Band history
Early years
Originally consisting of three close high school friends from Agoura High School, Linkin Park’s foundation was anchored by Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, and Rob Bourdon.[4] After graduating from high school, the Agoura Hills natives later began to take their musical interests more seriously, recruiting Joe Hahn, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark Wakefield to perform in their band, then titled Xero. Though limited in resources, the band began recording and producing songs within Shinoda’s make-shift bedroom studio in 1996.[4] Tensions and frustration within the band began to increase after the band 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 for other projects.[4] Later, Farrell would also leave the band in order to tour with Tasty Snax and other bands.[5][6]
After spending a considerable time searching for Wakefield’s surrogate, Xero, now known as Hybrid Theory, recruited Arizonian vocalist Chester Bennington. Jeff Blue, the vice president of Zomba Music, referred Bennington to the band in March 1999.[7] Bennington, formerly of Grey Daze, became a standout among applicants for his unique and vivid singing style. The newborn chemistry between Shinoda and Bennington helped revive the band, inciting them to work on new material.[4] The band’s renaissance culminated with a change in name; from Hybrid Theory, the band changed their name to Linkin Park, a play and homage to Santa Monica’s Lincoln Park.[4] 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. Now aside with Warner Bros. Records, the band released their breakthrough album, Hybrid Theory, the following year.[7]
Breakthrough success
Linkin Park released Hybrid Theory on October 24, 2000. The album, which represented nearly half a decade’s worth of the band’s work, was edited and polished by music producer Don Gilmore.[4] Hybrid Theory was well received by music fans; The band sold more than 4.8 million records during its debut year, while singles such as Crawling and One Step Closer established themselves as staples among Alternative Rock radio playlists during the year.[5] Additionally, other singles from the album were featured in movies such as Dracula 2000, Little Nicky, and Valentine.[5] Hybrid Theory was also nominated for three Grammy Awards, including best new artist, best rock album, and best hard rock performance (for Crawling).[8] MTV also awarded the band their Best Rock Video and Best Direction awards for In the End.[4] Through the winning of the Grammy for best hard rock performance, and for Best Rock Album, Hybrid Theory’s overall success had catapulted the band into the mainstream's attention.
During this time, Linkin Park received many invitations to perform with many recognized tours and concerts including Ozzfest, Family Values Tour and KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas.[5][9] The band also formed their own tour, Projekt Revolution, which featured other notable artists such as, Cypress Hill, Adema, and Snoop Dogg.[7] Within a year’s stretch, Linkin Park had performed at over 320 concerts.[4] The experiences and performances of the precocious band were documented in their first DVD, Frat Party at the Pankake Festival, which debuted in November 2001. Now reunited with former bassist Dave Farrell, the band began work on a remix album, dubbed Reanimation, which would include works from Hybrid Theory and Hybrid Theory EP.[5] The album debuted on July 30, 2002, featuring the likes of Black Thought, Jonathan Davis, Aaron Lewis, and many others.[10] Reanimation claimed the second spot on the Billboard 200, and sold nearly 270,000 copies during its debut week.[11]
Meteora debuts
Following the success of Hybrid Theory and Reanimation, Linkin Park spent a significant amount of time touring around United States. The band began to work on new material amidst the saturated schedule, spending a sliver of their free time in their tour bus' studio.[12] The band officially announced the production of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing their new work was inspired by Meteora, a historic monastery in Greece.[13] Meteora featured a mixture of the band's previous nu-metal and rapcore styles with newer innovative effects, including the induction of a shakuhachi (a Japanese flute made of bamboo) and other instruments.[4] Eponymous to Meteora, the Linkin Park's sophomore album debuted on March 25, 2003, instantly earning worldwide recognition.[4]
Meteora sold more than 800,000 copies during its first week, and ranked as the best selling album on the Billboard charts.[14] Music videos for some of the album's singles, including Somewhere I Belong, Breaking the Habit, Faint and Numb, received significant radio attention.[15] Eventually, Meteora sold nearly three million copies by October 2003.[16] The album's success allowed Linkin Park to form another Projekt Revolution, which featured other bands and artists including, Mudvayne, Blindside, and Xzibit.[4] Additionally, Metallica, a famed heavy metal group, invited Linkin Park to play at the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003, which included well-known acts such as Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Deftones.[17] 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.[4]
Meteora also earned the band additional awards and honors. The band won MTV's awards for Best Rock Video (Somewhere I Belong), Viewer's Choice Award (Breaking the Habit).[18] 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.[18] Although Meteora was not nearly as successful as Hybrid Theory, it was the third best selling album in America during 2003.[5] The band spent the first few months of 2004 touring around the world, first with the third Projeckt Revolution tour, and later several European concerts.[5]
Side projects and charity work
Following Meteora's success, the band postponed working on a new studio album for the next several 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.[5] In 2004, the band began to work with Jay-Z in order to produce another remix album, entitled Collision Course. The album, which featured intermixed the lyrics and background tracks from both artists' backgrounds, 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 their debut album, The Rising Tied to critical acclaim.[19][20] On the home front, the band's relationship with Warner Bros. Records was declining rapidly, on account of several trust and financial issues.[21] After months of feuding, the band's finally negotiated a deal in December 2005.[22]
Additionally, they also participated in numerous chartable events. Linkin Park helped raise money to befit victims of Hurricane Charley in 2004, and later Hurricane Katrina in 2005.[5] They also helped relief efforts for the 2004 Tsunami victims by staging several charity concerts, and setting up an additional fund called, "Music for Relief".[23] Most notably, however, the band participated at Live 8, a series of charitable set up to raise global awarenesses.[24] Alongside with Jay-Z, the band performed on Live 8's stage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a global audience.
During the Grammy Award Ceremony 2006 Linkin Park joined with Jay-Z and Paul McCartney, where they performed the song “Numb/Encore/Yesterday”. The band went on to win a Grammy award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Linkin Park performed live in August 2006 at Summer Sonic, hosted by Metallica in Japan. A new song, tentatively codenamed "QWERTY" and also referred in various websites as Behind Your Lies, leaked on numerous websites after being played at the concert. “QWERTY” (live and studio version), Reading My Eyes (live) and other exclusive live and studio tracks were released on Linkin Park Underground V6.0 Limited Edition Fan Club CD.
Linkin Park spent the majority of 2006 writing and recording their third album, and in various interviews described the musical direction of the album. Lead singer Bennington stated, "we're straying away from a lot of the predictable sounds we've had in the past, but there's no question in your mind when you hear it that it's Linkin Park...We've always said we write the music we write so that we can spread our wings as far as we want and try new things and go anywhere. I think we're really going to prove that with this new record."[25] Regarding album co-producer Rick Rubin, Mike Shinoda stated, “Rick is one of those guys where you can go through any door you want to go through. We’re trying everything, just messing around with it until it sounds good”.[26]
