The 00s genre was once the preserve of angry white men – now artists such as Grimes, Poppy and Rina Sawayama are adopting its dramatic fury
From grunge to happy hardcore, emo to Eurodance, almost every clique that defined a millennial adolescence has been reworked over the last decade. Just when you think there cannot be any more ill-judged teenage phases to mine, up pops a crop of female artists turning their hand to a genre so adolescently masculine you can smell the Lynx a mile off: yes, nu-metal is back.
Instead of following the paths their early releases pointed to, these women are turning to sounds that would not have been out of place at a Wolverhampton rock club in 2001. Online-persona-slash-pop-avatar Poppy has abandoned bubblegum electro in favour of a distorted, crunching yowl on her recent EP Bloodmoney; while, last year, the seemingly unembarrassable Grimes released the clattering, industrial-tinged We Appreciate Power. Now, Rina Sawayama, whose previous releases were beloved for their early 00s pop-R&B bent, is back with STFU!, all fat, menacing guitars and sweaty basslines that drop out for a whispered chorus more vicious than anything System of a Down could retch up. “It’s a song about releasing my rage against microaggressions,” Sawayama says.