Linkin Park/YMMV

Opinions on the band range from "original, creative, and awesome enough to be their own genre" to "insufferably emo."

"Phoenix: The first time LP went to Japan a fan handed me a letter at a meet and greet. The envelope was addressed "Dear Mike, Joe, Chester, Brad, Rob, and bass player man"."
 * Awesome Music:
 * Hybrid Theory (for a lot of people anyway). Special mention goes to "In the End".
 * The album or the work the band did under their original name of Hybrid Theory? Or perhaps both?
 * Throw in Reanimation as well.
 * "New Divide" is fairly universally loved.
 * If side projects are included, Fort Minor's "Remember the Name".
 * "Bleed it Out", most likely the only song every fan can agree is good.
 * Especially if it's this absolutely killer live version.
 * The one from A Thousand Suns is probably "Burning in the Skies", which is pure audio bliss while "Blackout" and "Wretches and Kings" might please fans of the old LP sound too.
 * Minutes to Midnight split the fanbase, but if fan reactions are anything to go by, two outtakes from that album's recording sessions may have lessened the impact: "QWERTY" and "Across the Line".
 * "No Roads Left" is possibly the best Linkin Park song ever and should have been on an album.
 * The entire Meteora album definitely.
 * I always thought that "Lying From You" was an awesome song.
 * The whole of A Thousand Suns is one big one. One of the most cohesive and artful albums done by a mainstream rock band in recent memory, and proves that the band have genuine talent.
 * BURN. IT. DOWN. It manages to combine the style from every song they've ever done before, and make it into something awesome.
 * Broken Base:
 * The fans who liked Minutes to Midnight, and the fans who didn't. Their fourth album, A Thousand Suns only made things worse.
 * According to reviews, even fans who enjoyed Minutes to Midnight have been broken by A Thousand Suns which, likewise, has also earned favoritism from fans. If this keeps up, Linkin Park might become the most divisive band in the history of popular music.
 * Even before those albums, those who enjoyed Reanimation and Fort Minor and wanted more of their rhythmic/hip hop side to take prominence, versus those who dismissed the side projects and/or preferred the more melodic/rock-oriented sounds of their main body of work.
 * Now that the first single of the band's fifth album has been released, fans are divided over whether it's a good return to basics or too pop-like to even be considered rock.
 * Dead Horse Genre: Nu-metal, which was later tossed overboard to rid themselves of the title.
 * Ear Worm: Pick a song.
 * Epic Riff: "One Step Closer", "Faint", and the distinctive piano notes of "In the End".
 * Face of the Band: Chester's the only one who appears in the "Shadow of the Day" video while in the video for "New Divide", Chester is the only member who gets any focus when the video shifts from the Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen clips.
 * Fandom Rivalry: Many Deftones fans are resentful towards Linkin Park for copying the band's sound. The Deftones are indeed a major influence on the band, although many Linkin Park fans enjoy the Deftones, and the two bands have gone on tour together many times.
 * Also, there's the fact that two members of Deftones contributed to Reanimation, with Stephen Carpenter playing guitar on "By_Myslf" and Chino Moreno's Team Sleep remixing "My December", which was deemed too dark for the album and has never been released.
 * Funny Moments: The infamous EP LINKIN PARK Underground Vol.8.0 - MMM... COOKIES - Sweet Hamster Like Jewels From America!. Your Mileage Will Most Likely Vary on this one.
 * Gateway Music: Let's just say more than a few metalheads were introduced to hard rock/metal through this band. Whether or not they admit it is another story. And if you're young enough and have not heard any of the Beastie Boys, Linkin Park could have also been a gateway to the "eccentric" Alternative Rock scene with bands like U2 and The Cure, due to their experimenting with electronic and Hip Hop elements.
 * Growing the Beard: A Thousand Suns, to the side of the base that doesn't hate it.
 * Hilarious in Hindsight: "One Step Closer" and "Numb", two of Linkin Park's most well-known songs, share the same names with two U2 songs. Now, what was one of the complaints about "Shadow of the Day"? The fact that U2's "One Step Closer" came out four years after LP's song doesn't make this any less funny.
 * Internet Backdraft: Telling a metalhead that Linkin Park is metal.
 * It's the Same, Now It Sucks: Many of the responses from fans towards Meteora, as well as Reanimation due the mere nature of a remix album (especially one so early in the band's career).
 * Love It or Hate It: A Thousand Suns. Boy howdy. Some see it as the band's Growing the Beard moment, showing that they're actually capable artists with a glowing future from this point on, comparing it to Kid A and praising it as the best album they've ever made. Also similarly to Kid A, the rest see it as a failed attempt to be "artful", or at least that their ventures into other styles all fell on their faces, rendering nothing able to truly stand out.
 * Memetic Mutation:
 * "FEEEEAAAAARRRRRR IS HOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW I FAAAALLLLLLLLLL"
 * We have a rapist in Linkin Park.
 * Try the ketchup, motherfucker. May also qualify as an Ascended Meme depending on whether you believe Mike replaced "Try to catch up, motherfucker" with this during the subsequent performance of "When They Come for Me".
 * Misattributed Song:
 * Can't find info on a certain song? Make sure it's not by Fort Minor, Grey Daze, Dead By Sunrise, or Tribal Ink (or Kansas of all things)
 * Also, that's not Shinoda rapping on Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life". That's Paul McCoy of 12 Stones.
 * Narm Charm: Some fans seem to love hearing Chester scream his arse off.
 * Nightmare Fuel: With "Wisdom, Justice, and Love" on A Thousand Suns, Linkin Park has managed to make a speech from freakin' MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. into this by distorting his voice to hell in the latter part of the clip. And then they replay it a couple times just for good measure.
 * It starts off normal, and ends up sounding almost exactly like Sovereign.
 * Painful Rhyme: Mike actually had the gall to rhyme "monkey" with "funky" on "When They Come for Me".
 * Your Mileage May Vary heavily on that one. They actually sound good together to me.
 * Seinfeld Is Unfunny: The band's signature combination of Nu-metal, Alternative Rock, Hip Hop, various Electronic Music subgenres and Pop sensibility was fairly original for its time; nowadays, thanks to all the imitators, they're often accused of having copied their signature sound from some other band.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks / Ruined FOREVER:
 * Many of the responses from fans to Minutes to Midnight.
 * Some reactions to Reanimation as well.
 * There were cries of Ruined FOREVER when EA made a video for the Medal of Honor Continuity Reboot with "The Catalyst". Notably, this was before said game came out, but the point still stands. (The Mobile Suit Gundam fans had somewhat less cries when the same song was announced as being the theme for Extreme Vs.)
 * Speaking of that single, "The Catalyst" brought this out immediately solely on the fact that it brings techno into their portfolio instead of the older albums' rock/rap mix. Linkin Park's YouTube channel released a 40 second preview of the song a week earlier and the fandom screamed. Well, at least some of them did.
 * Wangst: "COOONNFFFFFUUUUSSSSSSIIIINNNNNNNGGGGG WHHHAAAAATTTT ISSSSSS REEEAAALLLLL"
 * WTH? Casting Agency: Anybody else thinks it's a little strange to hear Chester on the same song as G-Unit's Young Buck?
 * The Woobie: Dave "Phoenix" Farrell.


 * Mike pokes fun at Phoenix and his Twittering on his blog. He even made a banner that says "Blogging Totally Pwns Twittering" for fans of his blog to post on their websites in a response to one of Phoenix's Twitter posts.