Chris Weingarten has a good post at Rolling Stone today headlined with a question few dare ask: “Is the Rock World Ready for the Return of Limp Bizkit?”
As a good journalist, he lays out the evidence and talks to the experts about the Bizkit’s imminent return:
It’s no industry secret that the landscape has changed in the eight years since this lineup was actively touring and releasing records. Heavy music comes with eyeliner instead of fitted caps, rap-rock bands like Linkin Park have traded beats for ballads, and Fred Durst is best remembered for his macho posturing and public tantrums instead of a lasting music legacy. So will a reanimated Limp Bizkit work in the year 2009?
[...]
“We played all Limp Bizkit,” says Danni, assistant program director and music director for New York active rock station 92.3 KRock. “We had huge ratings. It was all about Limp Bizkit. And then there was sort of a shift and people stopped caring and stopped wanting to hear about the angry side of things. Nowadays, with people losing their jobs right and left, I feel like it’s more of a banding together. Even the stuff from the ’90s, like some of the Pearl Jam stuff, that angst-ridden stuff, just doesn’t really work as much… I think there’s more of a positive spin on things with the new president and people trying to be positive about the economy.”
Danni lost me somewhere in there, but his sincerity is touching. There are more choice quotes throughout, leading up to this closing thought, again from Danni:
“I liken them to Creed in a way because people want to hate them, but they don’t. They don’t really hate them. Everybody owns those albums, everybody loves ‘Nookie.’ If they go out and tour, as long as their ticket prices are reasonable, I think they’ll be fully welcomed back.”
I’m going to have to go ahead and disagree with you there, Danni, on several points. Not everyone owns those albums, nor loves “Nookie.” I also think people succeed in their desire to hate Limp Bizkit, and the kitsch cycle hasn’t yet come around. In addition, even if their ticket prices are reasonable, I think they may face many, many obstacles to success.
2 comments:
OOOOOoooh, this pisses me off. That 92.3 schmuck has no weather vane for pop culture or politics at all. People stopped listening to Limp Bizkit not because they weren't angry anymore, but because there were better musicians out there with more intelligent songs expressing a more authentic brand of anger against a president who's the same kind of frat boy idiot Durst is. What-- nobody's been doing protest songs for the last 8 years???
And kids are still complaining about the nookie too, it's just called "emo" now.
Ouch!
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