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. This is also the only album on which bassist Dave Farrell does not play.
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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; "Runaway" has also made several appearances on radio stations.
Generally receiving positive reviews from critics upon its release, Hybrid Theory became a strong commercial success.[8] Peaking at number two on the US Billboard 200, it is certified 12 Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It also reached the top 10 in 15 other countries and has sold 32 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling debut album since Guns N' Roses's Appetite for Destruction (1987) and the best-selling rock album of the 21st century.[9] 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.[10] 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.[11]
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.[15][19] However, they were initially turned down by most of the major labels and several independent record labels.[14] 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.[14][15][16]
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,[15] 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 March 2000 and lasted four months.[20] Shinoda's rapping sections in most of the songs were significantly altered from the original, while most choruses remained largely unchanged.[21] 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.[22] The Dust Brothers provided additional beats for the track "With You".[23]
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,[14] while the riffs and playing techniques of guitarist Brad Delson are modeled after Deftones, Guns N' Roses,[15] U2, and The Smiths.[14] 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,[14] the divorce of his parents, isolation,[26] disappointments, and the aftermath feelings of failed relationships.[27] Stylistically, the album has been described as nu metal,[28][29][30][31][32][33] rap metal,[28][34][35][36] rap rock,[37][38][39][40] alternative metal,[40][41] alternative rock,[42][43] and hard rock.[44][45]
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.[46] 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.[46][47] The music video for "One Step Closer" was shot in a Los Angeles subway[48] and became an instant hit, eventually receiving heavy rotation on MTV and other music television networks.[15] Stand-in bassist Scott Koziol is shown performing with the band in the video.[48]
"Papercut" was the album's third 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.[50]
"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".[14] 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.[30]
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.[55] The art style was largely influenced by stencil graffiti, including early works by Banksy.[56] 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.[57]
Hybrid Theory received generally positive reviews from critics. Mike Ross of Jam! praised the album as an effective fusion of hip hop and heavy metal music and deemed Linkin Park "one of the finest new rap metal bands".[69] PopMatters reviewer Stephanie Dickison wrote that they are "a far more complex and talented group than the hard rock boy bands of late" and "will continue to fascinate and challenge music's standard sounds."[47] In Q, Dan Silver commented that the band had given "angst-ridden rock... an effective electronic spin".[66] Johan Wippsson from Melodic complimented Don Gilmore's production and described Hybrid Theory as "destructive and angry but always with a well controlled melodic feeling all over."[62] The Village Voice's Robert Christgau gave the album a two-star honorable mention rating and cited "Papercut" and "Points of Authority" as highlights; he quipped, "the men don't know what the angry boys understand".[70]
In a more critical assessment, William Ruhlmann of AllMusic found that on Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park sound "like a Johnny-come-lately to an already overdone musical style."[71] NME critic Noel Gardner said 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".[64] Rolling Stone's Matt Diehl 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".[67]
Reviewing Hybrid Theory in 2006, Tyler Fisher of Sputnikmusic perceived a lack of musical variety on the record, but concluded that it "stands as a defining mainstream album at the turn of the century, and for good reason."[72] Writing for Stylus Magazine the following year, Ian Cohen found 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."[73] Pitchfork's Gabriel Szatan was more enthusiastic in a 2020 review; he wrote that "all the band's sharpest tendencies meshed and their less attractive aesthetic impulses were suppressed" on Hybrid Theory, while crediting the band with helping to normalize discussion of mental health "within pop, rock, rap, and every genre along the heavy axis".[65] Luke Morton of Kerrang! argued that it is "not hyperbolic to say that Hybrid Theory is one of the most important rock albums of all time."[61] 2ff7e9595c
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