Inspiration
My love of Linkin Park started when I was a young teen, the day my brother introduced me to their 2010 album A Thousand Suns. I fell in love with their poetic lyric writing almost immediately for the intense visuals they painted, and the mood their sound created. To this day, I firmly believe they are the best the musical-- and poetic-- world has to offer. Rest in peace, CB.
Members
Chester Bennington was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He was best known as the lead vocalist for Linkin Park. He was also lead vocalist for the bands Dead by Sunrise, Grey Daze, and Stone Temple Pilots. Bennington is widely regarded as one of the top rock musicians of the 2000s. Hit Parader magazine placed him at number 46 on their list of the "100 Metal Vocalists of All Time".
Mike Shinoda is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and graphic designer. He co-founded Linkin Park in 1996 and is the band's rhythm guitarist, primary songwriter, keyboardist, producer, and co-lead vocalist. Shinoda later created a hip-hop-driven side project, Fort Minor, in 2004. He has also served as a producer for tracks and albums by Lupe Fiasco, Styles of Beyond and the X-Ecutioners.
Brad Delson is an American musician and record producer, best known as the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the American rock band Linkin Park.
Joe Hahn is a Korean-American musician, DJ, director and visual artist. He is best known as the DJ of the American rock band Linkin Park, doing the scratching, turntables, sampling, and programming for all seven of Linkin Park's albums. Hahn, along with bandmate Mike Shinoda, is responsible for most of Linkin Park's album artwork.
Dave Farrell is an American musician, best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the rock band Linkin Park. He was also a member of Tasty Snax, a Christian rock and ska band.
History
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album Hybrid Theory (2000), which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005, and multi-Platinum in several other countries. Their following studio album Meteora continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200 album chart in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work.
Having adapted nu metal and rap metal to a radio-friendly yet densely layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the band explored other genres on their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight (2007). The album topped the Billboard charts and had the third-best debut week of any album that year. The band continued to explore a wider variation of musical types in their fourth album, A Thousand Suns (2010), layering their music with more electronic sounds. Their fifth album, Living Things (2012), combines musical elements from all of their previous records. Their sixth album, The Hunting Party (2014), returned to a heavier rock sound. Their seventh album One More Light, a more electronic and pop-oriented record, was released on May 19, 2017.
In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade chart. In 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as the Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now by Kerrang!. As the best-selling band of the 21st century and one of the world's best-selling music artists overall, Linkin Park has sold more than 70 million albums worldwide and has won two Grammy Awards.