Album sales have dropped

LP have another #1 album on billboard.com, but their album sales won't have Warner celebrating as 241,000 units sold pales in comparison to the 623,000 that MTM sold in its 1st week. Obviously, the band still has many fans, but they have definitly lost a significant amount. I think we should also acknowledge that a portion of the 241,000 people who bought ATS don't like the album.

I think that LP needs to either improve their new sound so it can hold its own or start producing albums that cater to their entire fanbase. I think ATS is a What Ive Done or two short of being a great album and if the band wants to leave their past behind they got to write better ballads. Their best ballad/mid-tempo songs (Iridecent and Waiting for the end) fall short of being great imo and aren't good enough to make many fans forget about their older stuff. The band set the bar high with HT and will need to write better songs before they can move on from that. I think that most people would agree that neither Iridecent or Waiting for the End are in the same class as the best ballads that come from U2 or Cold Play. So until that bridge is gapped, they should cater to their entire fanbase.

The faster songs, which are probably aimed at their older fans, leave don't quite deliver and I fail to see what's wrong with including 2 or 3 songs that sound like stuff from HT or Meteora in addition to their new stuff. You can have it both ways and keep everybody happy while experimenting at the same time. I don't see the point of intentionally making many fans unhappy. Who cares what the critics think.

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Permalink Reply by Edwin Reinders on October 7, 2010 at 12:35am

When you build up such a big fanbase it becomes somewhat easier to hit the #1 spot. True LP fans bought the album in advance, before knowing what it would sound like. I think they must be happy we did otherwise their sales numbers would be different for sure.

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Permalink Reply by Todd Williamson on October 7, 2010 at 4:39am

Let's lay it out for you.
Linkin Park released this album for themselves. Not for record sales. Not for the record label. Not for the fans. For themselves.
They knew making this album was a big risk and they took it. From the sounds of it, they enjoy taking that risk and are going to continue taking that risk. Whether the public takes it or leaves it doesn't matter, as long as Linkin Park have released an album they are proud of, they are happy.

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Permalink Reply by D'Artagnan on October 8, 2010 at 1:34pm

thank you

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Permalink Reply by Walter Anderson on October 9, 2010 at 12:13pm

Yo, 1st off as a poet myself the artistry to push the envelop as a person yet alone a band that has the status of this type of celebrity they had to push it against the grain even if damaging themselves in the process its about the status quo of being better than yesterday... let jay-z said if you don't like me this, buy my old ablums.... he had to grow and outgrow the past! i myself love the ablum due to them being honest with themselves...

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Permalink Reply by Pranjal on October 11, 2010 at 1:14am

Piracy man... thats tough.
However, well done LP all the same.
Regrets about that piracy shit.

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Permalink Reply by Spanish Latin on October 11, 2010 at 9:40am

....agree with Pranjal

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Permalink Reply by Danny Avila on October 14, 2010 at 7:17pm

Blaming the Piracy for the lack of Artistic creativity is a lame intent to justify this new Records. You could blame MP3 or WMA file format creators too for facilitate the P2P downloading and sharing and giving portability to shared material too. Anyways, regarding the musical style and shape of this new Album, I couldn't agree more with you. If you show "Points of Authority" or "Lying from You" along with any song of this new Album to somebody that never heard Linkin Park before, this person will never believe that were wrote, arranged and performed by the same band. The band needs to go back to their former "musical stash" provider and ask for what they got then when writing/arranging Hybrid Theory and Meteora. Undoubtedly, those were highly inspired creations. The rest of their albums sound like "here's our forced part of the Recording Deal" music, starting by Minutes to Midnight (I just bought it for "What I've done" and asked the same thing to myself when I listened the rest of it), and this recently released intent to stay in the Industry. But many other bands around the World have become more and more commercial in their productions too and this seems to be the result of the needs of the modern youth to quickly "listen and forget" all the music they can in the shortest possible period of time. This trend hides the risk for a band or singer of being tagged, classified and soon discarded so the performers are always trying to renew or innovate their sound and even their image, but should remain close to what gave them the audience's preference. Simply, I can't imagine Seether or Limp Bizkit doing Reggae, Polka or Salsa because of the world's musical fashion.

Regarding the musical material contained in their first and second albums, I still love the powerful riffs of Brad and Mike's guitars, along with the "beat" of the Sampler/Drummer assembly that keeps you following the lyrics. Chester's screams were very energy releasing and built very powerful moments on the old songs. It's really rare to find a band that can produce an 8 or more songs Album that can be all listened as one entire piece. Imagine if the band can produce 2 in a row. Judging by the samples of this new album material I could think that there's no money left for more experienced musical arrangers or composers as it sounds kind of hollow and thin and not related to their earlier productions. It's not a Nu-metal or Alternative Album, it's just 3 bells away from being a Christmas Carol compilation. Perhaps Pro Tools accidentally erased all the guitars section from the new songs and those missed "mysterious" tracks will be released next year. Who knows.

By the way, have you listened KoRn's new album and yet wonder when will they have another "Freak on a Leash" or "Fallen Away from me" studio moment?

I'm sorry if I'm rambling on this space. I just realized that Nu Metal is done and gotta have to use Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus' music to replace it.

My 2 cents...

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Permalink Reply by Spanish Latin on October 14, 2010 at 9:00pm

***Please refer to my response on Oct. 5 / 10:43 a.m. for my addressing your um, "2 cents..." ***

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Permalink Reply by Heather (babybear ;)) on February 21, 2013 at 11:29pm

It's true that LP's album sales have dropped a little. However, people need to realize that Lp doesn't write songs trying to meet the fan's expectations. The band writes their music for the band, and I think that really separates those who like some of their material and true LP fans. Since Meteora, we all could see that the band would never go back to the old style. In fact, each of their albums are different. If a "fan" is bothered by that and wants the band to make music the way the fans want, then they aren't true fans. They have even mentioned that in their interviews that they're constantly changing, and that they'll probably never return to their Hybrid Theory days. I personally agree with their decision. Their constant evolving keeps me interested. I can always look forward to something new. It's not a matter of "If LP will ever go back to Hybrid Theory days" but a matter of "This is what we've created. If you like it, cool. If you hate it, cool." It's not your music or my music, it's their music. And it's your choice whether or not it's the music for you.

On a side note, I'd like to point out that some of you guys probably weren't into LP when Hybrid Theory came out. In fact, some were too young to really get into their music. Just saying, if you weren't even involved with LP during "Hybrid Days", I don't see why you're complaining.

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Permalink Reply by Oliver Murray on May 2, 2013 at 4:05am

A Thousand Suns is they're best album, its by far they're most artistic work. And isn't comparable to Hybrid Theory, Minutes To Midnight or anything really as Linkin Park created a genre when they birthed this album. Allot of people don't really get A Thousand Suns because they view it as a collection of songs, rather that an album. Which is how you have to listen to it and think of it more as one 50 minute track. As for the sales of this album of course records like Hybrid Theory and Meteora will sell more because people can relate to the issues dealt with in the songs of those two records on a very wide scale. When you make something personnel of course its going to touch and be appreciated by more people than a political album like MTM or ATS regardless of how good they are. As for the portion of people buying ATS and not liking it. Of course it is true, but don't let that make you think its unpopular, because people are more compelled to speak about something when its a complaint. That should be bared in mind if your surprised with the amount of bad reviews.