LINKIN PARK Poised To Survive Death of Rap-Rock

July 28, 2003

L. Kent Wolgamott of JournalStar.com is reporting that "as record sales continue to slump, only three acts sold more than 2 million albums in the first six months of 2003. One, 50 CENT, is the hottest brand going in hip-hop. Another, NORAH JONES, benefited from a bunch of Grammy Awards.

"The third is a band playing a style of music that industry know-it-alls had dismissed as burned out.

"But LINKIN PARK has shown that there's still life in rap/rock and that good, hard-working guys can still get rewarded in an ever-more-cynical business.

" 'Hybrid Theory', LINKIN PARK's debut album, was the top-selling record of 2001, then picked up a best hard-rock performance Grammy for 'Crawling'. After that disc sold 14 million copies, the consensus in the industry was that LINKIN PARK was yet another of the one-album wonders that have become commonplace of late.

"Then, in late March, LINKIN PARK released 'Meteora'. The disc sold 810,000 copies in its first week of release to debut at No. 1, then held off a challenge from critics' darlings THE WHITE STRIPES to maintain that position a couple of weeks later.

" 'Meteora' has now sold more than 2 million copies and is still at No. 12 on the Billboard albums chart. The singles 'Faint' and 'Somewhere I Belong' are getting played on both modern rock and mainstream rock radio.

"So, guitarist Brad Delson, how do you explain LINKIN PARK's success?

" 'I think a lot of it is luck,' Delson said in a phone interview from the road. 'Some of it is timing. Some of it, I think, is people really connect with (MC) Mike (Shinola) and (vocalist) Chester's (Bennington) lyrics, and some connect to the music. If you're a fan of LINKIN PARK, we try to do a lot to make it worthwhile. We try to go above and beyond.' " Read more.

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