Released a remix album in 2002 called "Reanimation".
Released their second album of new material in March, 2003 called "Meteora". It sold more than 810,000 copies in its first week.
Were the highest-selling music act of 2001, having sold more than 8 million copies of their 2000 debut album, "Hybrid Theory".
Band consists of Chester Bennington, Rob Bourdon, Brad Delson, Joseph Hahn, Mike Shinoda and Phoenix Farrell.
Linkin Park, prior to 2000, was known as "Hybrid Theory", which also turned out to be the name of their first album as "Linkin Park".
Also have been known as Xero before Chester, with the lead singer of Mark Lund, who is now Taproots Manager.
Linkin Park has had several bassist swaps, Kyle Christner (now in the band NoseDive) was the bassist for Hybrid Theory, then Phoenix was back, while Phoenix was touring with "The Snax," Scott Koziol was a step in bassist, then finally, Phoenix came back for good...
Linkin Park Detailed Biography
Linkin Park is a nu metal/rapcore band from Los Angeles, California, currently signed to Warner Brothers Records. They are often considered the most famous and most commercially successful exponents of the nu metal genre, mainly due to their debut album Hybrid Theory (2000), which has sold 19 million copies worldwide to date.
Linkin Park have a global music publishing deal with Zomba Music Publishing, a division of BMG Music Publishing. Their entire song catalogue is represented by Zomba.
Upon graduating from Washington High School in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1994, vocalist Chester Bennington joined a band called Grey Daze. The band released two albums, No Sun Today and Wake Me. However, due to personal conflicts within the band, Bennington decided to leave.
Meanwhile, in 1996, guitarist Brad Delson and emcee Mike Shinoda graduated from Agoura High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Agoura Hills, California. Upon graduation, the two men formed a band with their friend, drummer Rob Bourdon, under the moniker SuperXero. Previously, Delson and Bourdon were in a band together for about a year called "Relative Degree".
The three played archaic forms of their music together while at college. Delson attended the University of California, Los Angeles in Westwood, California. Shinoda went to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. While at UCLA, Delson met bassist Dave Farrell. Delson and Farrell were roommates and often practiced and played together. Previously, Farrell used to play in a band called Tasty Snax with Mark Fiore, who later changed their name to The Snax. Fiore later became Linkin Park's cinematographer. While at the Art Center College, Shinoda met Joe Hahn.
Farrell and Hahn joined SuperXero and the name of the band was shortened to just Xero. The five men were joined by vocalist Mark Wakefield and, together, they recorded their first, self-titled demo tape. The tape was sent out to various record labels but it was never considered and the band was never signed. Shortly thereafter, Wakefield left the band.
Shinoda advertised for a new vocalist and Delson began interning for a Warner Brothers Records A&R representative named Jeff Blue as part of his communications degree. Blue alerted Delson and Shinoda to Bennington, a young vocalist from Phoenix who was looking to join another band.
Shinoda and Delson sent Bennington a tape containing an instrumental song and he recorded vocals for it. He then called Shinoda and played the song over the phone. The band was instantly impressed and asked Bennington to fly to Los Angeles from Phoenix to audition. At the audition, several other potential vocalists vying for the position simply left when they heard Bennington sing.
Once Bennington had joined the group, they changed their moniker to Hybrid Theory and the band's line-up solidified — almost. Farrell temporarily left the band due to previous commitments with The Snax/Tasty Snax and, as such, wasn't able to record bass for their first, self-titled EP. Instead, Delson and a bassist named Kyle Christener played bass. Released in mid-1999, only one thousand copies of the EP were pressed. Several copies were sent to various record labels, including Warner Brothers Records. The rest of the copies were given to early members of the band's newly formed street team. Farrell was temporarily replaced by Scott Koziol. Scott appears in the video for "One Step Closer" from the Hybrid Theory album.
The band was subsequently signed to Warner Brothers in 1999 thanks to Blue. However, they were forced to change their name due to a copyright issue with a British electronic group called Hybrid. There were several suggestions for the band's new name, including Clear, Probing Lagers, Ten P.M. Stocker (an inside joke for the band since they were always recording and practicing material late at night) and Platinum Lotus Foundation.
Bennington eventually suggested the use of Lincoln Park because he would drive by Lincoln Park in Santa Monica, California (now known as Christine Reed Park), on his way to the recording studio every day when the band was recording demos for its debut album. Bennington thought that it would be a good name for the band because there are Lincoln Parks all over the country. He figured that the band would be recognized as a local band no matter where they went. However, since the domain name lincolnpark.com was already taken and the band couldn't afford to purchase it, they changed the spelling from "Lincoln" to "Linkin" so they could purchase the domain name linkinpark.com.
On October 24, 2000, Linkin Park's debut album, Hybrid Theory, was released in the United States. Only one track was cut from the album, a remake of a hip hop song called "High Voltage" that appeared on the band's EP. Several songs from the EP were re-recorded as demos for Hybrid Theory, but it is unknown whether the tracks will ever appear as official B-sides or not. The record's first single, "One Step Closer", was a rock anthem on MTV.
The band performed in its first nationally-recognized concert on December 17th 2000 as a part of KROQ Radio's Almost Acoustic Christmas concert special. Shinoda wrote a brand-new song entitled "My December" for the occasion. The song was not featured on Hybrid Theory and is often mistaken as a B-side. It was later featured on a Christmas album released by KROQ DJs Kevin and Bean.
In early 2001, Farrell joined Linkin Park once again and the band's second single, "Crawling", was released and won the band a Grammy Award for the "Best Hard Rock Performance". The band embarked on its first ever national festival tour, the Ozzfest, with other acts such as Black Sabbath, Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Papa Roach, Disturbed, Crazy Town and Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society.
In mid-2001, the band released its third single, "In the End". The song would prove to be the band's biggest hit and was one of the most-spun songs of 2001. The video for the song was directed by Nathan "Karma" Cox and Hahn, and featured the band playing atop a massive statue in the rain. The video had a massive amount of CGI compared to most music videos at the time.
On September 2, 2001, the band released its first DVD humorously titled Frat Party at the Pankake Festival. The DVD featured all of the band's videos up to this point in their career and featured a documentary of the band touring in support of Hybrid Theory. There are also a lot of hidden Easter eggs allowing viewers to access hidden videos on the DVD, including a studio performance of a demo of "A Place for My Head" from 1999.
In November, a friend of the band, Jessica Bardas, suggested forming a fan club. The band thought that it was a good idea, and the Linkin Park Underground (LPU) was born. Members of the fan club receive a package every year (assuming that they renew their membership) containing a T-shirt, a CD and several odds and ends, including guitar picks, stickers and posters. The first CD featured was a re-issue of the band's Hybrid Theory EP with new artwork.
In early 2002, the band put together its first headlining tour called Projekt Revolution. The first leg of the tour featured Adema, Cypress Hill and DJ Z-Trip. During the course of the tour, Shinoda and Hahn collaborated with the X-ecutioners on the song "It's Goin' Down". Shortly after the tour ended, the band headed back to the studio for the first time since early 2000.
After being sent several remixes of Linkin Park songs, Shinoda decided to release a remix album. Initially, Shinoda only wanted to remix a couple of songs and release an EP. However, thanks to encouragement from his bandmates (Delson and Hahn especially), Shinoda decided to take the project a step further.
The project, which would take on the name Reanimation, featured one remix for each song from Hybrid Theory, as well as remixes of the songs "My December" and "High Voltage". Each song was remixed by a different artist and there were rumors that there were over fifty remixes that Shinoda received during the course of the project. Shinoda went through and listened to each remix, hand-picking the best ones. Only two of the remixes that didn't make the album were ever released, those being the Crystal Method's remix of "Points of Authority" (featuring on the CD of the second installment of the LPU) and Marilyn Manson's remix of "By Myself". The only other confirmed remix was of "My December" by Team Sleep. The remix was turned away because it made the song even darker; Shinoda went with the version on the CD because it made the song seem more up-beat and happier.
Some of the artists featuring on the album included Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, Stephen Richards of Taproot, Kelli Ali of Sneaker Pimps, Aaron Lewis of Staind, the Humble Brothers, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Aceyalone, The X-Ecutioners, Black Thought and Jay Gordon of Orgy.
The project was released on July 30, 2002 and its first and only single was "Pts.of.Athrty" ("Points of Authority") remixed by Orgy's Jay Gordon. In November, the second edition of the LPU launched as "Underground 2.0" and the second package was revealed. The new fan club-only EP featured the Crystal Method's remix of "Points of Authority" and a song called "Dedicated", which has been speculated as being cut from the band's EP before it was pressed. There's also a fifty-second instrumental track entitled "A.06" which showcases a harder side of the band. This instrumental gave fans a new hope allowing them to believe that the band's second album would be harder than Hybrid Theory. It also elevated hype for the band's follow-up.
