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In the end, did Linkin Park deserve all the hate they got? Does it even matter?

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T

timetokill

Banned
Yeah, the hate got big when the band became so massive that they were inescapable. But it's not really their fault Hybrid Theory had like 8 singles or whatever.
 
P

Purple Cheeto

Member
Dali said:
The only thing that really sucks about linkin Park is the whiny singing. The rap was decent and the beats/production was oftentimes amazing.
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Oddly some of their newer stuff (at least that which I heard on Sirius XM) was more straight forward punk and it was fairly passable.
 
G

Grisby

Member
Nah, I liked their first couple of cd's. Haven't gotten back to them since high school, but I still don't think that they'd be offensively bad.
 
SinShep

SinShep

Member
You like what you like, whatever your age. There's no reason to retroactively want to change what your interests used to be. They change, sure, but that doesn't mean you should disown them.
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
I started listening to Linken Park when I was 12 or so and never stopped.

I don't think they've topped Meteora yet, but Living Things is damn close. Their latest record is also a lot of fun, if a slight casualty to the loudness war.
 
B

bomma_man

Member
DoktorEvil said:
They were and are lyrically garbage(except when Shinoda went off from time to time), but their sound was and still is so fresh and new. They are also one of the few bands that do experiment with newer sounds, which I wholly appreciate from them.

Hybrid Theory and Meteora are still great albums.
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come off it



and yes, they do. they're ironically good though, like limp bizkit.
 
V

Valnen

Member
Parch said:
That's what it mostly is. The internet provides a source to bandwagon hate and there are entire generations of sheep eager to jump on board and mock those who don't. It's cool to hate, so conform or be cast out.
Stop caring so much about what other people think of you and like what you like.
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Pretty much this.

I will continue listening to my old Metallica albums and Avenged Sevenfold and whatever else I like that the internet doesn't. Who gives a shit.
 
W

Wazzy

Banned
No they didn't. Their music was something different and the first two albums and Reanimation are legitimately great albums. How anyone can hate Reanimation is beyond me.
 
S

Silver Arrows

Banned
In terms of musicality, absolutely not. Meteora and Hybrid Theory both stand out as fantastic rock albums of the 2000's. It's Minutes to Midnight and everything afterwards where Chester's whiny, melodramatic lyrics catch up and give them the label that they've been trying to shake (And certainly have, with their past few albums)

I like to think that Linkin Park and Thrice are both the same in their career trajectories. Both started off as very down to basics emo in the era that it thrived in. But both of them had band members (Shinoda for LP, Dustin Kensrue for Thrice) that manage to get them out of the screamo and melancholy and update their sound to one more experimental. For Thrice, it worked out to be without a doubt their best album in Vheissu, and defined them as one of the most unique rock bands of the 2000's, IMO. For Linkin Park, it's harder to say considering they went into the experimental sound relatively later.
 
T

totipotent.cell

Member
http://youtu.be/GgxcvmkPD-I

The Voltron-esque music video of Reanimation pts.of.athrty piqued my interest in Linkin Park. The song came out in 2002, when doing good quality cgi was still not prevalent. I still think Papercut is great and a few songs in Meteora is also very good.

Interest started waning with Minutes to Midnight and stopped caring after their Transformers soundtrack sounded repetitive and generic. Never heard their recent stuff though.
 
A

And_Gignac

Member
I am sure most people here bought their first and second records. Seriously, no need to feel ashamed for that.


Listening to this while being an unfranchised suburban teenager...

IE5I7AG0lQm7W.gif
 
J

janoDX

Member
Hybrid Theory, Meteora and Hunting Party are playing all the time on my Spotify playlist. Those 3 are great albums.
 
C

Conkersbadfurday

Member
Ya'll have to understand that they wrote Hybrid Theory when they were in their early 20's or so. It was angsty because they were angsty.

The shit I wrote in my early 20's was pretty "trying to be edgy" too, but I never got the luxury of having millions of people read it.

But that nostalgic depressed kid in me still loves Hybrid Theory for exactly what it tries to be. It's a cathartic album to listen to.
 
V

Valnen

Member
Conkersbadfurday said:
Ya'll have to understand that they wrote Hybrid Theory when they were in their early 20's or so. It was angsty because they were angsty.

The shit I wrote in my early 20's was pretty "trying to be edgy" too, but I never got the luxury of having millions of people read it.

But that nostalgic depressed kid in me still loves Hybrid Theory for exactly what it tries to be. It's a cathartic album to listen to.
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You're making a mistake in assuming people even listen to/care about the lyrics.
 
C

Chamber

love on your sleeve
They were my gateway band so I'm not going to hate on them too much. Hybrid Theory, Meteora, and that Jay-Z mash up are still fun to listen to on occasion but yeah, their lyrics are definitely shit written for 13 year olds.
 
N

noshten

Member
Always a meh for Linkin Park, just not very interesting to listen to. As a teenager I didn't like them cause they were popular with people who had no other interests in rock/metal music - not so much about the group and how they carried themselves.
 
M

MisterGrey3000

Member
A lot of Linkin Park's most popular tracks sound like they could have come out of Sonic Adventure 2's ridiculous OST, it's really that corny and unoriginal sounding to me.
I'm honestly pretty embarrassed that I was kind of into that stuff back in the day (so many AMVs...)

However, I don't think any artist deserves to be hated because some people don't like their music.
 
DeSo

DeSo

Banned
They pretty much started my musical journey, now I'm in to so much other shit. I still go back and listen to HT and Meteora occasionally just for the nostalgia. They were decent albums. I might give Hunting Party a listen for shits and giggles.
 
J

jstripes

Banned
Musically, on a few of tracks I've heard, Linkin Park wasn't that bad.

But the image they projected, and the fanbase that surrounded them, are completely worthy of scorn.
 
R

random25

Member
I like Linkin Park through and through. They may not be the music most people prefer but they are one of the few artists that endured and evolved when a lot of bands and such in modern day music industry were just one-hit wonders.

And watching their concert live twice, my respect for them just skyrocketed. Never seen a much more all-out performance than them.
 
Z

Zombine

Banned
There is a very specific track on one of their earlier albums where they talk about how some label exec wanted Shinoda off the tracks because it was weird or some shit, and how they wanted them to be a country band or something. It was one of those "fuck you man fight the power!" things like they weren't going to alter their vision for the band.

Then after Meteora they pull Shinoda off the mic and become a totally different band because nu-metal was dead lol.
 
T

Toski

Member
I'd say yes. As a fan of HT, Reanimation, and Meteora, all of their subsequent albums proved them to be the sellouts they were accused of.

They changed from making nu-metal/rapcore to abruptly making indie-esque music that was popular at the time. Their technical ability never really improved much either, although that criticism was mainly from metalheads who already hated everything to do with type of music.

Zombine said:
There is a very specific track on one of their earlier albums where they talk about how some label exec wanted Shinoda off the tracks because it was weird or some shit, and how they wanted them to be a country band or something. It was one of those "fuck you man fight the power!" things like they weren't going to alter their vision for the band.
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That was the Fort Minor album.
 
G

gnomed

Member
Icyflamez96 said:
Living Things was better than both of those.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NvrWciHrBw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNv5g_9EliQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScNNfyq3d_w
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Did we become best friends? I hold this album in high regards, especially when a loved one passed away a few years ago. Maybe the nostalgia of me having not listened to Linkin Park in years added to it, but I find it a great experience taken as a whole. I've played a few tracks and a few of my friends were surprised that it was the same band until they hear Chester's voice.
NotLiquid said:
Hybrid Theory was legitimately great and I still consider Reanimation to be one of the best remix albums that you can find.

Meteora is not as good but still a decent album.

I can give props to the band for trying to distance themselves from the stigma in Minutes to Midnight but the music was just poor.

A Thousand Suns is a very well produced concept album that I enjoy listening to.

Living Things is probably their most confident and solid album after Hybrid Theory.

The Hunting Party is probably their best album in terms of technical production and it's great to see them finally remember that the guitarist can actually play some decent stuff. It's not as good as Living Things but it's still enjoyable.

Overall they're a band with a mostly solid track record, caught in the trappings of a few hit singles that painted them as pretty whiny. Several tracks they've made I find really hard to deny their catchy melodies and tunes (Breaking the Habit is fucking great).
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I'm not the biggest fan of Hybrid Theory, but still think Meteora holds up. I have nit listened anything from The Hunting Party as of yet. Everything else you said I agree with, sums them up pretty much.


Magnetic_North said:
I enjoy Linkin Park

Hybrid Theory/Meteora are amazing i personally prefer Meteora

but i really really enjoy A Thousand Suns ...anybody else really dig that album?
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I didn't enjoy this personally, even if it was really experimental for the band. And this is coming from a guy that finds Richard D. James weird discography enjoyable.

Etrian Oddity said:
Mike Shinoda is actually the real deal. And he contributed some of the better fight music in The Raid: Redemption.
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I'm guessing Shinoda's background plays a part in the driving force behind the appeal for AMVs and Japanese culture in the early aughts.

Conkersbadfurday said:
I started listening to Linken Park when I was 12 or so and never stopped.

I don't think they've topped Meteora yet, but Living Things is damn close. Their latest record is also a lot of fun, if a slight casualty to the loudness war.
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High five.
 
T

TheXfactor

Member
Zombine said:
There is a very specific track on one of their earlier albums where they talk about how some label exec wanted Shinoda off the tracks because it was weird or some shit, and how they wanted them to be a country band or something. It was one of those "fuck you man fight the power!" things like they weren't going to alter their vision for the band.

Then after Meteora they pull Shinoda off the mic and become a totally different band because nu-metal was dead lol.
Click to expand...
Shinoda made the band huge though with his rapping. It was that edge that they needed to become big, without mike rapping, i dont know how big they would have gotten. Plus its been a major complaint of their newer albums that mike doesn't rap anymore.
 
F

faridmon

Member
Hybrid Theory and Meteora were great when I was young, everything else by them turned out to be shit. The hate is also justified because they have the worst fans ever!
 
Y

You Are Viewtiful

Member
I wasn't even aware they were hated?

Most people I know have good memories of that punk rock era. Just yesterday I was talking with my friends about how kids these days don't really listen to rock anymore. A bit sad.

edit: ohhh, unless you're talking those "it's not real music" people. Those guys are insufferable no matter what era. To hell with them.
 
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