angsty masterpiece hold up 20 years later? Does it still bang? And perhaps most importantly, is it Nu Metal? Alright, we do spend a lot of time talking about Nu Metal. We promise this will be the podcast’s only Nu Metal episode.

As a quick note: this episode does feature a brief mention of suicide. You can avoid it by skipping from 17:45 to approximately 18:25. If you or anyone you know needs help or support, you can contact:

• Lifeline on 13 11 14

• Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467

• Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636

Check out below for some references:

• Metal Evolution - Nu Metal (2012)

• Punk Rock MBA (2019) - What killed Nu Metal? Korn, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit

• Gabriel Szatan (Pitchfork, 2020) - Linkin Park: Hybrid Theory (20th Anniversary Edition)

• Lucy Jones (2013) - 10 Reasons Why Nu-Metal Was The Worst Genre Of All Time

• Linkin Park (2000) - In The End

• Linkin Park (2000) - Crawling

• Korn (1994) - Clown

• Korn (1998) - Freak On A Leash

• Slipknot (1999) - Spit It Out

We also made a Nu Metal playlist you can listen to here.

You can download a full transcript here.