Linkin Park - How They Stood Up Every Time They Fell

Linkin Park was not born in day, neither was 'Hybrid Theory' an overnight success, it all happened and it was three close friends who made it happen. The genesis might take you to the days of tension, frustration and struggle that the band overwhelmed. To talk about the transmutation over the years the band is now rocking the world with their latest and hottest albums.

Brief history of the Band

For those of you Linkin Park buff's here is an interesting history of the band's rise to their ultimate. Let's begin with the early years of Linkin Park. The bands foundation was laid by Brad Delson, Mike Shinoda and Rob Bourdon - three close high school friends from Agoura High School. Their musical interests reached its full bloom after graduating and they added Joe Hahn, Dave Farrell, and Mark Wakefield as members to their band, which was then titled Xero.

In their initial years, they lacked enough resources. However, they started recording and producing songs within Shinoda's makeshift bedroom studio in 1996. Frustration and tension was getting over them as the band lost a record deal. This bad patch continued and ultimately Wakefield - band's vocalist and Farrell left the band in search for other projects.

The band found the surrogate of Wakefield in Arizonian vocalist Chester Bennington, this new team was referred to as 'Hybrid Theory'. Bennington became favorite for his unique and intense style of singing.

The new-sprung chemistry between Shinoda and Bennington resuscitated the band and motivated them to innovate new material. This revival climaxed with renaming of Hybrid Theory as Linkin Park - a play and in honor of Lincoln Park of Santa Monica.

These changes were not enough for the band to sign a record deal. The rejections continued from several major record labels. Finally, Linkin Park decided to request Jeff Blue, the vice president of Zomba Music, to join them for additional assistance. Jeff Blue, the then vice president of Warner Bros. Records, helped Linkin Park sign a deal with the company in 1999. Soon the band released its breakthrough album Hybrid Theory with Warner Bros. Records.

The success story

Hybrid Theory launched on October 24, 2000, was a great breakthrough for the Linkin Park. Edited and polished by music producer Don Gilmore, this album was a souvenir of the band's nearly half a decade's work. This album received a huge response from the music-enthusiast. In the very first year the band sold more than 4.8 million records.

On one hand, singles such as "One Step Closer" and "Crawling" got recognition as staples among Alternative Rock radio playlists during the same year. On the other hand, some of the singles from this album were featured in movies such as Little Nicky, Dracula 2000 and Valentine.

Great moments

Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory had its nomination for three Grammy Awards - the best new artist, best hard rock performance (for Crawling) and best rock album. The band received MTV awards for best direction and the best rock video.

The Grammy Award Ceremony 2006 saw Linkin Park performing the song "Numb/Encore/Yesterday" with Jay-Z and Paul McCartney. They won the Grammy award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

Other achievements

Next Linkin Park came up with the studio album "Meteora" which was also a big hit, securing on the top of Billboard 200's album charts in 2003. More than 800,000 copies of this album were sold during the first week, and was one of the best selling albums. The music videos for the singles of the album, namely "Breaking the Habit", "Somewhere I Belong" and "Faint and Numb", were hot radio numbers.

For most part of 2006, Linkin Park kept busy with penning lyrics and recording songs for their third album and in several interviews they propagated the musical direction of their albums.

Lately, Linkin Park featured on the MTV Battle Of The Videos competing with two favorites Evanescence and Lil Mama. After two weeks the results of the voting were declared and Linkin Park's music video "What I've Done" emerged victorious in the battle with 56% votes in its favor.

The band is thriving ever, with its latest creation "Minutes to Midnight" scheduled to be released on May 15, 2007 in the United States and internationally on May 14, 2007. Linkin Park continues to be a heart-throb of millions round the world writing enchanting lyrics spreading out wings to cover all new things anywhere and everywhere.