Hybrid Theory


Hybrid Theory is the debut studio album by American rock band Linkin Park, released on October 24, 2000, through Warner Bros. Records. Recorded at NRG Recordings in North Hollywood, California, and produced by Don Gilmore, the album's lyrical themes deal with problems lead vocalist Chester Bennington experienced during his adolescence, including drug abuse and the constant fighting and divorce of his parents. Hybrid Theory takes its title from the previous name of the band as well as the concept of music theory and combining different styles.
Four singles were released from Hybrid Theory: "One Step Closer", "In the End", "Crawling" and "Papercut", all of them being responsible for launching Linkin Park into mainstream popularity. While "In the End" was the most successful of the four, all of the singles in the album remain some of the band's most successful songs to date. Although "Runaway", "Points of Authority", and "My December" from the special edition bonus disc album were not released as singles, they were minor hits on alternative rock radio stations thanks to the success of all of the band's singles and the album.
Generally receiving positive reviews from critics upon its release, Hybrid Theory became a strong commercial success. Peaking at number two on the US Billboard 200, it is certified 11x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It also reached the top 10 in 15 other countries and has sold 27 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling debut album since Guns N' Roses' Appetite for Destruction and the best-selling rock album of the 21st century. At the 44th Grammy Awards, it won Best Hard Rock Performance for "Crawling".
In 2002, Linkin Park released the remix album Reanimation. It included the songs of Hybrid Theory remixed and reinterpreted by nu metal and underground hip hop artists. Contributors to the album included Black Thought, Pharoahe Monch, Jonathan Davis, Stephen Carpenter, and Aaron Lewis. The sound of later Linkin Park albums would involve experimentation with classical instruments such as strings and piano, both of which, along with the same elements of electronica from Hybrid Theory, are prominently included in the band's second studio album Meteora.

Background

Linkin Park was founded in 1996 as the rap rock band Xero: lead guitarist Brad Delson, vocalist and rhythm guitarist Mike Shinoda, drummer Rob Bourdon, turntablist Joe Hahn, lead vocalist Mark Wakefield and bassist Dave Farrell. In 1999, after Wakefield's departure, lead vocalist Chester Bennington joined the five members of Xero and the band was renamed Linkin Park. Bennington's previous band, Grey Daze, had recently disbanded, so his lawyer recommended him to Jeff Blue, vice president of A&R coordination for Zomba, who at the time was seeking a lead vocalist for Xero. Blue sent Bennington two tapes of Xero's unreleased recordings — one with vocals by former Xero member Mark Wakefield, and the other with only the instrumental tracks — asking for his "interpretation of the songs". Bennington wrote and recorded new vocals over the instrumentals and sent the tapes back to Blue. As Delson recalls, " really was kind of the final piece of the puzzle We didn't see anything close to his talent in anybody else." After Bennington joined, the group first renamed itself to Hybrid Theory and released a self-titled EP. Legal complications with Welsh electronic music group Hybrid prompted a second name change, thus deciding on "Linkin Park". Throughout 1999, Linkin Park was a regular act at the Los Angeles club, The Whisky.

Writing and recording

The music that would ultimately become the Hybrid Theory album was first produced by Linkin Park in 1999 as a nine-track demo tape. The band sent this tape to various recording companies and played forty-two different showcases for recording industry representatives, including performances for Los Angeles promoter and impresario, Mike Galaxy's showcase at The Gig on Melrose. However, they were initially turned down by most of the major labels and several independent record labels. The band was signed by Warner Bros. Records in 1999, due in large part to the constant recommendations of Jeff Blue, who had joined the label after resigning from Zomba.
Despite initial difficulties in finding a producer willing to take charge of the debut album of a newly signed band, Don Gilmore ultimately agreed to head up the project, with Andy Wallace hired as the mixer. Recording sessions, which mostly involved re-recording the songs off the demo tape, began at NRG Recordings in North Hollywood, California in early 2000 and lasted four weeks. Shinoda's rapping sections in most of the songs were significantly altered from the original, while most choruses remained largely unchanged. Due to the absence of Dave Farrell and Kyle Christener, who took part in the 1999 extended play, the band hired Scott Koziol and Ian Hornbeck as stand-in bassists; Delson also played bass throughout most of the album. The Dust Brothers provided additional beats for the track “With You”.
Bennington and Shinoda wrote the lyrics of Hybrid Theory based in part on early demos with Mark Wakefield. Shinoda characterized the lyrics as interpretations of universal feelings, emotions, and experiences, and as “everyday emotions you talk about and think about.” Bennington later described the songwriting experience to Rolling Stone in early 2002:

Composition

The music of Hybrid Theory draws from diverse inspirations. Bennington's singing style is influenced by acts such as Depeche Mode and Stone Temple Pilots, while the riffs and playing techniques of guitarist Brad Delson are modeled after Deftones, Guns N' Roses, U2, and The Smiths. The lyrical content of the songs primarily touches upon the problems that Bennington encountered during his childhood, including constant and excessive drug and alcohol abuse, the divorce of his parents, isolation, disappointments, and the aftermath feelings of failed relationships. Stylistically, the album has been described as nu metal, rap metal, rap rock, alternative metal, and alternative rock.
The album eventually produced four singles. "One Step Closer", the album's second track and first single, was gradually recorded in increments after Linkin Park struggled with "Runaway", and features a guitar riff and electronic percussion in the introduction transitioning into a bridge with distortion-heavy guitars and aggressive drums. It is also famous for the "Shut up when I'm talkin' to you!" refrain screamed by Bennington one minute and 48 seconds into the song. The music video for "One Step Closer" was shot in a Los Angeles subway and became an instant hit, eventually receiving heavy rotation on MTV and other music television networks. Stand-in bassist Scott Koziol is shown performing with the band in the video.
The second single to come from Hybrid Theory was "In the End", released on October 24, 2000 – the same day as the album. The song prominently features a signature piano riff performed by Shinoda. His rapping also dominates the verses of the song and is later joined by Bennington's vocals in the chorus. The music video for "In the End" was shot at various stops along the 2001 Ozzfest tour and was directed by Nathan "Karma" Cox and the band's DJ Joe Hahn, who would go on to direct many of Linkin Park's future videos. Although the background for the "In the End" video was filmed in a California desert, the band itself performed on a studio stage in Los Angeles, with prominent CGI effects and compositing being used to create the finished version. Performing on a studio stage allowed Hahn and Cox to set off water pipes above the stage near the end and drench the band.
The music video won the Best Rock Video award at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards.
The third single was "Crawling", which Bennington described as "about feeling like I had no control over myself in terms of drugs and alcohol."
"Papercut" was the album's fourth single, and its lyrics describe paranoia. The music video for "Papercut" features the band performing in a hallway opposite a completely dark room on the walls of which are scribbled the song's lyrics. Various supernatural themes are present in the video, and special effects are used to create eerie renditions, such as the "stretching" of Shinoda's fingers and the “melting” of Bourdon's face.
"Points of Authority", the fourth track on the album, has its own music video that can be found on Frat Party at the Pankake Festival, the band's first DVD. Drummer Rob Bourdon describes the recording process of the song: “Brad wrote this riff, then went home. Mike decided to cut it up into different pieces and rearranged them on the computer Brad had to learn his own part from the computer.” Regarding the song, Delson praised Shinoda's skill, describing him as “a genius” and “Trent Reznor-talented”. On live performances of the song, when Shinoda raps the line, "Forfeit the game" verse for the third time in the song, Bennington would rap the verse along with Mike.

Artwork

With Hybrid Theory being Linkin Park's first album, Mike Shinoda, who had worked as a graphic designer before becoming a professional musician, has stated that the band had looked through books for inspiration on how to present themselves for the first time. The result was a winged-soldier which Shinoda illustrated himself. According to Chester Bennington, the idea of the soldier with dragonfly wings was to describe the blending of hard and soft musical elements by the use of the jaded looks of the soldier and frail touches of the wings. The art style was largely influenced by stencil graffiti, including early works by Banksy. The cover also features scrambled lyrics of the album's songs within the background, though the lyrics of "One Step Closer" are the most prominent.

Tours

Following the success of Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park received invitations to perform at various rock concerts and tours, including Ozzfest, the Family Values Tour, KROQ-FM's Almost Acoustic Christmas, and the band's self-created tour, Projekt Revolution, which was headlined by Linkin Park and featured other bands such as Cypress Hill and Adema. During this time, Linkin Park reunited with their original bassist, Dave “Phoenix” Farrell. The band kept an online journal on their official website throughout their 2001 and 2002 touring regime, in which each band member made a respective notation. Although the notes are no longer on their website, they are available on fansites. Linkin Park played 324 shows in 2001.

Critical reception

Hybrid Theory received generally positive reviews from critics. Mike Ross of Jam! found the album to be an effective fusion of hip hop and heavy metal sounds and praised Linkin Park as "one of the finest new rap metal bands". Stephanie Dickison of PopMatters commented that they are "a far more complex and talented group than the hard rock boy bands of late" that "will continue to fascinate and challenge music's standard sounds." Q magazine wrote that the band had given "angst-ridden rock... an effective electronic spin." Johan Wippsson from Melodic praised Don Gilmore's production and described the album as "destructive and angry but always with a well controlled melodic feeling all over." Robert Christgau of The Village Voice quipped that "the men don't know what the angry boys understand", giving the album a two-star honorable mention rating and citing "Papercut" and "Points of Authority" as highlights.
AllMusic writer William Ruhlmann was more critical of Hybrid Theory and wrote that Linkin Park "sounds like a Johnny-come-lately to an already overdone musical style", citing "One Step Closer" in particular as "a typical effort". NME's Noel Gardner remarked that it was a "decent" album in need of editing, writing that "otherwise damn fine soaring emo-crunchers like 'With You' and 'A Place for My Head' are pointlessly jazzed up with tokenistic scratching". Matt Diehl of Rolling Stone felt that the album "works in spots" and the band "knows its way around a hook", but panned Bennington and Shinoda's "corny, boilerplate-aggro lyrics". Tyler Fisher of Sputnikmusic writes that "Hybrid Theory stands as a defining mainstream album at the turn of the century, and for good reason", despite the occasional presence of "bland and unoriginal" guitar riffs. In a retrospective write-up for Stylus Magazine, Ian Cohen remarked that while the album is "almost completely forgettable" outside of its singles, it "was strangely fresh for mainstream rock radio, particularly placed in relief of its ugly post-grunge peers and the staunch revivalism of the Strokes/White Stripes front".

Accolades

At the 44th Grammy Awards in 2002, Linkin Park won Best Hard Rock Performance for their song "Crawling". Additional nominations for Best New Artist and Best Rock Album lost out to Alicia Keys and All That You Can't Leave Behind by U2. Hybrid Theory found itself in several "must have" lists that were compiled by various music publications, networks, and other media. In 2012, Rock Sound named Hybrid Theory the best modern classic album of the last 15 years. In 2013, Loudwire ranked it at #10 in its Best Hard Rock Debut Albums list. Some of the more prominent of these lists to feature Hybrid Theory are shown below:
PublicationCountryAccoladeYearRank
The Village VoiceUnited StatesPazz & Jop2001159
Classic RockUnited KingdomThe 100 Greatest Rock Albums of All-Time200572
The National Association of Recording Merchandisers / Rock and Roll Hall of FameUnited StatesThe Definitive 200200784
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You DieUnited States1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die2006*
Record CollectorUnited KingdomBest of 20012001*
Rock SoundFranceLes 150 Albums De La Génération 200658
Rock SoundUnited States101 Modern Classic Albums of the last 15 years20121
Rock HardGermanyThe 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time2005421
Kerrang!United Kingdom50 Best Rock Albums of the 2000s20148

* denotes an unordered list
Commemorating the 20th anniversary of the launch of the album, the author DAVH NMX is writing an based on the album track list. The novel is currently under development; the first chapter is available for free on the Wattpad platform.

Commercial performance

Hybrid Theory debuted at number 16 on the US Billboard 200, selling 50,000 copies in its first week. It was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America five weeks after its release. In 2001, the album had sold 4.8 million copies in the United States, making it the best-selling album of the year, and it was estimated that the album continued selling 100,000 copies per week in early 2002. Throughout the following years, the album continued to sell at a fast pace and was eventually certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2005 for shipment of ten million copies in the United States; in 2017, it was awarded another level of platinum status for a total of 11× Platinum. To date, the album has sold 27 million copies worldwide, which makes it the best selling debut album of the 21st century. As of July 2017, the album has sold 10,500,000 copies in the US.
After the death of Bennington on July 20, 2017, the album reached number 1 on the iTunes and Amazon music charts. It also re-entered at #27 on the Billboard 200, along with three of their other studio albums, re-surfacing into the top 10 at #8 the following week. In the UK, it peaked at #4 in 2001 and re-climbed to its peak position in July 2017, the same week it re-entered the top 10 in the US. The album also charted in 11 other countries at fairly high positions and ranked among the top ten in the charts of the United Kingdom, Sweden, New Zealand, Austria, Finland, and Switzerland.
Hybrid Theory was the 11th best performing album on the Billboard 200 during the decade, the album reached the top ten in its 38th week on the chart and stayed in the top ten for 34 weeks. The album spent nearly 170 weeks on the chart as of 2017, by re entering at #167 in February 2011 and for several weeks every time a new studio album was released.
Later in 2002, Linkin Park released the remix album Reanimation. It included the songs of Hybrid Theory remixed and reinterpreted by nu metal and underground hip hop artists. Contributors to the album included Black Thought, Pharoahe Monch, Jonathan Davis, Stephen Carpenter, and Aaron Lewis. The sound of later Linkin Park albums would involve experimentation with classical instruments such as strings and piano, both of which, along with the same elements of electronica from Hybrid Theory, are prominently included in the band's second studio album Meteora. As Shinoda explains the difference in the sound between Hybrid Theory and Meteora: "That electronic element has always been there in the band – it's just that sometimes we bring it closer to the front."

Singles

Hybrid Theory was released in the United States on October 24, 2000 following radio airplay of "One Step Closer". Four singles from the album were released throughout 2001, three of which were chart successes on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts. The single "In the End" was the highest charting single from the album, which peaked at #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks charts and appearing on charts worldwide. The success of "In the End" was partly responsible for Hybrid Theorys chart success; it reached #2 in the Billboard 200 in early 2002 behind Weathered'' by Creed and by ' by Jennifer Lopez.

Track listing

Personnel

Linkin Park
;Bassists
;Additional writers on
Production
Artwork
;Additional musical guests
Management

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position

Chart Peak
position

Year-end charts

Chart Position
US Billboard 200178
US Top Rock Albums 20

Decade-end chart

Singles

Certifications