Fandom: A Weird Relationship with the Band and Their Fans

I've been listening to this band from their album Hybrid Theory. Sure, the album was made available to me, however I was thinking this band was going to be something like the collaboration between Anthrax and Public Enemy. (Incidentally, Mike Shinoda's first concert was an Anthrax concert, but that's beside the point.)

The release of Reanimation saw the remixes of the entire Hybrid Theory album, including High Voltage off of their Hybrid Theory EP. The remix album embodies the idea of Hybrid Theory in the sense it combined different sounds from hip hop to electronica. So, when Meteora came out in 2003, I was surprised to see many fans complain that it didn't follow the progression of Reanimation and pointed out tracks that sounded like the tracks off of their first album. Of course, during the wait between Meteora and Minutes to Midnight, one of the popular discussions on the board back then was a possible remix of Meteora in the same vein as Reanimation. By the way, I really didn't mind the Mash Up between Linkin Park and Jay-Z.

I didn't know the general consensus of Rick Rubin producing Linkin Park's then new album, Minutes to Midnight, but I was aware of his works with Slayer and Johnny Cash's later albums, so I had very high hopes for this move. What I've Done came out as a single and I was surprised to hear more singing. However, when the actual album came out, a lot of people were blaming Rick Rubin for apparently ruining the band.

It's 2010 and we're coming to a new album, A Thousand Suns. It's interesting how the title plays along with the last album. Minutes to Midnight refering to the Doomsday Clock and the minutes that eventually leads to total destruction through means of nuclear weapons. A Thousand Suns refering to the quote "brighter than a thousand suns... " which was uttered by a scientist explaining one of the bombs being tested.

With the name thing aside, we are treated with a 30 second clip of the new single, The Catalyst. I've been reading comments saying it's either disco or techno. First, it's neither of the two and second, it's electronica, the very same element found in the Reanimation remix album. I still find it weird that people were complaining that Meteora didn't sound like Reanimation and now that we have an album with sounds similar to that remix album, people want the so called Hybrid Theory sound.

I don't want to get into an argument of what the next album will sound like, but isn't the whole point behind Linkin Park's existence is for them to make their own music? You know, to take different sounds and mash it up to their liking. And if I remember correctly, they don't like being pigeon holed into one genre.

Tags: A, Suns, Thousand

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Permalink Reply by Avo on August 1, 2010 at 11:26am

Most people did not like Reanimation when it came out. That's the only flawed "fact" I see in your opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Crube on August 3, 2010 at 3:47pm

It's really amazing you nit-picked at this part only. I only commented the popularity of Reanimation because one of the hot topics on the old Linkin Park message forum was the band to make a second Reanimation but with Meteora material. Really, do you have any form of reading comprehension because nowhere in my little diatribe that I stated everything was fact.

Avo Singh said:

Most people did not like Reanimation when it came out. That's the only flawed "fact" I see in your opinion.

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Permalink Reply by Cillian on August 6, 2010 at 1:36pm

Crube said:

I don't want to get into an argument of what the next album will sound like, but isn't the whole point behind Linkin Park's existence is for them to make their own music? You know, to take different sounds and mash it up to their liking. And if I remember correctly, they don't like being pigeon holed into one genre.

Well said, Crube. I agree.

Damn but it's difficult to find level headed posters around here these days, a lot of what's here now is frustrating & exasperating (though often amusing at the same time) , that's why I don't often come here.

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Permalink Reply by Avo on August 10, 2010 at 3:12pm

The only reason I "nit-picked" was because I want your post to be "factually sound." I agree completely with what you say, there's no need for me to only say "I agree" and leave it at that. To one of those "NUMETALZ IS TEH BEZT" fools, this post would seem to have less relevance with incorrect, implied "facts" - that's how I would perceive it anway..

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Permalink Reply by Crube on August 11, 2010 at 5:18pm

Apologies if I didn't post the sales number on Reanimation or anything like that, but as I said before, I was merely going on how the forums were reacting at one point in time and the discussions that was popular. With that mind, I just simply made the connection that Reanimation was popular with most of the fans. How hard is it to think that?

Avo Singh said:

The only reason I "nit-picked" was because I want your post to be "factually sound." I agree completely with what you say, there's no need for me to only say "I agree" and leave it at that. To one of those "NUMETALZ IS TEH BEZT" fools, this post would seem to have less relevance with incorrect, implied "facts" - that's how I would perceive it anway..

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Permalink Reply by Avo on August 12, 2010 at 10:41am

Because it is only fairly recently that I have been hearing fans wanting a Reanimation II (in arguably considerable numbers). I hadn't really heard this as much before on fansites. Most people and fans I know hated it, but I guess that's only me.

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Permalink Reply by Crube on August 13, 2010 at 12:24am

That's because the topic of having another Reanimation with Meteora material came out a little bit after the Meteora album and it took place on the old Linkin Park forums. Trust me when I say that I've seen several topics about it, but just because you never saw it yourself, doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Avo Singh said:

Because it is only fairly recently that I have been hearing fans wanting a Reanimation II (in arguably considerable numbers). I hadn't really heard this as much before on fansites. Most people and fans I know hated it, but I guess that's only me.