Linkin Park

Linkin Park is a rock band from Los Angeles playing alternative rock. The group was founded in 1996 by classmates Mike Shinoda and Brad Delson. The band was originally named Xero. In spite of the limited finances, the band started recording several songs in Shinoda's bedroom, their first studio. After multiple refusals of labels to cooperate, the original singer Mark Wakefield made up his mind to seek his fortune in another band. It took the group a while to find a new vocalist. It was Chester Bennington. His unique voice made a deep impression on the other members. As he had agreed to join the band, it was called Hybrid Theory. The young men went into troubles with the other band under the same name charging them with a copyright infringement. Thus, they called themselves Linkin Park.

In 1999, Linkin Park managed to get a contract with Warner Bros. Records. In a year, they released their debut album Hybrid Theory, featuring the material accumulated for many years. This album was a good seller with 4 million and 800,000 copies sold for the first year and earned then Grammy as the best rock album of the year. The record included such chart-toppers as Crawling, One Step Closer, and In the End; the video for the latter, broadcasted by MTV, was proclaimed the video of the year. This album has remained the most successful one in the band's discography. By today, more than 10 million copies of this record have been sold. In 2001, Linkin Park toured the USA having many performances together with famous rappers, and also participated in Ozzfest. Overall, they gave 320 concerts for that year and released DVD Frat Party at the Pankake Festival. In addition, Linkin Park recorded Reanimation, a collection of remixes. Meteora, Linkin Park's second album, was produced in 2003 to lead the Billboard chart as the most distributed record. The videos for Somewhere I Belong, Breaking the Habit, and Numb occupied MTV and top positions of the charts. The album earned a number of rewards: MTV reward for the best video (Somewhere I Belong) and Radio Music Awards for the best song (Numb). Involving rapper Jay-Z, Linkin Park produced acclaimed remixes for Numb, Faint, One Step Closer, and Lying from You.

However, contrary to the praising feedbacks of the experts, this record did not achieve the debutante's fame. This album followed the music style of its predecessor. Linkin Park created an awesome mixture of nu-metal, rap-rock together with touches of electronic and alternative music. Vocalist Chester masterfully utilized both extreme vocals, characteristic of many metal subgenres, and clean voice. Minutes to Midnight released by Linkin Park May 15, 2007, became a step away from nu-metal closer to rock. The material contained much less rapping and many more melodic fragments. Critics compared such changes to the evolution of U2. The band's fans were not unanimous concerning the new record and expressed various feelings, from sheer admiration to pure disappointment. Chester Bennington said in of the interviews that the band had been forced to follow the demands of its supporters and copied the Hybrid Theory sound, but the new style had come just to Linkin Park's satisfaction. On November 1, 2007, Linkin Park received MTV European Music Award as the best band in Munich, Germany.

The live set Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes was recorded during the band's annual Projekt Revolution festival tour, at the Milton Keynes National Bowl concert on June 29, 2008 and captured the entire show. The concert featured material from all five of the band's albums and highlighted a mix of new hits, including latest single Leave Out All The Rest and classic tracks such as Breaking The Habit and Crawling. The release of Linkin Park’s long-awaited studio attempt took place in 2010. The record A Thousand Suns attracted millions of listeners’ attention in no time, which was not a surprise at all – the musicians changed the very concept in the previous long play Minutes to Midnight, so the fans had been looking forward to get acquainted with the rockers’ new creation. The situation with various attitudes repeated once again; however it is probably connected with every person’s preferences, not with the quality of presented material.