When Did My Playlists Include So Much Linkin Park?

Before last year, I never would have pegged myself as a post-grunge, nu-metal fanatic, but since the rebirth of 2000s music and pop culture, I have found myself banging out a little too much to My Chemical Romance. Who knows where it started —the comeback of the scrunchie, the juicy sweat suit, or perhaps the dreaded transition to low-waisted jeans— but somehow since March 2020, the comeback of the 2000s has defined the Gen-Z generation, claiming it as an era of their own. 

I was a junior in high school when the pandemic hit, completely uprooting the final year where I could really call myself a kid. For some reason, I couldn’t get the flavor of nostalgia out of my mouth. The revival of 2000s music was the key to fulfilling that hunger of holding onto the end of my childhood. 

Like many other kids my age, the pandemic allowed for many mindless hours of scrolling through TikTok, subconsciously absorbing snippets of revived Kesha, Missy Elliot, and Destiny’s Child soundbites as the 2000s aesthetic took over the internet; it brought me back to a simpler time. As for Gen-Z, the early 2000s were a time of innocence, naivety, dumb-assery, and an inexplicable feeling of youth. There’s a carefree aspect to classic 2000s music: the poppy grinding vocals, electric guitar swells, and most of all, the soft undertones of angst. 2000s music is the fundamental soundtrack for the ultimate Gen-Z coming of age movie, and the experience of listening to the music of that era was—and continues to be—an escape. 

Perhaps the obsession with the 2000s fashion and music reminds us of our childhood and is a way for us Gen-Zers to take back a part of our lives that the pandemic robbed from us. Spotify recorded that between April 1st and 7th of 2020, the amount of Nostalgic-themed playlists skyrocketed 54 percent, and I guarantee that half of those were fellow Gen-Z kids making Blink-182 themed playlists. We all felt a little bit vexed, and nothing soothes the teenage soul like banging out to Third Eye Blind or Green Day’s American Idiot (2004). 

Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Along with the resurgence of classic 2000s bangers, many up-and-coming Gen-Z artists have taken the defining qualities of this era and incorporated them into their music. For example, Inhaler, a band of Gen-Z individuals, crushed the UK charts with their debut album It Won’t Always Be Like This (2021). The album has tunes that are highly 2000s inspired with zingy guitar riffs, heavy bass undertones, and of course, a banging drum composition. There is also the revival of the Strokes, a highly influential band of the 2000s. The British alternative rock band released their first album in years, The New Abnormal (2020). This was their first release since the album Comedown Machine (2013), and was able to bring their pop-like, nostalgic 2000’s dance club vibe and make it mainstream.

Aside from the butterfly hairclips and pop hits, the 2000s was a whirlwind time with rapid changes and catastrophes—the Great Recession, emerging terrorist groups and civil unrest, an abundance of natural disasters— tossed in with the jovial haze of neon spray tans produced by the shifting image of modern pop culture. As much as the music and entertainment of the 2000s was a string of capitalist ventures to appeal to the masses, pumping out a bonanza of merchandise, reality television shows, and celebrity records (circa Kim Kardashian), it also was an outlet for the people to be distracted from the absolute calamity of the era. 

Fans react as Papa Roach performs at The Joint inside the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino August 5, 2005, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

This is why I think 2000s music has had such an intense comeback during the pandemic. This era of music brought joy, escapism, and an expression of a particular malaise that defined the generation. It was such a fundamental time for the scope of music, from the journey of rap becoming more recognized in mainstream culture, to artists addressing important social issues in their music that contributed to social movements. For example, “Where is the love” by The Black Eyed Peas was nominated for Record Of The Year in the 2003 Grammys, and it embodied the need for togetherness in times of tribulation and the rising War on Terror. Or, “Song for Assata” by Common, which discussed the uncomfortable yet crucial issues of race and justice in America. Most of the stirring protest songs from the era still ring true today and are used as tools for mobilization for modern social movements. 

No matter how many episodes of my favorite childhood television shows I watch, velour jackets I wear, or chokers I make, nothing will evoke raw nostalgia like 2000’s music. It is memories captured in an instant of time, where I knew what it was like to be a kid and fall in love with music for the first time. It’s music that demonstrates the strength of people in the face of adversity, disaster, and destruction. Music bonds us, and there is nothing like a 2002 Alicia Keys song to bring us together.

Written By Ava Aguiar

Photos by Getty Images