Linkin Park: Pretty Boring, Pretty Huge

[fuuucckkers]

by Jon Wiederhorn, with additional reporting by Sway Calloway

Over the past year, the whole rap-rock thing has pretty much been run into the ground. The formulaic shuffle between pugilistic hip-hop verses and melodic choruses has grown staler than year-old Lucky Charms, and the roar of percussive down-tuned guitars has gotten so played out that all the volume and rage is no longer jarring or visceral.

Many acts that formerly led the revolution — including Korn, Papa Roach and Kid Rock — have revamped their sounds in an attempt to survive, and other more stubborn bands have been left scrambling to hang onto their fanbase, much of which has gravitated to hip-hop or pop-punk in a quest for new kicks.

And yet Linkin Park, whose Hybrid Theory was the best-selling album of 2001, have kept their fans hooked and begging for more. After just one week on shelves, Meteora sold more than 810,000 copies, according to SoundScan, easily landing in the #1 position on the Billboard albums chart. And the group is a top draw for the Summer Sanitarium tour, which also features Metallica, Limp Bizkit, Deftones and Mudvayne.

Linkin Park's tremendous success is somewhat baffling since they cling so tightly to the increasingly taboo rap-metal formula, shun rock-star antics and lack any sort of celebrity charisma. Even the band's casual fans might have a tough time picking the faces of vocalists Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington, DJ Joseph Hahn, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Phoenix and drummer Rob Bourdon out of a crowd.

"We're not doing this to be stars," Shinoda shrugged. "We're just normal people behind all those lights."

"People always want to find something exciting about us, but to be honest we're pretty boring," added Bourdon, shifting the position of his backwards black baseball cap. "People wouldn't be too excited to come backstage and hang out with us. We don't party or anything, we just play Xbox and we're pretty mellow. When we play a show for 20,000 people, that's the highlight for the night. You can't go backstage after that and try and top it, so we just wait until the next show."

They're not fashionably self-destructive, they're not loudmouths, they don't hang with Britney Spears or Christian Slater. So just what is it that allows Linkin Park to thrive when others rap-rock bands are struggling? In part, it's the frustration, heartache and loneliness that spirals through the band's radio-ready songs. Whether moaning about divorce, howling about bad relationships or screaming about domestic abuse, Linkin Park transfer their pain into powerful music.

"We spend a lot of time on our lyrics," said singer and screamer Bennington, who splits songwriting duties with rapper Shinoda. "It's a good way to confront a lot of things that we've dealt with in the past that our fans can relate to. On this album, I reacted to how I dealt with a lot of pain in my life and how I was sexually abused when I was young, and what I went through after that [with drugs and rebellion]. And then I look at where I am today, and take those negative experiences and turn them into positives."

[Chinchilla!]

Ok, I've written a lot of rant/rave articles, but I've never shared this one with anyone, and I think this thread would be a great place to start.

After Nirvana went away, around early to mid-nineties, the radio and MTV was full of 'Sissy' music. I won't name bands, because I'll wind up offending just about all of you by doing that. This 'sissy' music is the reason why I was more inclined to listen to rap during that period than what the record industry was calling 'rock'. Artists like Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit really brought the fun back into rock music, although some people wouldn't really consider them rock, but rap/rock.

Since we are talking about Linkin Park here, I must say that I've heard 3 or 4 of their songs from their Hybrid Theory album and really enjoyed them. Unfortunately, I'm just not interested in their new stuff. But what I think is giving them 'staying power' as noted in that article above is the way they mix rap and rock. The rap verses are genuine, he's not rapping about ice and bling bling, but more down-to-earth issues (e.g. relationships), and when they rock, they really rock, cause that Chester dude has a great set of lungs.

The 'rap verses' with 'rock chorus' formula isn't bad, but personally I feel that the rap half of Linkin Park is noticeably weaker than the rock part. I'd much rather listen to Chester sing verses along with rocking the chorus of songs. He did a quality job on singing during the bridge of the song 'In the end' ("I put my trust in you").

That's all for now, back to work before I get fired

[fuuucckkers]

I agree with you on that one. Ironically.. I'm listening to them as I read and now replying to your post.

The new Meteora album is very good.

[Moon Child]

I, too, like Meteora alot, obviously. SIB (Somwhere I Belong) is a good song to start out as a single from the album, but I feel that there are some better songs on it than that, such as Faint.

But, the article itself has a good idea about the fanbase, but I also believe there is another reason. (of course I took this from what I posted at Wasted's website)

On fanbase, I think there is one reason they have kept them. That is by the way they treat their fans. The concert they showed on MTV2 and MTV, 3/25 and 3/26 respectively, was a show from their LPU tour. This tour was actually a thank you to the members of the LP Underground for their support of the band over the last year, the first year of the group. Members of the LPU were offered one free ticket to one of the shows on the tour. LP knows that without their fans, they wouldn't be where they are today.