The music of Linkin Park

Music of Linkin Park

Over the course of the last decade, the band Linkin Park has transformed and popularized the genres of rap metal and nu metal, fusing them into a unique sound that borrows elements from both without ever allowing itself to be fully described by any single generic label. Although the band had its roots in the California music scene as early as 1996, it was not until the release of its first album, Hybrid Theory (the name of a previous incarnation of the band), in 2000 that Linkin Park began defining the sound that it would steadily develop and augment over the next ten years, with the fourth and latest album, A Thousand Suns, debuting in 2010. By examining some of the singles released from each album, as well as one of the band's more successful collaborations, one is able to see how the band's music has developed both in relation to the metal genre as a whole, and as a cross-boundary amalgamation of different genres. Furthermore, understanding the band's ability to blend musical influences will help to demonstrate part of why Linkin Park has become so popular, winning a number of awards over the course of the decade and generating sizable aid through the band's various charity efforts.

Before examining the band's music in greater detail, it will useful to briefly mention the individual members, as Linkin Park has a particular make-up which helps reveal some of the band's unique musical influences. Firstly, Linkin Park features two lead vocalists, Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda. Shinoda was with the band since its primordial stage as early as 1996, and Bennington was brought on in 1999 to replace previous vocalist Mark Wakefield, who left as a result of the band's inability to land a record deal (Shinoda, along with Rob Bourdon and Brad Delson, constitutes the original line-up, which at the time was called Xero). Although Shinoda and Bennington share vocalist duties, Bennington often provides more of the traditional, melodic vocal work, with Shinoda contributing rap and scream-singing alongside traditional harmonies and rhythm guitar. In addition to the dual vocalists, the band often features turntables, keyboards, and samples, all of which are provided by Joe Hahn. Finally, Rob Bourdon, Brad Delson, and Dave "Phoenix" Farrell play drums, lead guitar, and bass guitar, respectively ("Band" 2011).

Although each song features lyrics heavily, lyrics are without a doubt the band's weakest area and are generally secondary to the overall piece. This is not to suggest that the lyrics of any given song are entirely irrelevant, but rather that they tend to follow many of the same conventions of popular "alternative" music, featuring somewhat generically adolescent expressions of anger, regret, hope, and dissatisfaction with an indeterminate authority usually only ever referred to as "you." Thus, while one may ultimately fault the band for its general lack of thematic creativity in terms of the lyrics, because the overall combination of vocals and music creates pieces intentionally more than the sum of their parts, complaining about Linkin Park's sometimes petulant lyrics is akin to complaining that any given police procedural features stereotypical banter between street-wizened cops; the worthwhile cultural production of the band lies in its reimagining and reformulation of these common tropes into something new (indeed, the band has a special attention to remixes and reinterpretations of their own work, often encouraging others to adapt and manipulate their songs and releasing a number of remix albums).

The first single from Linkin Park's debut album is named "One Step Closer," and musically demonstrates the band's roots in the nu metal/rap metal scene, with the drums and heavily distorted guitars recreating the relatively slow, driving beat common to nu metal. However, the roots of the band's eventual evolution is present even here, with the record scratches, alternating vocals, and a breakdown featuring electronic sounds against a single guitar distinguishing "One Step Closer" from then-comparable artists like Korn and Limp Bizkit. Lyrically, the song is par for the course, with the chorus being a simple repetition of "everything you say to me / takes me one step closer to the edge / and I'm about to break / I need a little room to breathe / cause I'm one step closer to the edge / and I'm about to break" (with Bennington and Shinoda alternating lines except for "and I'm about break," which they sing together). Indicative of its early-2000s context, the song is by far the most audibly aggressive, containing little of the "emotional," melodic strains that would eventually become necessary for any marginally successful "alternative" artist. Hybrid Theory, the album "One Step Closer" comes from, eventually garnered the band a Grammy nomination for "Best Rock Album," among a variety of other nominations and recognitions ("Linkin Park Awards" 2011).

"Somewhere I Belong," the first single off of the band's 2003 album Meteora, marks a distinct shift away from the straight metal and rap heard in "One Step Closer," and instead relies on the contrast between quieter, largely electronically-backed verses with a chorus backed by a more traditional drum beat and guitar distortion. Greater inclusion of digitally produced sounds from synthesizers and turntables is a hallmark of Linkin Park's evolution, with each subsequent album highlighting it more and more, and "Somewhere I Belong" represents the beginning of this evolution (with the band's most recent work finally treating synthesizers and electronic sounds as simply another fully-integrated instrument instead of as a means to flavor otherwise guitar-heavy songs).

Of the songs considered here, "Somewhere I Belong" is the least enjoyable, due to the fact that it sits in a kind of limbo between the early stages of the band's development, which relied heavily on nu metal conventions, and the later albums which produced a much more matured, unique sound. The synthesized sounds, while interesting, feel almost like an afterthought, and even though "One Step Closer" is nowhere near as polished as some of the later songs, it still retains a kind of gleeful, anarchic abandon that makes it ultimately more enjoyable than "Somewhere I Belong" (though nowhere near as interesting as the band's latest work). Despite this, the release of Meteora in 2003 saw the band win the America Music Award for "Favorite Alternative Artist" for the first time (an achievement that would be repeated in 2004, 2007, and 2008).

In 2004, following the success of Meteora, Linkin Park produced and released a CD/DVD with Jay-Z entitled Collision Course, consisting entirely of mashups between sings from either artist(s). This was the first and arguably the most widely successful collaboration between Linkin Park and other artists, although the band has since collaborated with a number of other artists and groups (although never with such fanfare and smooth blending as seen in Collision Course). The track "Numb/Encore" from Collision Course eventually won Linkin Park and Jay-Z a Grammy in 2006, for "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" ("Linkin Park Awards" 2011). "Numb" was originally the third single off of Meteora, and is arguably one of the band's more famous songs.

Linkin Park's third album Minutes to Midnight featured the single "What I've Done," which represents a further evolution away from the guitar-centric, definitively metal music of the band's roots and towards a more nuanced, original sound. In particular, "What I've Done" begins with a piano that continues throughout, providing the framework on which the rest of the song is built. While the chorus features some of the usual guitar and drums, the inclusion of the piano and Bennington's far less aggressive vocals mark a distinct shift, such that one may view "What I've Done" as first real, unhindered expression of the sound hinted at in "Somewhere I Belong" (in a somewhat rare case "What I've Done" does not feature vocals from Shinoda). Minutes to Midnight garnered the band American Music Award nominations for "Favorite Pop/Rock Album" and "Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group in 2007," and in 2010 the band received a Grammy nomination for "Best Hard Rock Performance" for "What I've Done" ("Linkin Park Awards" 2011).

Linkin Park's most recent album, A Thousand Suns, is so markedly different from Hybrid Theory that one could almost be forgiven for thinking the two were created by different bands if not for the evolutionary steps visible in the intervening albums. The first single from A Thousand Suns, "The Catalyst," begins with synthesizers and Shinoda's electronically modified vocals, and although the guitar slowly builds up alongside the synthesizers, giving the listener the impression that the song will eventually break out the now-common drum and guitar chorus, nearly a minute in the guitar gives way to music consisting nearly entirely of electronic sounds, to the point that even the drums are augmented by a drum machine. Nonetheless, the guitar makes a triumphant return towards the end of the song, such that its manages to be a celebration of every individual instrument without favoring any one over the other (although for the listener conditioned to hear mostly physical instruments, it will undoubtedly sound electronica-heavy). Of the songs considered here, "The Catalyst" is by far the most interesting here, combining all the best parts of previous efforts while stripping away the unnecessary remnants of the genres which first led to the band's creation. Even the lyrics, which nonetheless maintain the same kind of bubblegum-angst present in nearly any widely successful "alternative" band, manage to surprise simply by the fact that the band seems to have gained a wider vocabulary, both in terms of individual words and the metaphors used. Put another way, burning "like the fire of a thousand suns" is simply a more enjoyable image than "one step closer to the edge / and I'm about to break," even if both convey generally the same theme within either song.