Trivia / Linkin Park

• Banned in China: During their concert in Malaysia, the band was not allowed to wear short pants, spit, curse, throw things into the crowd, jump around, or "scream excessively". Their live routines typically involve all of the above, except for wearing shorts.
• Black Sheep Hit: "Breaking the Habit", an electronic song without distorted guitars in it, and "Numb", a ballad. Both are from their second album Meteora, and both would substantially influence the direction they would take afterwards. Notably, neither song features Mike Shinoda on lead vocals, and it contributed to the perception of Chester Bennington as the lead frontman.
• Contractual Purity: Some Moral Guardians cried foul when the band began to use profanity on Minutes to Midnight, after releasing the notably profanity-free albums Hybrid Theory and Meteora. Saying that, Mike did swear on the Xero track "Reading My Eyes" and the Hybrid Theory EP's "Step Up" and "High Voltage" (both Mike's "Reprise Version" remix of "High Voltage" and the Reanimation remix based on the Reprise Version are censored, however).
• Contest Winner Cameo: NoBraiN, the winner of the band's remix contest for "The Catalyst", got his remix featured on several editions of A Thousand Suns. He also makes an appearance on the outro to "When They Come for Me".
• Creator Backlash:
  • To celebrate Hybrid Theory's ten-year anniversary, the band announced that they would never play fan-favorite "Runaway" again, citing it as the worst song they ever wrote.
    • Averted in that the band came to terms with their past and began playing "retired" songs, like "Runaway", during their Living Things world tour, as that album is seen as a melding-together of the group's old and new styles.
  • They eventually had this attitude towards their Nu Metal material, which is why they dedicated themselves to distance their sound from it; Chester even outright stated that he hated the genre. They have since lightened up on it a bit, and reintegrated elements of their old material into their new albums. In fact, Chester warmed up to the nu metal label to the point of saying he liked Limp Bizkit. He also once told a magazine that they were nu metal in the loosest sense, because they were trying new things with the metal sound. They later went on record to say that much of their hatred stemmed from what they felt the genre had become by the time they emerged: a cesspool of Testosterone Poisoning filled with the worst kinds of broed-out scumbags and white trash that had sold out its original principles long ago.
  • A specific example lies in "Bleed It Out": the lyrics were sent back for rewrites over and over, much to Mike and Chester's frustration, resulting in the opening line "Yeah, here we go for the hundredth time…"
    Fuck, this hurts
    I won't lie
    Doesn't matter how hard I try
    Half the words don't mean a thing
    and I know that I won't be satisfied
    • On the Minutes to Midnight DVD Commentary, one of the many, many rewrites can be seen titled "REFUCKINGWRITE version.838458503".
  • In an interview, Chester admitted that he really didn't like "In the End" at first, and he didn't even want it on the final tracklist of Hybrid Theory. Some coaxing by the other members convinced him to let it go through, which he later stated was something he was glad they did, and it led him to appreciate the song more over time.
  • The band holds a less-than-favorable opinion towards "One Step Closer" for various reasons.
    • Chester named it as his least favorite song the band has done, namely from the "shut up" bridge earning him so much infamy.
    • Mike has said he's so embarrassed by the song's video, he refuses to show it to his kids. The band would take personal control of their music videos afterwards, with Joe Hahn directing the bulk of them. Mike was especially incensed that director Gregory Dark used to work in porn, which nobody bothered to tell him at the time.
    • Notably, this video was the only Linkin Park video that had Mike with red hair, which is another self-admitted old shame of his.
  • In light of Hybrid Theory's 20th anniversary, Mike admitted to hating the video for "Papercut" as well, citing its bizarre special effects and Chester's equally bizarre plaid-heavy outfit.
• Creator-Driven Successor: "Lost" to "Breaking the Habit", as both of them are Animated Music Videos.
• Creator Killer: While the band adopting alt-rock and electronic elements over nu metal saw a trend of polarized reception over the years, One More Light's wholesale embrace of the electropop sound led to some of the most overtly negative responses the band had (and has) ever seen, which — along with rampant accusations of selling out — led many to run with the belief that Linkin Park was no longer even attempting to be the band they grew famous as. The negative reception, however, weighed heavily on Chester's mind (the death of his friend Chris Cornell, days before the album came out, didn't help matters), resulting in him publicly lashing out. After his suicide^note on what would have been Cornell's 53rd birthday, and outside of a memorial show in his honor months later, the band has officially remained on hiatus.
• Dear Negative Reader: One of the things people remember most surrounding the mixed-at-best immediate reception towards One More Light was the band's response. Mike's comments on the matter were more diplomatic, with him responding to the widespread narrative of the band making the album solely for financial gain by simply saying, "That's not how I operate." However, Chester was far more vocal with his responses in interviews, and made no secret of how upset the album's backlash made him. He stated that he didn't really care if people liked the album or not, wished that people would "move the fuck on" from constantly bringing up Hybrid Theory since the band was in a different place creatively, joked that people perpetuating the selling-out accusations should stab themselves in the face (the article does make a note that Chester laughed when he said this), and elsewhere said that "[they] can fucking meet me outside and I will punch [them] in [their] fucking mouth because that is the wrong fucking answer." He added that he was mainly provoked by people who personally attacked the band as opposed to criticizing the music, because "that means that I can actually have feelings about it and most of the time my feelings are I want to kill you." Chester's reactions eventually caught the attention of Corey Taylor, who empathized with his frustrations but also advised him to be fortunate for the fanbase they still had; in a direct response on his Twitter, Chester admitted that he "sometimes takes things too personally" and stated that he agreed with Corey and was appreciative of his fans. While both his reactions and the media coverage surrounding them didn't create the best image for him, his suicide several months after the album's release put them in a more serious light. While it's a stretch to credit the album's reactions exclusively with what happened, they probably didn't help and essentially gave an indicator as to where his mind was at the time.
• Died During Production: Chester Bennington's suicide occurred during the One More Light World Tour, a week before the band was to start the North American leg. They immediately cancelled the tour, but played a memorial show in Los Angeles in October 2017.
• Directed by Cast Member: Joe Hahn has directed almost all of their music videos, particularly the Meteora (all but "Faint", which was instead directed by Mark Romanek of One Hour Photo and "Scream" fame), Minutes to Midnight (all, with "Given Up" also credited to the rest of the band and band videographer Mark Fiore), and A Thousand Suns (all as well). However, for each subsequent albums afterwards, he only directed one video per album ("Burn It Down" for Living Things, "Until It's Gone" for The Hunting Party, and co-directing the title track of One More Light with Fiore).
• DVD Commentary: The band released a DVD edition for each of their CDs barring Hybrid Theory (which saw a standalone DVD a year after its release) and One More Light. Footage of them is usually about the music making process, life on tour, music video commentary, and the odd practical joke. The exceptions are the DVDs for Living Things and The Hunting Party, both of which only include live footage.
• Dyeing for Your Art: During the Hybrid Theory period, Mike would often dye his hair red (such as in the "One Step Closer" video) or blue (seen in the video for "Crawling"). Less conspicuously, Chester bleached his hair during that period. Both of them reverted to their natural colors (black and dark brown, respectively) from Meteora onwards.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The band wanted to shift styles more drastically for Meteora (as evidenced by the many electronic demos from that period released on Underground volumes), but the record company wanted more nu-metal. As a result, the album was something of a compromise between the two styles. This seems to have been a good thing - although many of the album's hit songs were continuations of their nu-metal sound, another successful track was "Breaking the Habit", based on an electronic instrumental Shinoda had put a lot of effort into. It's food for thought what might have happened had they made their drastic shift away from their Signature Style as early as their second album.
  • There are hints that "What I've Done" was written purely because the record company didn't see a suitable single on Minutes to Midnight. The fact the band had written almost 150 songs before this means this could be likely. In the documentary Meeting of A Thousand Suns, Shinoda says that the album's first single "doesn't have to be some 'What I've Done' shit".
  • Actively discussed by guest artist Rakim in the bridge of "Guilty All the Same", explaining how much the trope has ruined the rock and rap music scene in the past few years.
  • Chester revealed in a Scuzz TV interview that, while recording Hybrid Theory, Warner Bros. Records execs wanted to either demote Mike to keyboardist or fire him, despite him being the primary songwriter and producer. The rest of the band threatened to quit in protest. Then when the album was released and became a hit, Warner Bros. claimed that they were a fabricated act. This was briefly chronicled later by Mike in the Fort Minor song "Get Me Gone".
  • Mike discusses it at length in an LPAssociation-sponsored Podcast. He notes that the band have often had conflicts with the label, but made it very clear when recording their first album that they wanted creative autonomy. He notes that they are to make the music they want and cannot be bothered about making money. On the other hand, he believes that going back to a Hybrid Theory-era Nu Metal style would be truly selling out, as his musical interests have expanded a lot since then.
  • One More Light is often seen as this by fans as it is such a blatant change to a pop style they were never previously part of, and seemed to be an attempt to fit in with the modern charts. Whilst it has its fans, the band almost seemed desperate to defend it instead of admitting they took a risk that didn't pay off. Chester's death has made people reevaluate it somewhat.
• Follow the Leader: One More Light sounds like an attempt to capture the popularity of The Chainsmokers, particularly their song "Heavy" sounding suspiciously similar to "Closer" (complete with a female guest singer).
  • Well, one could make a case about their earlier years, what with being a Nu Metal/rap-rock band in a time when those subgenres were on their way out. But let's face it, they're really following U2's genre-hopping and philanthropy.
• He Also Did:
  • Chester was in a grunge band called Grey Daze during much of the 90s. They were quite popular in Arizona and were actually briefly signed to a major label (though dropped before the album could be released). There were planned reunion gigs on a few occasions but they never came to fruition, and whilst there were reissues of the albums, they didn't stay in print very long. The ex-members are currently working on a modern mix of their unreleased major label album, however, which was the subject of a Kerrang! cover story in 2020, probably the most mainstream exposure the group has ever gotten.
  • In addition to directing the majority of the band's music videos, Joe was behind a short film entitled The Seed in 2005. He later directed and co-produced the film Mall in 2014.
  • Mall also involves Joe, Chester, Mike and Phoenix working on the film's soundtrack alongside Alec Puro, the drummer of the band Deadsy.
• In Memoriam: After Chester Bennington committed suicide, the band held a tribute concert for him a few months later. "Numb" and "In the End" were performed without any vocals, though the audience filled in for him. Throughout the evening, Chester's microphone was set up on stage, permanently spotlighted with a wreath hanging over it.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • The Xero demo tape. When people were requesting the band to play the track "Reading My Eyes" live in 2006, the band members were up for it, but didn't have any copies of the song at hand, as they were on tour. Shinoda then searched the Internet and downloaded the EP from a fansite, and the band then learnt the song from the .mp3 file. Since Shinoda has released other Xero-era demos since then, it is entirely possible he still has the tape and its masters at home but didn't have access to them at that point. Their long-obscure single "She Couldn't" was also this. However, this was finally averted in 2020, when the band released the 20th Anniversary Edition of Hybrid Theory, which featured both "She Couldn't" and the Xero demos, with the former having a music video released to promote the album launch.
  • The Hybrid Theory EP also qualifies, as it was released in small numbers to begin with and contains some stuff that hasn't been re-released. In particular is the first pressing (when Linkin Park was still called Hybrid Theory) which remains a sought-after collectors item. It's semi-averted after the 20th Anniversary Edition of the Hybrid Theory album, which saw the EP being released to the general public in both vinyl and digital services, but the CD pressing still applies.
• The Pete Best: Who the hell is Mark Wakefield again? That said, Wakefield doesn't hold any animosity towards the band and Mike even said he's still good friends with Mark.
  • The other members of Chester's previous band Grey Daze are certainly this in comparison to his subsequent popularity. However, they were very proud of him and humbled by people's continued interest in the music.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: "Valentine's Day" is a Grief Song about Chester's father, who died around Valentine's Day. Except it's not. It is a Valentine's themed Grief Song, but it's not about his dad (who isn't even dead, at that).
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Mike after working with Rick Rubin, the man behind some of his favorite albums such as Raising Hell. While recording A Thousand Suns, he had a nerdgasm after getting to play with the same 808 drum machine used on that album.
  • One of their songs being used for a Gundam video game probably got a Squee out of at least one of the guys.
• Real Song Theme Tune:
  • Two of their songs have been used in three video games: "The Catalyst" in Gundam Extreme Vs. and The 2010 Continuity Reboot of Medal of Honor; and "Castle of Glass" in Medal of Honor: Warfighter. One of the latter game's multiplayer trailers also used "Lies Greed Misery".
  • The instrumental riff from "Somewhere I Belong" is the theme music to The Mark Levin Show, one of the most popular conservative talk radio programs in the U.S.
• Self-Applied Nickname: Chester is sometimes known as Chaz, which he initially wanted to use as a stage name but was talked out of it. The band continued to call him it, however.
• Throw It In!: A partial example with "Bleed it Out". The song's working title was "Accident" due to Brad flubbing the original riff. The rest of the band liked his screw-up and that became the new riff.
• Trolling Creator:
  • Mike Shinoda has shown shades of this, teasing snippets of new songs only leading to unrelated YouTube videos or claiming that a band member had quit. In the run-up to the release of Living Things, he sent a link out on Twitter touting new pictures from the album; when clicked, the link sent fans to a picture of a Troll doll.
  • Don Gilmore (producer of Hybrid Theory) got in on this a little bit with idiotic record executives. Chester told a story about an exec listening to a track and saying he didn't like it. Gilmore replied "Wait, let me do something" and turned one of the knobs. The exec said, "That's much better! The track is great!" All Gilmore did was turn the volume up slightly.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Upon signing with Warner Bros. in 2000, the band had plans to release an EP to support the band, but plans ultimately fell through. Some of the tracks that were meant to be part of this EP include the aforementioned "She Couldn't", as well as re-recorded versions of "Carousel" and "Part of Me" from the previous Hybrid Theory EP, among others. These demos would eventually leak onto the Internet and would come to be known as the 8-track demo amongst fans.
  • "Breaking the Habit" was originally conceived as an instrumental lasting over ten minutes. It was recorded at a more sane length, dubbed "Drawing" and eventually made it onto the ninth LPU EP.
  • There were several more artists lined up to remix tracks for Reanimation, including Prince Paul, Z-Trip and Tricky.
  • Chester's suicide not only put an end to the band's planned North American tour with blink-182 but also the planned Grey Daze reunion gigs, and a potential collaboration with slam poet/rapper George Watsky, who tweeted a picture of himself with Mike and Chester five days before the tragedy occurred.
• Working Title: During the creative process for "New Divide", the band used names of the primary Transformer characters to indicate the different song proposals for the movie. Eventually, they went with "Megatron" and developed it into the song used thereon.

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