IT STARTS WITH ONE

A band beloved by millions and largely ignored by critics gets an admiring history from the senior director of music at Billboard.

Originally considered part of the nu metal scene that included Korn, Limp Bizkit, and Slipknot, Linkin Park was never actually part of any scene. A forgettable first gig in November 1997 at the Whisky a Go Go under the name Xero (the author describes them at that time as “a rap-rock rough sketch”) was one of their rare performances that was not a showcase for record company scouts. By the time their first album, Hybrid Theory, came out in 2000, most rock critics had already written them off as manufactured. But music company executive Jeff Blue took an interest in the band, mainly because guitarist Brad Delson was his intern, but also because he heard promise in the mixture of hip-hop and metal in rapper/composer Mike Shinoda’s bedroom demos. When lead singer Chester Bennington, with his emotional range from boy-band sweet to grunge-tinged furious, joined, the chemistry gelled for the monster hit-maker Linkin Park was to become. Lipshutz’s fondness for the band from his teenage years doesn’t blind him to their imperfections, but it puts him firmly in the fan camp. He does his best to impress with sales figures and details of the band’s creative processes. He argues that Bennington’s emotionally raw lyrics, rooted in his troubled past and struggles with addiction (he died by suicide at age 41 in 2017), connected with fans viscerally, and he suggests they may have contributed to a sea change in attitudes about mental illness, both in rock and in society.

Probably won’t change many critics’ minds, but a must-have for Linkin Park fans.