Linkin Park: A Branch of Rock, Punk, Hip-Hop and Everything in Between

Linkin Park: A Branch of Hard Rock, Punk, Hip-Hop Thats Changing Popular Music.

by

Kevin Gilmartin

MUS 100

March 7, 2006

Three or four years ago, we asked ourselves, like every other band, `What do we want out of this?' We all went home and wrote down goals. Mike came back with his list of goals, and one of them was 'I want to win a Grammy.' We were like, `Wow, that's crazy. It's cool, but it's crazy.'" (Fricke)

Linkin Park has rocked the charts since 2000 with a rock/rap sound that is not only unique but also unmatched in popularity. In analyzing this group, one must view the classifications of Hard Rock, Punk, and Hip-Hop and investigate how Linkin Park fits in these groups, and why they do not. One must also investigate the roots of the group to see how they came together and where many of their ideas from which their songs came. Finally, one must analyze the music itself to see how it cross classifies and how their past is reflected in their music.

One genre that Linkin Park is associated with is Hard Rock. The New Grove Dictionary of Music defines Hard Rock as An imprecise term, partly co-extensive with heavy metal, referring to a group of styles originating in the late 1960s as a response to and development of the prevailing counter-culture. It goes on to say, (Its) Dominant techniques include deep-tuned drums and ringing cymbals played with a marked absence of local syncopation, and declamatory vocals...The characteristic and frequent use of organs can be heard In some respects, Linkin Park fits this description. Linkin Park and its fan base is a part of American counter-culture that rebels against societal norms and generally writes about melloncollie and depressing themes. Linkin Park also has deep-tuned drums and use of keyboard as a substitude for the organ.

However, Linkin Park branches away from this in its use of a rapper and DJ as well as their less aggressive lyrics. Often times, Hard Rock has screaming lyrics of emotion. Linkin Park in many of its songs have rap singing, where its much more rythmatic and certainly not screaming such as their hit In the End.

Another big difference is the presence of a DJ. The DJ is found present in Hip-Hop and modern Pop music as opposed to Hard Rock like Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin. The DJ is very important to most every song done by Linkin Park and can be a focal point of a song such as With You where the song leads in with a DJ mix.

Another contrast between Hard Rock and Linkin Park is the lack of extreme aggresion in their music. Of course, aggresion is present in their music but it is not over the top aggresion filled with profain language like Limp Bizkit or Metalica. It is quite rare to hear the group utter a curse word in a single concert. Rob Kemp writes in his review of a Linkin Park concert Barring the occasional motherfucker uttered by singer Chester Bennington and MC Mike Shinoda, a Linkin Park concert is free of danger. Comparing this to other recent Hard Rock bands like Korn, Linkin Park looks to be anything but Hard Rock.

Another genre that Linkin Park seems to fit the mold of is Punk music. The New Grove Dictionary of Music says, The music blended established techniques of instrumentation, forms and chordal repertory, but articulated them with abandon and ferocity. It also goes on to say, punk had been stylistically co-opted into the New Wave, but remained part of a much larger culture of resistance, most visible through fanzines praising punk's do-it-yourself aesthetic, confrontational dressing and the independent labels' challenge to the major labels' stranglehold on the industry. In some respects, Linkin Park fits this mold as well. At times, they can have the abandon and ferocity in their songs such as Faint and By Myself. However, for some of the same reasons why it is not considered Hard Rock, it is not Punk either.

The rapper/DJ is in direct contrast with Punk as well as the lack of cursing. However, Punk, as stated in New Grove Dictionary, is also a much larger culture that Linkin Park does not really fit into. In Josh Tyrangiels article Linkin Park Steps Out, He says, they don't wear goth makeup, cut themselves onstage, objectify women or encourage kids to break stuff, as Limp Bizkit infamously did at Woodstock '99. They are earnest, middleclass guys who sign autographs until the arena lights go out, give their e-mail addresses to fans and refrain from uttering a single curse word on their album. Linkin Park does not fit the culture of Punk as well as their musical style.

The last genre that Linkin Park is associated with is Hip-Hop. The New Grove Dictionary says, included graffiti art, break-dancing, and rap (a spoken rhyme, often improvised and usually delivered over a background derived from recordings in the funk or soul style). It continues, its musical qualities, in particular rapping, scratching (where microgroove recordings are rotated on a turntable in a reverse direction to produce a scratching sound), digital sound sampling, and a distinctive drumming style.

Linkin Park surprisingly fits many of these qualities. Linkin Park does feature rap and scratcing as well as digital sound sampling. Linkin Park has even released albums featuring mostly Hip-Hop realated music like Re-Animiation, a remix of songs from their first CD Hybrid Theory, and Collision Course where the group teamed with famous rapper Jay-Z to combine songs from the two to make a new, disticnt Rock/Hip-Hop sound. Linkin Park also incorporates these qualities in their normal music. Songs such as the previously mentioned With You feture scratching and rapping. They also do quite a bit with digital sound sampling. In David Frickes article Linkin Park, the band themselves credit rapper Mike Shinoda as the mastermind behind the digital sound sampling. Bourdon cites Points of Authority on Linkin Park's album as an example of Shinoda's skill: Brad wrote this riff, then went home. Mike decided to cut it up into different pieces and rearranged them on the computer. Shinoda rewrote Delson's riff so completely, Bourdon says, that Brad had to learn his own part from the computer.

However, Linkin Park does not completely fit with Hip-Hop. Hip-Hop stresses on the rap and rythmaticness of the music. Rap is the primary vocals in Hip-Hop and is clearly absent of any loud screams or outbursts. Linkin Park is well know for screaming outbursts mixed with their rap such as the song Lying From You where one part features an almost chant of anguish that is not usually present in Hip-Hop music. Furthermore, Hip-Hop stresses on the dance nature of the music. However, there is no dancing nature whatsoever in Linkin Parks Music unless one is referring to a slam dance a.k.a. mosh pit.

Because of all of its contrasts with usual musical genres, Linkin Park fits in a genre of its own although many still classify them with group such as Korn and Limp Bizkit.

Linkin Parks history is as important in understanding the group as anything else. The backgrounds of the band members speak volumes for how their musical style came about.

Linkin Park consists of founding members Mike Shinoda, the rapper and songwriter, Joseph Hahn, the DJ, Brad Delson on guitar, Rob Bourdon on drums, David Farrell a.k.a. Phoenix on bass guitar, and late add-on Chester Bennington songwriter and lead vocals. (Fricke) The founding members are all from Los Angeles, California, and Bennington is from Phoenix, Arizona. All of the band members have unique stories, which led them to Linkin Park.

Mike Shinoda, a second-generation Japanese American, attended college at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California while trying to practice, write songs, and perform for the band. Joseph Hahn also attended college at Art Center College of Design for one year where he met Shinoda. Hahn left college and became a freelance illustrator and part-time DJ for the group. Brad Delson dived up his time between college at UCLA where he received a degree in mass communications, songwriting and guitar playing with the band, and working an internship at Zomba records where he would meet Linkin Parks future executive producer, Jeff Blue. Rob Bourdon met Delson when he was 13 years old in high school. He attended UCLA and joined the band as the drummer while waiting tables. David Farrell, originally from Massachusetts, attended UCLA where he received a degree in philosophy and met Delson and Bourdon and joined the band as the bassist. Chester Bennington, before previously joining the band in 1999, had a job transferring property maps into computer files. He had a wife and a newborn child on the way. He had just brought a house on Redondo Beach in Phoenix and was seemingly living a stable life. However, Bennington had always had a passion for music and received a phone call on his 23rd birthday informing him of the opening for the LA band, Xero. Bennington took a chance, quit his job, and drove to LA where he tried out and became the new singer of Xero, who latter changed their name to Hybrid Theory and then changed it again Linkin Park, after a county in Santa Monica, California. (Fricke)

The group came together to write the songs for Hybrid Theory LP, an Independent CD to not only get their sound out to build a fan base, but also to get their sound to record labels in hopes of getting signed. However, they did not sit on their thumbs and wait. The band would enter music chat rooms and advertise their band as if they were outsiders to try their ideas and build an early fan base. When Warner Bros. signed them in 1999, they had already established a worldwide fan base in England, Australia, Japan, etc. (Tyrangiel)

Many wonder where the inspiration comes for the songs, but one possibility is from the troubled past of Chester Bennington. A former drug abuser and alcoholic (he still was an alcoholic for the begin of Linkin Parks first tour but gave it up during the middle of it), Bennington often refers to the feelings of despair and anguish in his early life. However, Bennington claims that in his music, he blames no one else but himself for his problems. Bennington says in Frickes article, "It's easy to fall into that thing - `poor, poor me,' "That's where songs like 'Crawling' come from: I can't take myself. But that song is about taking responsibility for your actions. I don't say 'you' at any point. It's about how I'm the reason that I feel this way. There's something inside me that pulls me down."

Linkin Park is revolutionizing popular music with their Hybrid of Hard Rock, Punk, and Hip-Hop. Although other bands such as Limp Bizkit have attempted to do this as well, none have reached the popularity of Linkin Park. All one most do is look at the sales and popularity of their albums. Linkin Parks first album, Hybrid Theory, sold over 19 millions worldwide. (Kemp) There most recent album, Meteora, had five songs combine to keep them at Billboard #1 for over 27 weeks, more than any band in the last 15 years. (Pietroluongo, Minal, and Wade) Linkin Park is here to stay and at this rate, could put themselves in popular music history. (And in The New Grove Dictionary)

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Works Consulted

Colegrave, Stephen. Punk. New York, New York :Thunder's Mouth Press, 2001.

Fricke, David. Linkin Park. Rolling Stone. 14 March, 2002.

Kemp, Rob. Linkin Park. Rolling Stone. 19 February., 2004.

Mettler, Mike. Meteora (music release). Sound & Vision. June 2003, 101.

The New Groove Dictionary Online. 19 Feb. 2006. http://www.grovemusic.com.ezproxy1.lib.depaul.edu/index.html?authstatuscode=200Pietroluongo, Silvio, Patel, Minal, and Jessen, Wade. Linkin Park: Its 'Habit' Is Breaking Records. Billboard. 24 August, 2004.

Sanneh, Kelefa. From Punk to Rap, the Varied Guises of the Hard-Rock Sound. New York Times. 12 May 2005. E1

Scaggs, Austin. Jay-Z, Linkin Park Rock L.A. Rolling Stone. 19 August, 2004.

Tyrangiel, Josh. Linkin Park Steps Out. Time. 28 Jan. 2002.