Released only a few weeks after Radiohead’s Kid A, the topic of last week’s episode, Linkin Park’s debut studio album Hybrid Theory turns 20 this month. It featured four major singles (“One Step Closer,” “In the End,” “Crawling,” and “Papercut”) and has sold 27 million albums worldwide since its release, making it the best-selling debut album since Guns N’ Roses’ 1987 debut Appetite for Destruction, and the single best-selling rock album of the 21st century.
The record’s success marked a transition moment to the mainstream for a type of rock music that was pioneered by bands like Korn and Deftones. With the emergence of nu metal came a through line that Linkin Park was able to capitalize on, one that continues today with Machine Gun Kelly’s new album Tickets To My Downfall, which is currently sitting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. On the new episode of Indiecast, Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen trace the lasting influence of nu metal and big, fun chart-topping rock music.
In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Cohen is singing the praises of Floral Prince, the latest album from Field Medic, while Hyden is hyping “The Shining But Tropical,” a beautiful new single from Wild Pink that previews their upcoming album.
New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 11 below and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. Stay up to date and follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.