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Linkin Park left rap rock behind
The rap rock wave
Eight or ten years after they started, Linkin Park had made three stylistically similar albums in the rap rock wave that Rage Against the Machine began, with Korn and Limp Bizkit following. Linkin Park was probably the last of that wave, and wildly successful at it.
The choice
When producer Rick Rubin started working with the band, there was a choice. They could do the next one in the same style, which the audience would love and which would be easy. Or they could be true to where the band was in that moment and free to find the next sound.
The new sound
They chose the new sound. Probably half of the audience didn't like it, half loved it, and new people came along. Another rap rock album would probably have been as successful as what they had done, but the genre was dying. The new direction set the band up for a much longer career making what it wanted to make.
How did rap rock rise and then fade?
Rage Against the Machine's 1992 debut mixed hip hop vocals with heavy guitar, and Korn's 1994 debut brought a heavier style that became known as nu metal. Limp Bizkit's Significant Other topped the US album chart in 1999. By the early 2000s the style had been copied by so many bands that it was losing its novelty. Most of the genre's biggest names saw their sales fall through the middle of that decade.
What made Linkin Park's sound unusual?
The band had two lead voices, with Mike Shinoda rapping and Chester Bennington singing and screaming. Joe Hahn added turntables and samples to the guitars. Their 2000 debut Hybrid Theory was certified Diamond by the RIAA for sales of 10 million copies in the United States. That album made them one of the best-selling rock acts of the 2000s.
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