AFTER lying dormant for decades, Aphex Twin is the darling of the odd kids again. These acts knew their music would one day be loved by mutant youth:
Type O Negative
The only era that shouldn’t have been big on lustful vampires is the 19th century, who loved it. Lead singer Peter Steele added metal and knob gags to the formula, but today’s teens don’t get the latter and use his deep bass vocals to frame themselves as sexy goths. Having not met any 90s goths, who weren’t sexy and spent whole parties upstairs crimping their hair.
Aphex Twin
Shy, retiring techno artist who plastered his name and logo everywhere and is consequently remembered when Loop Guru is teaching music theory at a private sixth-form in Sussex, Richard D James has seen his tracks take off as soundtrack to short-form videos. If he watches them he might finally use that tank he bought in the 90s.
Insane Clown Posse
This Faygo-infused circus act might be the only band on the planet to have assembled a worse community of creeps than TikTok already is. But they’ve been together 37 years and the internet loves nothing more than a bad joke that’s gone on for far too long, so there are now fathers who spent their youths ridiculing Juggalos who have them as children.
The Ting Tings
Social media’s neon trash heap is basically the 00s on a phone screen, so it’s unsurpising the catchy migraine of That’s Not My Name found a new hellish home there. Will Smith, desperate to be rehabilitated, picked up on the trend to combine two risen ghouls from our recent past we honestly thought we’d be allowed to forget.
Three 6 Mafia
The horrorcore rap act were outcasts compared to their contemporaries of misogynistic gangster pimps with ongoing criminal records, but impressed wanky tastemakers enough to rediscover niche audiences that appreciate smashing together dumb shit like green demon skulls and shaking ass. Better than a Jay-Z and Linkin Park mash-up, in fairness.
Kate Bush
Revived by Stranger Things and now the soundtrack of WitchTok where children make potions in their back gardens, using neither eye of newt nor toe of frog but some herbs they bought on Etsy. Does she care? Or is she on some Hertfordshire estate somewhere doing exactly the same but not livestreaming it?
Limp Bizkit
Fred Durst, always as much infuriatingly successful marketing bro as overgrown child, has smartly ruined a second generation with his faux-transgressive bullshit. Still, at least they’re only listening to it in minute-long chunks and freedom from it is but a swipe away. The children of the nu-metal revolution had no such freedom.
