Significantly Othered: Limp Bizkit and the Politics of Nu Metal “Otherness”

ABSTRACT

In this article, I explore how nu metal was problematically situated as an “Other” in response to heavy metal’s supposed crisis of identity at the turn of the millennium. Using Limp Bizkit as a central case study, I consider how the fragmented state of metal and market growth of hip hop in the mid 1990s provided the preconditions for nu metal to flourish commercially; how Limp Bizkit were marketed in response to this growth; and finally, how their reception, demise, and eventual reprisal are caught up within heavy metal’s anxieties over generic purity and the racialized terrain of the music of “Others.”

KEYWORDS:

• nu metal
• 1990s
• rock music
• whiteness
• masculinity
• hip hop

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful and generous feedback on this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For example, Korn’s albums Follow the Leader (1998) and Issues (1999) both reached number 1 in the Billboard charts and were certified 5× and 3× platinum, respectively, in the U.S.A.; Limp Bizkit’s Significant Other (1999) also reached number 1 and was certified 7× platinum.

2. I note here that whilst much of the discourse surrounding nu metal is framed through whiteness and masculinity, nu metal did potentially offer a modicum more visibility for people of color and women within mainstream metal scenes. Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda thus argues that nu metal’s nascent years were a “very diverse place” compared to the whiteness of its commercial predecessors (Bruce).