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

Seems like this thread got randomly bumped too, so I'll throw in my input. I grew up on 60's, 70's, and some 80's hard rock and prog-rock. When 90's grunge, nu-metal, and alternative rock bands came out...they all seemed like one clone of each other. It seems like right at the peak of nu-metal's popularity dwindling in about 2000 is when alternative rock/metal bands like Linkin Park came onto the scene. What it signaled to me was that they understood the formula for selling catchy music with combined genre music (not unlike Breaking Benjamin or 311) but I was tired of those guys, too. It isn't music that ages well. It fits for the short 5-10 years that the genre was popular and then most historical or nostalgic value of that type of music is just gone.

I don't hate Linkin Park but I never got why that genre of music or the other two I mentioned became popular. I think 90's and 2000's rock's failure to garner a broader audience is why there really isn't much of a demand for rock music anymore.
 
I'm a few months shy of 30, and my two top bands are LP and NIN. And before the claim comes around that unintelligent or immature people like mainstream music, or whatever, by all other accounts I'm a music snob. I keep Peste Noire, Immortal, Lantlós, and Cormorant in my regular rotation.

It comes down to nostalgia and really sound efficient songwriting structure for me. Something doesn't have to complex to be well put together, and Mike Shinoda is pretty great at assembling pop structured music from pretty much anything.
 
Hybrid Theory and Meteora slap

I'm not familiar with their other works

It's a formula which works, why not stick with it?
 
Eh I'll admit their rhythm could be fun, even if it all ended up sounding similar, but their lyrics are terrible, all they sing about is suicide and depression, I don't need that negativity shit in my life. Didn't they have a band member actually go through with it and then people surprise pikachu faced? Like anyone who actually pays attention to their lyrics wouldn't have had the slightest bit of surprise. I'm not condoning suicide, but holy shit it was obvious.
 
As Linkin Park was the band to make me care about music I'll give my opinion.

The is 100 percent not based on anything but a few things Shinoda said over the years that I've picked up but after minutes to midnight I really dropped off so my exposure is limited after that.

My biggest issue was always with Shinoda. He never seemed to understand what made them popular and when they did get popular it always felt like he was pissed they got popular with the music they made during their height.

The thing is they still made decent music from what I understand and I will never fault a band for trying something new. But you don't look back at your old work and literally say, yeah if we made that music now nobody would care.

Mother fucker your music changed my life. Let me be the god damn judge you dunce.

RIP Chester. Gone too soon.
 
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People hate popular bands because they're safe, and not 'real maaaaaan'.

Give me Nickelback or Linkin Park over pseudo-intellectual muck like Captain Beefheart or ostentatious Japanese harsh-noise any day.

Music elitism is for schmucks. Tell me again how that one power outlet in your living room makes your music sound better than the one in your study, you jerk-off.
 
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TeezzyD said:
People hate popular bands because they're safe, and not 'real maaaaaan'.

Give me Nickelback or Linkin Park over pseudo-intellectual muck like Captain Beefheart or ostentatious Japanese harsh-noise any day.

Music elitism is for schmucks. Tell me again how that one power outlet in your living room makes your music sound better than the one in your study, you jerk-off.
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I couldn't decide so you pick:

A) All Yours
B)
ExaltedDiligentEgg-size_restricted.gif

C) They say rock and roll is the Devil's music. Well, let's say that it is - I've got news for ya - let's say that rock and roll is the Devil's music and we know it for a fact to be absolutely unequivocally true... boy, at least he fuckin' jams! AHAHAHAHAHA - okay? Did you hear that correctly? If it's a choice between eternal hell and good tunes or eternal heaven and New Kids on the fuckin' Block? I'm gonna be surfing on the lake of fire, rockin' out! High fiving Satan every time I pass him on the fucking shore. Because, you know, if you play New Kids on the Block albums backwards, they sound better, you know. "Oh come on Bill, they're the New Kids! Don't pick on them; they're so good, they're so clean cut and they're such a good image for our children!" Fuck that. When did mediocrity and banality become a good image for your children? I want my children to listen to people who fuckin' ROCKED! I don't care if they died in a puddle of their own VOMIT, I WANT SOMEONE WHO PLAYS FROM HIS FUCKIN' HEART! "Mommy! Mommy! The man Bill told me to listen to has a blood bubble on his nose" SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO HIM PLAY. "The New Kids! Hi, we're the New Kids! We're so good and clean cu- [strange, loud satanic noises] We're so clean cut - SIEG HEIL! HEIL! HEIL! - A good clean country - HEIL! HEIL HEIL! [more satanic noises] FUCK THAT, I WANT MY ROCKSTARS DEAD!!! I want them to fucking play with one hand and put a gun in their other fucking hand and go "Hope you enjoyed the show!" [mimics gunshot to the head] YEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!!! YEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! PLAY FROM YOUR FUCKING HEAAAAARRRRRRRT! Ahem, I am available for children's parties by the way.
D)
giphy.gif
 
bender said:
Because my generosity knows no bounds.

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Dang, now I'm the one who can't decide::

A) Sorry, I can't hear you over my childhood copy of New Kids on the Block's Hangin' Tough on cassette.

B) If Bill Hicks were so smart he wouldn't have smoked so many cigarettes.

C)
I5YcXj.gif
 
TeezzyD said:
Dang, now I'm the one who can't decide::

A) Sorry, I can't hear you over my childhood copy of New Kids on the Block's Hangin' Tough on cassette.

B) If Bill Hicks were so smart he wouldn't have smoked so many cigarettes.

C)
I5YcXj.gif
Click to expand...

Maybe Bill is the lucky one because being dead saves him the off chance of reading your posts.

giphy-downsized-large.gif


I need a cigarette.
 
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TeezzyD said:
Hybrid Theory and Meteora slap

I'm not familiar with their other works

It's a formula which works, why not stick with it?
Click to expand...

Well that's the problem. I still don't understand what the fuck that last album is supposed to be. It sounds like clothing store music, it's what I hear in my mind when I think of H&M.
They made some weird choices which mostly worked for the other post-Meteora albums but the last one is a disaster. Legit sounds like a joke album, like they were trolling and meant to release the real album later but then Chester an heroed and they stuck with what they had.
 
I think it was mostly the nickelback phenomenon, where something becomes popular to hate

See also: Dane Cook, a perfectly competent comedian that people randomly stopped liking
 
I personally don't know anyone who "hated" Linkin Park when they were still at the forefront the rock/metal music industry. Pretty much everyone I grew up around (friends, siblings, cousins, etc) were into LP to some degree. The only people I've seen complain about LP were trolls in 2009 era Youtube comment sections haha. They just hate whatever is popular BECAUSE it is popular. LP went through a pretty "pop" oriented transformation later in their career, but to me that is maturity and not something objectively worthy of ridicule. I think most of the ridicule stemmed from former fans who didn't like their new/current sound at the time lol.

Either way, the "edgy" lyrics really connected with me in my teen years, but in my "kid" years (elementary school) I just loved the music for what is was. Alternative heavy metal, nu-metal, "rap rock" whatever you want to call it was cutting edge stuff in the late 90's/early 2000's. I remember my older sister had the Hybrid Theory and Meteora albums and I used to listen to both all the time on her CD player/boombox. I think of those albums as "soundtracks" to my youth, and totally defined those years for me. Same goes for bands like Evanescence, Tool, Deftones, Korn, etc.
 
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People complaining LP songs are samey didn't realized the trend nowadays is repeating the same phrase and tune from start to over :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
I think it's just your typical very vocal minority. I have yet to meet a person who doesn't like LP or is at least neutral about them.
 
Bland corporate suicide anthems and cringe rap. To think, people were listening to this shit while a great band like Strapping Young Lad was completely ignored by radio and TV.

 
People really hated anything that they seemed associated with "emos" back then, the lyrics to the songs only made that worse.

It's kind of like when people hated on Shadow the Hedgehog those days (mid-2000s) but the character's introduction didn't have him acting like a depressed crybaby. That "Faker" line was often the subject of the cool kids arguing at recess back in the day
 
Scotty W said:
Bland corporate suicide anthems and cringe rap. To think, people were listening to this shit while a great band like Strapping Young Lad was completely ignored by radio and TV.

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I was happily enjoying both when they were current. To each their own.
 
I basically found them okay as long as Chester was singing. But I can't stand rapping, so whenever that rap dude came in with his crap it made the song worse.
 
Because of a bunch of mongoloid metalheads who think that their garbage unoriginal pentatonic riffs are the epitome of music creation.
 
Linkin Park 😂 Dumb rap and some emo kid screaming. (yes it is shit the guy is dead, doesn't change that his screaming sucked). Also, they were way overplayed on the radio back when they were popular in the mainstream.
 
I didn't hate them, but I didn't listen to their music because it's not my cup of tea. Nickleback on the other hand, fuck those guys.
 
I liked LP especially when they first showed up. I think they make great to the point songs. I dont mind bands evolving, they actually have gradually but with the last album they totally lost me. Its not that it doesnt sound like LP, they went for an even bigger mainstream crowd but it ended up sounding like a C grade record compared to the artists that were kings in that field. Its not because it sounds so mellow, its just boring and uninspired. No catchy sounds...I barely even hear the guitar honestly.

If you ever watched Mike Shinoda on twitch, he makes songs on the fly. Worst thing is, he can make a proper LP song, its a specific sound they lost long ago and I dont know why they completely abandoned it. You can always evolve but still sprinkle in that iconic sounds that is yours. Instead they went 180* and most people hated it. In retrospect, I cant deny that this was also the final push to Chesters suicide. Its many things obviously but the reaction to this album was so bad and the way he started to answer back to fans you realized he lost it.

First time I hear LP considered an emo band lol. Bullet for my valentine, Chemical romance, lost prophets etc..yes. Just because a band has a mellow song doesnt mean they are emo.
 
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AeonGaidenRaiden said:
I liked LP especially when they first showed up. I think they make great to the point songs. I dont mind bands evolving, they actually have gradually but with the last album they totally lost me. Its not that it doesnt sound like LP, they went for an even bigger mainstream crowd but it ended up sounding like a C grade record compared to the artists that were kings in that field. Its not because it sounds so mellow, its just boring and uninspired. No catchy sounds...I barely even hear the guitar honestly.

If you ever watched Mike Shinoda on twitch, he makes songs on the fly. Worst thing is, he can make a proper LP song, its a specific sound they lost long ago and I dont know why they completely abandoned it. You can always evolve but still sprinkle in that iconic sounds that is yours. Instead they went 180* and most people hated it. In retrospect, I cant deny that this was also the final push to Chesters suicide. Its many things obviously but the reaction to this album was so bad and the way he started to answer back to fans you realized he lost it.

First time I hear LP considered an emo band lol. Bullet for my valentine, Chemical romance, lost prophets etc..yes. Just because a band has a mellow song doesnt mean they are emo.
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I doubt he killed himself because people gave him shit for a shit pop album. He had a long history of struggling with suicidal thoughts and depression.
 
I saw them live on the Summer Sanitarium tour in 2004 I think it was. They were pretty good performers for what they are. That first album I can remember enjoying a lot. I probably liked the second album as well then I fell off. They're fine. Not nearly as offensive as some other shit back then.
 
SirKicksalot said:
Hybrid Theory 20th Anniversary Edition was launched today. It comes with Reanimation and a ridiculous amount of demos, B-sides and rarities. They uploaded most or maybe all of it to Youtube.
Listening to these early songs highlights what an achievement the album was. It's so confident and polished!
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Reanimation was a huge step in the right direction for the band. They could've really done something special after it but instead went back to the formula.
 
They were a pop band trying to sound edgy, as opposed to a being an edgy rock band being asked by the label to Sound more pop.

I vividly remember hearing "One Step Closer" for the first time and thinking it sounded contrived and disingenuous. It was the Disneyland version of the music that had molded my youth. The label released that song first because if you lose the rock fans on the first single, it's hard to get them back later.

I heard "Crawling" and loved it. It seemed more genuine to me as a song, had a better melody, and had less of the rap thing (The Fred Durst comment earlier in this thread rings true for me, he mocked his own genre and that was the end of it). I was happy for LP.

When I heard "In The End", I thought "Holy god these guys are going to be HUGE." They probably already were at that point, but that song cemented their hugeness for me. When the peak of your success comes that early, it's probably a tough gig to navigate maturing and trying new things, and yet they did that for the most part very successfully. It's a shame Chester couldn't work through his demons, not many bands can hold an original lineup together for that long and keep things going.

I was in the running to be their bass player back in 99 when I first moved to LA. I still have the original demo they gave me, when they were still called Hybrid Theory. They were smart and made no mention during the tryouts of what was going on with the label, etc. The demo was very rough and had none of the songs from HT on it. If I remember, Chester only sang on one song on the demo.
 
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