Why was (or still is) Linkin Park hated/ridiculed?

Rean no Kiseki

Rean no Kiseki

Banned
So I'm listening to some of their hit songs (Somewhere I belong - In the end - Breaking the habit/Numb) and it's great, but i remember somewhere in the late 00's to early 2010s you were ridiculed for being a fan, any pirticular reason as to why that is aside from the obvious emo/edge/successful band that has a large teen following?
 
Well the minority likes to hate everything that is popular. I'm no exception.
But the problem with linkin park is that their songs are all the same. Same "catchy" emotional choruses, same build up to the choruses.
It's all so similar.
 
I think because you had 80s and 90s kids raised on Nine Inch Nails and Manson who were getting old enough to grow out of the phase of their life where angst fueled music was appealing to them beyond the nostalgia of youth. Then you have a whole new generation of bands that don't benefit from being a part of that youth, and to everyone moving past that phase of their life, they just looked and sounded like whiny children.

For me, nowhere did I feel that disconnection more than in the early 00s with My Bloody Valentine. "Back in my day, alternative rock sounded angry not whiny." Now get off my lawn.

No disrespect to MBV fans, of course. Same with Power Rangers. I just missed the boat. Were I born five or ten years later, that would likely not be the case.
 
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Rean no Kiseki said:
Sooooo.... pretty much like most hip hop/rap songs?
I'm not hating i love me some Dr. Dre/90s hip hop and some of Eminem's songs.
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Well, no. I think with Rap/HipHop there's more to the lyrics and rhythm then there is to the music behind it. That gives them more leeway. Not that I like the repetitive nature of those either but with Linkin Park it's so clear that all the songs...especially those hit songs...walk the same line.

 
lp is cringe bro. everybody hates on nu metal though. they think the indie rock and fake depressed pop music they listen to is so much better.
 
This is the internet you know the internet loves to hate, I personally don't buy that Linkin Park has haters, you are talking about a band with deep deep lyrics.
 
Most of the hate I saw came from "tr00" metalheads who throw a bitch-fit anytime something they don't like is labeled as metal.
 
Because they're actually bad, like real bad.

I loved LP in my teenage years, man, I considered Hybrid Theory and Meteora awesome, I bought Live in Texas without having a DVD player, and after I got one I'd watch it all the time, I even saved a lot of money to go first row to the first show they did here in Brazil.

But, 15 years later, I listen to it and geez, they're bad. The lyrics are all cringy as hell, no identity, no nothing, shallow as a pond. I think it matches well with teenagers, the angst, the drama and the need to make noise, so they WERE good in doing that, but now...
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:messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
They were super popular, very angsty, and coincided with the rise of RYM/Pitchfork ultra-hipsters.

I didn't like them back then because I was kind of a hipster, but find it pretty listenable these days.
 
Linkin Park was extremely successful mainstream nu metal, at least in the beginning.

Nu metal became about as well-regarded as deathcore at one time. Now people don't mind as much.

I love Linkin Park's first two albums. Sure, they're nothing complex, but it's good passionate angsty stuff with iconic vocals and raps (Shinodaaaa), and it's nostalgic for an old 26-year-old boomer like me.
 
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The trick is to enjoy what you enjoy and not think about it too much. I consider myself a fan of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC for example.
 
It never was. Just some internet hipsters thinking they are funny.

There music was great when it came out same with limb bizkit or whatever that guy was called.
 
I don't think they are hated. The problem is that their hits are always used in fan made AMVs so it became sort of a meme.

Now nickleback on the hand....is trash
 
Soltype said:
People love hating on Nu Metal, I love it though.
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This 100000%

Linkin Park bridged a bunch of genre's and them along with Limp Bizkit helped bridge me into so many genre's it isn't funny. Weird to say but I wouldn't have gotten into bands like King Crimson, Black Sabbath or Trance and Folk music just because it made me go "If I like this what else will I like?" And for that I'll always have a spot for Linkin Park.
 
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Yeah nu metal, the fusion of rap and nascent emo, quite tacky.

That said, i think this general dislike of linkin park was maybe a thing local to you, and a few others.. where i grew up, at least (an international school in Beijing), they weren't really a point of contention. Most people liked one or two of their songs, and if they didn't like them enough they didn't listen further.

For mine, i liked their music on the "in the end" album and meteora well enough, and i think i liked their Japan inspired aesthetic on the Reanimation album. Beyond those three i didn't really listen to them much.

I was more info Deftones, Radiohead, Belle and Sebastian, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Tool at that time.
 
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They were featured in most Anime music videos. That was enough for me to end up hate them despite liking them somewhat before.
 
I really like some music, some music its like my ear drums dont even process and some music I really hate (LP is not on that list for me).

I can only assume that, somewhere, out there....someone else has this experienced this.
 
Linkin Park was probably my favorite band of all time. They hit it big with Hybrid Theory at the exact time I was growing into a teen and it appealed to me. The first two albums were great. Minutes to Midnight was a let down since it was more emo than anything, but later albums, especially Living Things, were awesome. They didn't seem content with just keeping the nu metal sound and doing the same thing over and over. Anyone that was a true Linkin Park fan can tell you in the later albums that they blossomed into quite the rock band. I honestly don't know if I'll ever love a band as much as I did Linkin Park. The nostalgia alone keeps me coming back, and I continually mourn the loss of Chester Bennington. I've tried very hard to like other bands, but none of them hit the same note for me that Linkin Park did, and I only wish they could still be putting more music out, but after Chester's suicide, that option is no longer available. I am just grateful for the music that they did put out there that I can go back and listen to, because I'll go to the grave loving that band.
 
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I have a theory, and it's not a Hybrid one.

Linkin Park wasn't hated because it was formulaic. A lot of bands are formulaic.

All AC/DC songs sound the same and they're still popular as fuck. So it's not that.

It's because they were popular with the girls.

All bands, regardless they are (or were) good or not, that were popular with the chicks always got flack:

- Skid Row
- Bon Jovi
- Aerosmith
- Nickelback
- Silverchair
- My Chemical Romance

The list goes on and on.

I remember Sebastian Bach from Skid Row was booed off stage here in Brazil and called Sebastian Barbie just because he was a good looking guy. The idiots did not respect him. Even Though Slave to the Grind is one of the best metal albums of the 90's (yes, metal, it's a killer metal record) - they started softer and went harder with that album, and still, they were ridiculed.

Silverchair as well... Daniel Johns was talented as fuck (later he went on to become a sort of failed Justing Timberlake in the 2010's, but that's beside the point). A lot of dudes hated the band just because girls loved him because he looked good. And the motherfucker was insanely talented with several great songs and Diorama was borderline prog-rock/metal at some points, but fuck him, he looks like a model.

Linkin Park, to me, because of their star appeal, went on to be ridiculed, but they had some great songs and Chester was a HELL of a vocalist. One of the greatest mainstream vocalists ever. I'm not the biggest fan of the band. I don't like all of their phases, I think I enjoy a good 50% of what they did, but they're undeniably good (at least to me).
 
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Also, the nu-metal revival happned as early as 2014 (it makes sense, Korn's first album was 20 years old by then) when bands like Nothing More, Of Mice and Men (formerly metalcore). The first makes a hybrid radio friendly proggy rock sound with huge nu-metal influence and riffs and the second was a metalcore band but it became more like a Papa Roach influenced act in their later years.

Also, a lot of former deathcore bands started to go into a nu-metal direction. It happened when Suicide Silence brought Jonathan Davis for a song. Then, years later, metalcore act Motionless in White shifted towards a hard rock/nu-metal hybrid and completely abandoned their metalcore sound for a Korn/Manson sound (which is really good in my humble opinion). Then, you have bands like Sylar, DED, Issues, and several others who are clearly influenced by nu-metal and it shows.

Surely, it won't be as mainstream as it was (it's original form is macho as fuck, and I love it) but it's there, it exists, and it's not uncool anymore to declare that you like it .
 
Use to hate them, because they looked like punks, but as I've gotten older, I've realized that they have some real bangers that I enjoy. Funny that.
 
Merzbear said:
Their old shit was fire. Minutes to Midnight onward was garbage. Take all the angst and edge away and you got a trash band my dude.
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The thing is about the angst- it seemed funny and cringe when people made fun of it, but reading about the abuse Chester suffered growing up...it seemed a lot more genuine and understandable afterward. Their last album before he passed is incredible, because it does seem very real and authentic. It's heartbreaking tbh
 
Linkin Park and Disturbed both came out about the time I was finishing high school. I knew something was wrong, very quickly.

I was a big fan of grunge music at the time. Why I could not accept them is a bit of a mystery, and I think I am a bit inconsistent about it too, to be completely honest. What I have against them I can only describe by means of a metaphor: They are that kid in high school that gets expelled, or breaks his nose, or cuts his arm, and then shows it off to you saying "Look how fucked up I am."

I just cannot stand that attitude. To take it a bit further, please excuse the use of Baudrillard. I think that the grunge guys were depressed by life and expressed that in their music. The nu-metal guys learned how to look and sound depressed by watching grunge and metal videos. There always seemed to be something cheap and shallow in their self loathing.

Oh, and that image. Gelled and dyed spiky hair and trackpants. Disgusting! I just cannot stand that manufactured image. I will admit that there is some of that in grunge as well, particularly on Pearl Jam's Ten; but for the most part, they just dressed like regular people. Kurt Cobain at the end was a bad example: I think he went to the pawn shop and just grabbed anything- I don't like it when he does it either.

For what it is worth, LP, Disturbed and Korn seem to have improved in later years. Occasionally, I hear later songs and they sound ok, but I never listen to it.
 
They're just the default "edgy outcast kid soundtrack" band. No more, no less.

Says the guy with the Tool avatar.
 
Scotty W said:
Linkin Park and Disturbed both came out about the time I was finishing high school. I knew something was wrong, very quickly.

I was a big fan of grunge music at the time. Why I could not accept them is a bit of a mystery, and I think I am a bit inconsistent about it too, to be completely honest. What I have against them I can only describe by means of a metaphor: They are that kid in high school that gets expelled, or breaks his nose, or cuts his arm, and then shows it off to you saying "Look how fucked up I am."

I just cannot stand that attitude. To take it a bit further, please excuse the use of Baudrillard. I think that the grunge guys were depressed by life and expressed that in their music. The nu-metal guys learned how to look and sound depressed by watching grunge and metal videos. There always seemed to be something cheap and shallow in their self loathing.

Oh, and that image. Gelled and dyed spiky hair and trackpants. Disgusting! I just cannot stand that manufactured image. I will admit that there is some of that in grunge as well, particularly on Pearl Jam's Ten; but for the most part, they just dressed like regular people. Kurt Cobain at the end was a bad example: I think he went to the pawn shop and just grabbed anything- I don't like it when he does it either.

For what it is worth, LP, Disturbed and Korn seem to have improved in later years. Occasionally, I hear later songs and they sound ok, but I never listen to it.
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Grunge's slack look was just as manufactured as the nu-metal look.

Image is always involved. Even if it seems to be "normal", it's always calculated. Some are more blatant, but it's always calculated.

As someone who grew up the heyday of grunge, I was drawn to nu-metal (but a lot of it came because I liked groove metal like Machine Head , Pantera and Sepultura as well as grunge). Also, a lot of what was called nu-metal was just post grunge with more downtuning and some yelling. I just like distortion a lot, whether it's Sonic Youth fuzzy shit or Death Metal, I'm all over it. And nu-metal had plenty of distortion to fill my soul. lol
 
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