HISTORY OF THE BAND
Linkin Park is
an American rock band
from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose
to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by
the RIAA in
2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries. Its
following studio album,Meteora, continued the band's success,
topping the Billboard 200 album
chart in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around
the world. In 2003, MTV2 named
Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best
of the new millennium behind Oasis and Coldplay. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best
Artists of the Decade chart.
Having adapted the nu metal and rap metal genres
to a radio-friendly yet densely layered style in Hybrid
Theory and Meteora, the band explored other genres in
their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight, which was released in 2007. The album topped the Billboard chartsand had the third-best debut week
of any album that year. The band
has collaborated with several other artists, most notably with rapperJay-Z in
their mashup EP Collision Course, and many others included on Reanimation. The band's most
recent work, Living Things, was released on June 26, 2012. Linkin Park has sold over 50 million
albums worldwide and has won two Grammy Awards.
Early
years (1996–1999)
The founding of Linkin Park began with three high
school friends; Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, and Brad Delson. After
graduating from high school, the three began to take their musical interests
more seriously, recruiting Joe Hahn, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark
Wakefield to perform in their band, Xero. Though limited in resources, the band
began recording and producing songs within Shinoda’s makeshift bedroom studio
in 1996. Tensions and frustration within the band grew after they failed
to land a record deal. The lack of success and stalemate in progress
prompted Wakefield, at that time the band's vocalist, to leave the band in
search of other projects. Farrell also left to tour with Tasty Snax and
other bands.
After spending a considerable time searching for
Wakefield's replacement, Xero recruited Arizona vocalist, Chester
Bennington, who was recommended by Jeff Blue, the vice president of Zomba Music in March 1999. Bennington,
formerly of a post-grunge band by the name of Grey Daze, became a
standout among applicants because of the dynamic in his singing style. The
band then agreed on changing its name from Xero to Hybrid Theory.[18] The newborn vocal chemistry between Shinoda
and Bennington helped revive the band, inciting them to work on new material. The band’s renaissance culminated with a change in
name; from Hybrid Theory, the band once again changed its name, this time to
Linkin Park, a play on and homage to Santa Monica’s Lincoln Park. However, despite these changes, the band
still struggled to sign a record deal. After facing numerous rejections from
several major record labels, Linkin Park turned to Jeff Blue for additional
help. After failing to catch Warner
Bros. Records on three previous reviews, Jeff Blue, now the vice president of
Warner Bros. Records, helped the band sign a deal with the company in 1999. The
band released its breakthrough album, Hybrid Theory, the following year.
Hybrid Theory (2000–2002)
Main
article: Hybrid Theory
Linkin Park released Hybrid Theory on October 24, 2000. The album, which represented
half a decade’s worth of the band’s work, was edited by Don Gilmore. Hybrid Theory was a massive
commercial success; it sold more than 4.8 million copies during its debut
year, earning it the status of best-selling album of 2001, while singles such
as "Crawling" and "One Step Closer" established themselves as staples among alternative rock radio play lists during the year. Additionally, other singles from the album
were featured in films such as Dracula 2000, Little Nicky, and Valentine. Hybrid
Theory won a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance for the song "Crawling" and was
nominated for two other Grammy Awards: Best New Artist andBest Rock Album. MTV awarded the band their Best Rock Video
and Best Direction awards for "In the End". Through the winning of the Grammy for
Best Hard Rock Performance, Hybrid
Theory’s overall success had catapulted the band into mainstream success.
During this time, Linkin Park received many
invitations to perform on many high-profile tours and concerts including Ozzfest, Family
Values Tour and KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas. The band also formed its own tour, Projekt
Revolution, which featured other notable artists such as Cypress Hill, Adema, and Snoop Dogg. Within a year’s stretch, Linkin Park had
performed at over 320 concerts. The experiences and performances of the
precocious band were documented in its first DVD, Frat Party at the Pankake Festival, which debuted in November 2001. Now reunited with
former bassist Phoenix, the band began work on a remix album, dubbed Reanimation, which would include works from Hybrid Theory and non-album
tracks also. Reanimationdebuted
on July 30, 2002, featuring the likes of Black Thought, Jonathan Davis, Aaron Lewis, and many others. Reanimation claimed the second spot on the Billboard 200, and sold nearly 270,000 copies during its debut
week. Hybrid Theory is
also in the RIAA's Top
100 Albums.
Meteora (2002–2004)
Main
article: Meteora (album)
Following the success of Hybrid Theory and Reanimation, Linkin Park spent a
significant amount of time touring around the United States. The band members
began to work on new material amidst its saturated schedule, spending a sliver
of their free time in their tour bus' studio. The band officially announced the production
of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing its new work was inspired by
the rocky region of Meteora in Greece, where numerous monasteries have been built on top of the rocks. Meteora features a mixture of the band's
previous nu metaland rapcore styles with newer innovative effects,
including the induction of a shakuhachi (a Japanese flute made of bamboo) and other instruments. Linkin
Park's second album debuted on March 25, 2003 and instantly earned worldwide
recognition, going to No.1 in the US and UK, and No.2 in Australia.
Meteora sold more than 800,000 copies during its
first week, and it ranked as the best selling album on the Billboard charts at the time. The album's singles,
including "Somewhere
I Belong",
"Breaking
the Habit",
"Faint", and "Numb", received significant radio attention. By
October 2003, Meteora sold
nearly three million copies. The album's success allowed Linkin Park to form
another Projekt
Revolution, which featured other bands and artists including Mudvayne, Blindside, and Xzibit. Additionally, Metallica invited Linkin Park to play at the Summer
Sanitarium Tour 2003, which included well-known acts such as Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Deftones. The band released an album and DVD, entitled Live in Texas, which consisted of audio and video tracks of some
of the band's performances in Texas during the tour. In early 2004, Linkin
Park started a world tour titled the Meteora World Tour. Supporting bands on the tour included Hoobastank,P.O.D., Story of the Year and Pia.
Meteora earned the band multiple awards and honors.
The band won the MTV awards for Best Rock Video for "Somewhere I
Belong" and the Viewer's Choice Award for "Breaking the Habit".Linkin Park also received significant recognition
during the 2004 Radio Music Awards, winning the Artist of the Year and Song of the
Year ("Numb") awards. Although Meteora was not nearly as successful as Hybrid Theory, it was the third best
selling album in the United States during 2003. The band spent the first few months of 2004
touring around the world, first with the third Projekt Revolution tour, and
later several European concerts.
Side
projects (2004–2006)
Following Meteora's success, the band postponed working on a new studio
album for the next few years. Instead, Linkin Park continued to tour and work
on many side projects. Bennington appeared on DJ Lethal’s "State of the Art" and other work
with Dead by Sunrise, while Shinoda did work with Depeche Mode. In 2004, the band began to work with Jay-Z to produce another remix album,
entitled Collision Course. The album, which featured intermixed lyrics and background tracks from
both artists' previous albums, debuted in November 2004. Shinoda also formed a
new band, Fort Minor, as a side project. With the aid of Jay-Z, Fort
Minor released its debut album,The Rising Tied, to critical acclaim. At the same time, the
band's relationship with Warner
Bros. Records was deteriorating rapidly on account of several trust and
financial issues. After months of feuding, the band finally negotiated a
deal in December 2005.
Linkin Park also participated in numerous
charitable events, most notably raised money to benefit victims of Hurricane Charley in 2004 and later Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The band donated $75,000 to
the Special Operations Warrior Foundation in March 2004. They also helped relief efforts for the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamivictims by staging several charity concerts and
setting up an additional fund called "Music for Relief". Most notably, however, the band participated
at Live 8, a series of charitable benefit concerts set up to
raise global awareness. Alongside Jay-Z, the band performed on Live 8's stage
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a global audience. The band
would later be reunited with Jay-Z at the Grammy Award Ceremony 2006, during which they performed
"Numb/Encore", en route to winning a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. They were joined on stage by Paul McCartney who added verses from the song "Yesterday". They would later go on to play at the 2006 Summer Sonic music festival, which was hosted by Metallica in Japan.
Minutes to Midnight (2006–2008)
Linkin Park performing at 2007's Novarock Festival
Linkin Park returned to the recording studios in
2006 to work on new material. To produce the album, the band chose
producer Rick Rubin. Despite initially stating the album would debut
sometime in 2006, the album was delayed until 2007. The band had recorded
thirty to fifty songs in August 2006, when Shinoda stated the album was halfway
completed. Bennington later added that the new album would stray away from
its previous nu metal sound. Warner
Bros. Records officially announced that the band’s third studio album,
entitled Minutes to Midnight, would be released on May 15, 2007 in the United States. After spending fourteen months working on the
album, the band members opted to further refine their album by removing five of
the original seventeen tracks. The album’s title, a reference to the Doomsday Clock, foreshadowed the band's new lyrical themes. Minutes to Midnight sold over 625,000 copies in its first
week, making it one of the most successful debut week albums in recent years.
The album also took the top spot on the Billboard Charts.
The album's first single, "What I've Done", was released on April 2, and premiered on
MTV and Fuse within the same week. The single was acclaimed by
listeners, becoming the top-ranked song on the Billboard's Modern
Rock Tracks and Mainstream
Rock Tracks charts. The song is also used in soundtrack for the 2007
action film, Transformers. Mike Shinoda was also featured on the Styles of Beyond song "Second to None" which was
also included in the film. Later in the year, the band won the "Favorite
Alternative Artist" in the American
Music Awards. The band also saw success with the rest of the albums singles,
"Bleed It Out", "Shadow of the Day", "Given Up", and "Leave
Out All the Rest", which were released throughout 2007 and early 2008. The band
also collaborated with Busta Rhymes on his single "We Made It", which was released on April 29.
Linkin Park's touring and live shows have, among
other things, included a performance at Live Earth Japan on July 7, 2007. and headlining Download Festival in Donington Park, England andEdgefest in Downsview Park, Toronto, Canada. The band completed touring on its
fourth Projekt
Revolution tour before taking up an Arena tour around the United Kingdom,
visiting Nottingham,Sheffield and Manchester, before finishing on a double night at the O2
arena in
London. Bennington stated that Linkin Park plans to release a follow-up album
to Minutes to Midnight. However,
he stated the band will first embark on a United States tour to gather
inspiration for the album.[54] In an interview with Rolling Stone, Bennington said that the band had already begun
writing new material for the album, and Shinoda too stated that the album could
well be released in late 2009. Mike Shinoda also announced a live CD/DVD
entitled Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes, which is a live video recording from the Projekt
Revolution gig at the Milton Keynes Bowl on June 29, 2008, which was officially
released on November 24, 2008.
A Thousand Suns (2008–2011)
In May 2009, Linkin Park announced they were
working on a fourth studio album, which was planned to be released on 2010.
Shinoda told IGN that the new album would be 'genre-busting,'
while building off of elements in Minutes
to Midnight. He also mentioned that the album would be more
experimental and "hopefully more cutting-edge." Bennington also
addressed the media to confirm that Rick Rubin would return to produce the new album. The
band later revealed the album would be called A Thousand Suns.
While working on the new album, Linkin Park worked
with successful film composer Hans Zimmer to produce the score for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. The band released a single for the movie,
entitled "New Divide". Joe Hahn created a music video for the
song, which featured clips from the film. On June 22, Linkin Park played a
short set in Westwood Village after the premier of the movie. After
completing work for Transformers:
Revenge of the Fallen, the band returned to the studio to finalize their
album.
On January 19, 2010, Linkin Park released a new
song entitled "Not Alone" as part of a compilation from Music for
Relief called Download to Donate for Haiti in support of the Haiti
Earthquake crisis. On February 10, 2010, Linkin Park released the official music video
for the song on their homepage.
On April 26, the band released an app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, a game called 8-Bit
Rebellion! It featured the band as playable characters, and a new song called
"Blackbirds" which was unlockable by beating the game. The song was
also later released as an iTunes bonus track on A Thousand Suns.
A Thousand Suns was released on September 14. The album’s
first single, "The Catalyst", was released on August 2. The band promoted
their new album by launching a concert tour, which started in Los Angeles on
September 7. Linkin Park also relied on MySpace to promote their album,
releasing two additional songs, "Waiting
for the End" and "Blackout" on September 8. Furthermore, a
documentary about the album's production, entitled Meeting of A Thousand Suns, was available for streaming on the
band's MySpace page. On August 31, 2010, it was announced that the band would
perform the single live for the first time at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. The venue of the
debut live performance of the single was Griffith
Observatory, an iconic location used in Hollywood movies. "Waiting for
the End" was released as the second single of A Thousand Suns.
Linkin Park reached No.8 in Billboard Social 50, a chart of
the most active artists on the world's leading social networking sites. In
other Billboard Year-End
charts, the band reached No.92 in the "Top Artists" chart, as well as A Thousand Suns reaching No.53 in the Year-End chart of
the Billboard Top 200
albums and No.7 in the 2010 Year-End Rock Albums, and "The Catalyst"
reaching No.40 in the Year-End Rock Songs chart.
On January 11, 2011, an updated version of Download to Donate for Haiti was
launched, called Download to
Donate for Haiti V2.0, with more songs to download. For the updated
compilation, the band released Keaton Hashimoto's remix of "The
Catalyst" from the "Linkin Park featuring YOU" contest. "Burning
in the Skies" was released as the third official single of A Thousand Sunson March 21, 2011.
Shinoda designed two t-shirts, in which the
proceeds will go to Music For Relief to help the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami disasters. Music For Relief releasedDownload to Donate: Tsunami Relief Japan,
another compilation of songs, in which the proceeds will go to Save the Children.
On April 13, 2011, Shinoda confirmed that the
album's fourth single will be "Iridescent". He also confirmed that there will be a new,
slightly shorter version of the song, which will be part of the soundtrack of
the upcoming film Transformers: Dark of the Moon, continuing the streak of Linkin Park songs being
the theme songs of the Transformers films (after "What I've Done" and
"New Divide"), as well as the fact that a music video will be shot
for the single. The video was directed by Joe Hahn, who directed the videos
for both of the previous songs.
The band was nominated for six Billboard Awards in 2011 for Top Duo or Group, Best Rock Album
for A Thousand Suns, Top
Rock Artist, Top Alternative Artist, Top Alternative Song for "Waiting for
the End" and Top Alternative Album for A Thousand Suns, but did not win any award.
The band charted in numerous Billboard Year-End charts in
2011. The band was No.39 in the Top Artists Chart, No.84 in the Billboard 200 Artists chart, No.11
in the Social 50 Chart,No.6 in the Top Rock Artists Chart, No.9 in
the Rock Songs Artists Chart, No.16 in the Rock Albums Chart, No.4 in the Hard Rock Albums Chart, and
No.7 in the Alternative Songs Chart.
Living Things (2011–present)
Main
article: Living Things (Linkin Park album)
In June 2011, Bennington revealed to Kerrang! that Linkin Park has begun working on new
material for their next studio album, Living Things. He explained, "We've been working on a new record for the past
two months. The music is great and we're well ahead of where we're expecting to
be. There aren't a whole lot of noises going on, but there are a lot of good
songs."
Rick Rubin will be a producer on the new album.
"Typically we'll have a once-a-week meeting to go listen to the songs that
they're coming up with and talk about them. For so early in the project, they
are much further along than they have been on the last two albums we did.
On A Thousand Suns there
were still a lot of irons in the fire. We knew, 'OK, we can't do this forever.
Let's leave this batch and we'll come back and address it when we start up
again'", Rubin said.
In July 2011, Bennington told Rolling Stone that Linkin Park aims to produce a new album
every eighteen months, and that he would be shocked if a new album did not come
out in 2012. The band continues to record and produce new material even while
touring. Bennington commented on Linkin Park's schedule, stating, "Touring
for two years is excruciating. When we would tour for two years even the most
resilient person in the band, at the end of that, was fucking miserable." He
further elaborated on their ideas in an interview with MTV saying, "We do
have a really great head start. We've got some great music, some good ideas.
The creativity has continued to flow for us for the last few years,
consistently." He later revealed in another interview in September
2011 that the band was still in the beginning phases of the next album, saying
"We just kind of began. We like to keep the creative juices flowing, so we
try to keep that going all the time...we like the direction that we're going in."
In an interview featured in the March 21, 2012
issue of Kerrang! magazine,
Bennington stated that the band has returned to more 'familiar' territory on
their new record, saying "with this [new] album, we've incorporated a lot
of guitar work with big choruses and the heavier electronic stuff to give it
that really big wall of sound feeling without getting too metal. This will be
more familiar to people than 'A Thousand Suns' was, where we were like 'Fuck
it, we're just going to go bonkers." Bennington also said that the new
album's lyrics would be personal and avoid being political, adding "We've
been writing a lot about relationships."
On March 28, 2012, Shinoda confirmed that the band
is filming a music video for "Burn It Down", which will be the album's first single to be released for
radio-play on April 16. Joe Hahn directed the video. Shinoda spoke
to Co.Create about
the album's art, saying that it will "blow them [the fans] away...the
average person is not going to be able to look at it and go, I understand that
that's completely new, like not just the image but the way they made the image
is totally new. So there's going to be that."
On April 15, 2012, Shinoda announced via his
website that Living Things would
be the title of Linkin Park's fifth album, with the pre-release sale to start
on the April 16. Mike Shinoda stated that they chose the title Living Things because the album
is more about people, personal interactions, and it's far more personal than
their previous albums. The band will promote the album on the 2012 edition of
the Honda Civic Tour, with co headliners Incubus. The band performed "Burn It Down" at 2012 Billboard Music Awards. On May 24, the band released the music video for
"Burn It Down" and debuted "Lies Greed Misery", another
song from Living Things,
on BBC Radio 1. "Powerless", the twelfth and closing track of the
album, will be featured in the closing credits to the film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
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