Linkin Park - Why the Hate?

[The Youth Counselor]

In 1999 they represented something new.

I admit I used to be a big fan and continued listening to them after people declared them to no longer be cool. However I can't listen to five of their songs in a row anymore without contemplating suicide. Chester needs a hug and to see some sunshine.

I'm also sure the fact that their songs along with Drowning Pool's Let the Bodies Hit the Floor at ear piercing volumes are the soundtrack of choice for bad Youtube montagevideos has something to do with their decline.

 

[D_987]

Gotta wonder, how many of you calling them "emo" have actually heard their new album; sure there's a few songs that discuss emotion and so forth [Ok half the album when you consider about 4 or 5 of the 15 tracks on there are pure filler] but there's some rather different stuff on there; take "When they come for me" as an example:


Hell, the opening verse to that song contain the following lyrics:

I am not
the fortune and the fame,
nor the same person telling you to forfeit the game.
...
'cause even a blueprint is a gift and a curse,
'cause once you got a theory of how the thing works
everybody wants the next thing to be just like the first,
...
You all ought to stop talking.
Start trying to catch up, ************!

Which pretty much sounds like a declaration that they've changed, despite knowing everyone wants them to keep making the same music forever; which from this thread is really apparent.

I was going to just post "because they're shit", but I'd probably be put on probation.
Couple of reasons:
They sound shit.
The singer's voice is annoying.
The generic, emo, "my life is terrible" lyrics.
The fact that they hate their lives even though they recieve millions for doing nothing of any value to anyone.
Their music is for 14-year olds to sulk and cut themselves to because they've been grounded.

That's why.

By all means let me know some bands you consider to not "sound shit" so I can literally copy and paste this response - that's an incredibly generic list of reasons - and could be applied, with minor changes, to insult any band ever - if you don't like their sound fair enough, but that's clearly not the reason they're so disliked on the internet at they're a massively popular band nonetheless.

 

[FallenTraveler]

used to love them, minutes to midnight and my changing tastes got me away from them, Mike Shinoda deserves his props, he really is experimenting and I love him. But I loved them for hybrid theory and don't particularly care for their sound now, I don't think they should go back, but I do think they should keep tuning their sound... I like them, but their new stuff sounds like garbage to me...

 

[DevilWolf47]

I'm not committed enough to be a hater. I don't like Linkin Park, i don't listen to it. I admit sometimes the crusader like hatred seems unwarranted, they're not complete fuck-ups like Swift, but i don't come to their defense often because like i said, i have better music to listen to.

 

[Vakz]

The fact that the title of this topic very well could have been a name of their next album instead..

 

[MaxwellEdison]

Or perhaps it's possible that people just don't like it?
I think their vocals are shit, and I think their music is bland and unoriginal, and I think they're untalented.

BTW, a group being "huge" shouldn't give us pause in rolling our eyes at it, that's arguing from popularity. You know what else is huge? Justin Beiber.

 

[Carbo]

Personally, I absolutely loved A Thousand Suns. It was a spectacular progressive rock album with deep, thought provoking themes of humankind's evolution and (possible) self-destruction, inevitable death and the concept of rebirth. Sure, it pales in comparison to other, better progressive rock albums like Dark Side of the Moon, but LP did one hell of a job in giving people who were willing to listen (rather than nitpick) an epic experience.

As for their earlier work, I don't care for it. Give me any one of the tracks off of Thousand Suns over "CRAAAAAWLLLINNNNGGG IIIIIIIIIIIN MY SKIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNALGDSLADSGHDSAL"

I was afraid I was the only person in the world that believed this. Glad to see I'm not the only one.

Which makes me also believe that the better question here is "why people don't like their new material in their own right". I'll be honest, I liked Linkin Park back in the day when my scope of music wasn't at all that large, and I grew out of them. I "sort of" liked them and listened to them every once in a while but I can't say that I got into them. Minutes to Midnight was absolutely disappointing.

Then they made A Thousand Suns. An album which, last year for me, was only outthwarted in quality by the new Oceansize album. After over four years of lost interest and anticipation, I approached the new album without anything better to do. I was blown-the-fuck away. The dynamics, perfect atmosphere, songwriting and style just astounded me, some of LP's best work ever. I couldn't believe it was the same band I had listened to when Meteora hit, and I think it is given way less credit than it deserves when people rather stay in comfort zones and listen to angsty riffs. They elevated themselves, and any preconceptions I had for them were thrown out of the window.

 

[EvilPicnic]

Because they're middle-of-the-road pap. They're for alternative-metal what Coldplay is for 'indie', and Nickelback is for alternative-rock.
There's nothing straight out OFFENSIVE about them, but their seeming unwillingness to originate anything new or stop pandering to populist sensibilities means I have very little interest is anything they produce.

 

[Shadesong]

I liked Hybrid Theory and Meteora but it all went downhill from there. I wouldn't say I hate them, I just dislike the music that they're making these days.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

Because they make shit music. What's worse though, is that they used to make great music; they went from making music like Hybrid Theory to whatever the latest piece of crap was called. I hate having to say 'I only like the older stuff', it makes me sound like a hipster.

Excuse me while I put on my lenseless glasses.

 

[Kadamon]

Honestly, I just feel like it's WRITTEN for that age-group.

 

[Rayne870]

It's not that I hate them it's that I've become so numb...

 

[Black Phoenix]

I used to really like them, but I think I kinda outgrew them, if that makes sense. These days I'm more into the symphonic and goth metal (Nightwish, Within Temptation, Epica, Kamelot, Leaves Eyes, etc.). That said, i wasn't an enormous fan of Minutes to Midnight either, though I didn't dislike it, and so I've got no interest in their latest.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

The lyrics and the vocal style makes me cringe...that's just me.

 

[YawningAngel]

People don't hate Linkin Park, specifically. They're just very well-known, so a lot of people are exposed to them. If, say, Nine Inch Nails became wildly popular, a lot of people would suddenly find they "hate" NIN as well, despite prior utter indifference.

 

[Varitel]

I never really liked that style of metal to begin with, but I have to say I find Linkin Park quite offputting mostly due to their vocals. To me, it sounds like a mix of whining and screaming. I personally have a fairly broad range of musical tastes (rock of various types, ska, funk, soul, jazz, blues, big band, classical) and I understand that some people really enjoy Linkin Park's style of singing as well as their style of music, but it just isn't for me. I think the source of the "hate" is that people that dislike something naturally gravitate towards the word hate when they really mean something a bit less harsh.