Against All Odds, Linkin Park Were America’s Last Huge Rock Band

When will the poptimist critical revisionism end?
stereogum.com/1953412/against-all-odds-linkin-park-were-americas-last-huge-rock-band/franchises/sounding-board/

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Also seems objectively untrue they were the last huge rock band. Twenty One Pilots and Imagine Dragons are huge.

no, Slipknot was.

The sad part is that it's true to a certain extent

The last rock band was Hot Chelle Rae

the discussion in the comments is on point though

>The point of this article isn't that you have to think Linkin Park is great or even good, it's to look under the hood of an act whose longevity and influence was genuinely unexpected and ask why.

>Twenty One Pilots and Imagine Dragons are huge.
I don't know if I'd really call them rock bands.

What would you call them? And how is their fusing of genres any different than LP's?

I don't think I would have called LP a rock band either

That definition seems overly restrictive then. Rock was/is always changing. Chuck Berry didn't sound anything like Pink Floyd.

>Twenty One Pilots and Imagine Dragons are huge.
I don't know if I'd call them rock bands. They do fill the demographic slot that modern rock, whatever that even was, filled.

I'd say Linkin Park represented (on the mainstream front) the transition from 'rock', in a really loose sense, to this kind of hybrid-y, post-hip-hop/rave anthem-y mainstream white person music for people in middle america.

>That definition seems overly restrictive then.
I disagree
LP is rap mixed with screaming
it's nothing like rock

Okay but even if we accept that they're rock bands, neither of them are anywhere near as big or influential as LP.

True, but there's a point that 'rock' just refers to music that large white audiences listen to.

But Imagine Dragons and Twenty One Pilots are more influenced by a whiteboy flavor of hip-hop and edm. It's just really anthemic and so white (whatever that effect is that white people have on their music) that it fills that place.

We're getting quite far past rock now though. There isn't really a word yet for what things have evolved into, when it's pop with a little angst aimed at white crowds, but not, like, girl or gay pop. The easiest thing is to just call it rock but I really don't think that is an apt term at this point.

>LP is rap mixed with screaming
>it's nothing like rock
i laughed

>that it fills that place.
Er, meant that 21 Pilots / Imag Drag are so anthem-y and 'white' in flavor despite the hip-hop and edm influences that it fills the white rock demographic place.

Nah, American Idiot was the last mega rock album.

What a sad way for rock to go out, although I guess if really strong albums were coming out, it wouldn't be dead. Or at least dead in a mainstream sense.

I feel like rock is now more like a local or small-scale scene / folk music, an anachronistic form that functions more like folk or country (in country's older sense) did.

Basically, hip-hop, pop, and electronic dance replaced rock as rock faded into the background. There are still sometimes white acts that shout a little bit but formally they're drawing more from pop and hip-hop now. People will probably lazily call such bands rock, because rock just means white people radio music now, but it's really just anthemic pop for straight white Middle Americans, that doesn't sound as feminine or 'gay'.

Paramore is still kinda popular though
Their self titled churned out hits that were the only hit rock songs for 2014

But that's Green Day

This. Paramore is the biggest Pop Rock act of the century so far. Plebs will deny this.

It's interesting how rock in a way is partly defined by a certain sense / flavor of authenticity that can't withstand the kind of pop-ification by the likes of Linkin Park / Green Day etc.

Rock was massively popular itself but somehow it had some kind of mythos and sensibility around it maybe tied also to certain forms somewhat at odds with pop and dance music as had developed since the late 70s which makes it unable to a kind of machinification of approach that was inevitable.

The same was said about Nirvana

>which makes it unable *survive to a kind of machinification

>The same was said about Nirvana
they were right
and you know you're right
youtube.com/watch?v=qv96yJYhk3M

The strokes made a bigger impact than these faggots, and i dont even care for them either

damn...
nice song

It's true though. Rock is dead.

Can someone give a formal definition of rock? what are groups like Cage the Elephant, The National, and Tigers Jaw then if they're not rock?

I'd argue they're the only rock band you could feasibly call rock making a good amount of success; while jangle pop and psychedelia are making a comeback of sorts, Paramore does seem to be doing better than either with their post pop-punk of sorts.

This, also arctic monkeys was huge too this decade though only for a meme song so idk if it counts.

yeah it's bizarre why so many people want to bury rock to me. it's become cool and edgy.

>Forgetting Paramore
Paramore is still popular and can be considered pop, they recently hit top 1 on Billboard 200 a month ago

music with guitars and shit

Minutes to Midnight sold more than American Idiot.

There are still rock bands for sure, they're just not massive like they were in the 60s, 70s, 80s, or even 90s.

It's like a little cottage industry or folk scene now.

And I mean, there was even just in the early 00s that supposed 'return of real rock' with like The Strokes and all that shitty garage rock and British guitar indie etc, but as I'm saying, it stayed pretty small-scale.

And the most interesting stuff in more independent or white-underground sectors has tended to jump parallel to rock forms and go into stuff with beats or pop forms or ambience.

Neither of these bands are even relevant compared to LP.

LP collaborated with Jay-Z, probably the biggest artist in the world at the time. Love 'em or hate 'em you can't deny that they were the biggest rock band this millenium and, sadly, probably the last one...

Not only huge but also extremely ahead of their time since the beginning no only in the music but in the video, branding and shilling, watch Meteora's making off and notice how it's recorded and cut, it's as if it was made today. Also look at what they did with Reanimation, extremely well done stuff

delet

what the fuck that isn't rock at all

I honestly don't have a problem with rock becoming more like the folk scene. I kinda like all the smaller scale stuff coming out recently, I just want more and more shitty indie groups.

It's Green Day. I still heard Green Day songs on the radio as of two years ago, can't say I remember ever hearing a Linkin Park song on the radio, though obviously I know they were there.

>This is rock now
I'm hang myself too

I would be on board if the title was "against all odds and reason"

what is fallout boy, greenday, blink 182, my chemical romance, paramore, slipknot, foo fighters, et al?

surely all of them and the other 00's "emo" pop-punk/rock bands were massive, long after linkin park peaked in fame.

Don't even read the rest of the thread. The shit in here that people consider rock makes me want to hang myself as well

>because rock just means white people radio music now, but it's really just anthemic pop for straight white Middle Americans, that doesn't sound as feminine or 'gay'.

As far as this idea, in describing Twenty-One Pilots or Imagine Dragons, I would mention Slim Shady's 'Lose Yourself" as a big influence.

Angsty, edgy, whiteboy post-rap with a little bit of rock energy. That's what this stuff is. It's kind of po-hip-hop... somehow too whitebread to exactly be called just 'hip-hop' (like most of this Imagine Dragons kind of stuff just wouldn't cut it enough to qualify as hip-hop).

Maybe this kind of music, as cheesy as this maybe sounds, should be called "anthem" or something. A positive name is preferrable to something negative like post-hip-hop. And post-hip-hop is more apt for other things developing.

>It's kind of *post-hip-hop.

So the reason rap music is so huge is because jews own record companies and push white genocide.

>Slim Shady's 'Lose Yourself"

uh, Eminem. it's been a while since I gave him a thought.

stfu you bald taint

He's right, you know.

Electrohip-pop would work for Twenty-One Pilots. Imagine Dragons is mainstream indie hip-pop.

My 73 year old father in law listens to Imagine Dragons.

I don't buy into the idea that hip-hop replaced rock because it was forced. I think that rock has had a great run... but has definitely run its course. Whereas hip-hop has still been vital. Young people, girls especially, are going to go where the energy is.

Music is always evolving and changing. The stuff on the radio today is going to sound completely alien twenty years from now, much like how stuff from the '90s sounds so different than the music today.

Linkin park hybrid theory album sales: 22,000,000
Twenty one pilots Blurryface ablum sales: 1,800,000

>Yes they are comparable

Why is it whenever someone dies they revise history to beef the deceased's image? Foo Fighters, RHCP are still huge

I agree with that.

It's funny too because I've heard a few (irrelevant, lame) older critics try to claim music now is identical to the 90s or something. I have long felt these guys are going senile and possibly a bit schizo. Time has proven me right.

Album sales aren't all that relevant anymore seeing as everyone streams their music and most revenue is derived from streaming services and/or ad revenue.

not to mention sales for 21P include streaming

LP actually sold a fuckton of physical copies

they were the last band of a generation where streaming wasn't a huge thing

Linkin park monthly listeners spotify:12,548,364
Twenty one pilots monthly listeners: 12,671,222

Linkin Park isn't even going to be remembered in 20 years like brit-pop, and they never achieved a moderate critical acclaim like other bands from this century. Fucking hoobastank gets more radio play these days.

news flash: Linkin Park hit their peak popularity almost a decade ago. 21P is at their peak popularity RIGHT NOW. of course they're getting more streams in the last few months.

but LP still sold way more physical copies.

Dude I've never even heard of 21 pilots.

I can guarantee that everyone in the developed world has heard of Linkin Park though.

They weren't rock. This is rock.

both were around before Linkin Park though

THIIIISSS

>judging modern industry success on physical copies
Are you fucking stupid my man? Are you huffing bleach? Have you heard of YouTube and Napster and Spotify and iTunes you giga retard? Physical copies are a relic. No genre moves CDs like they did fifteen years ago

THAT'S EXACTLY THE FUCKING POINT

the article makes the argument that LP is the "last huge rock band" because they are likely to be the last one in history that sold physical copies like that.

it signifies the end of an era.

But when Linkin Park was at its peak (early 00's) physical copies were still a thing.

>people start praising a band when their lead singer kills themselves

how about instead of trying to capitalize off of someone's death, you do some real fucking journalism?

>even in an article talking about a man who killed himself, you still have to bring up white privilege and your hatred for suburban white teens
Progressives are fucking diseased, I swear. At this point I think it's apparent there's something mentally wrong with them

Kind of proves this anons point

youve completely misunderstood what its saying you fool, or youre just twisting it to fit your agenda

>you still have to bring up white privilege and your hatred for suburban white teens

I must have missed that part.

Where are you getting the anti-white sentiment from?

These bands aren't culturally significant.

>inb4 this turns into antoher YOU HAVE 10 SECONDS TO NAME A ROCK BAND thread

By that definition the only successful genre is mom pop shit like Adele. Nobody moves physicals anymore.

Car Seat Headrest doesn't exist.

Slipknot is not as big as LP and they started before LP

Green Day started before LP, jesus christ.
American Idiot hasn't sold more than HT

How were they the last huge rock band when there have been bigger bands that started after them?

That shit crown unfortunately goes to the 1975

don't you mean my chemical romance? they were HUGE

>Twenty One Pilots and Imagine Dragons
>""""rock""""

>When nü-metal first became popular enough to attract critical attention, a lot of that attention came in the form of scorn. The general stance was “What are these suburban white boys whining about?” But the music, and the lyrics, struck a loud and resonant chord with millions of young listeners, and to dismiss the genre as the self-pity of the privileged is to shrug off their pain.

The author was defending what LP meant to its listeners. Since Sup Forums is the ultimate Nu Metal shitting grounds I wouldn't expect anyone to take it seriously for more than a half second.

Foo Fighters?

This is the correct answer. They had the most rock-oriented hits as rock was declining in the mid-00's, dominated the "emo" look/culture, never sold out to a hip-hop sound, and ended at the right time so they'd build a legacy.

Ehhh. It's more like Rick Astley and Wham, the whole blue-eyed soul thing. Would you consider that rock?

This is America's last main stream radio rock good band.

And it was good until Mike Shinoda got tired of the shit

I don't think MCR had anywhere near the same impact as LP.

I mean they were riding on the coattails of the whole emo/screamo movement and quickly faded into obscurity as it died down. LP has consitently topped charts and sold out concerts for almost two decades.

we all know that this isn't true, including stereogums editors. they just knew that a title like that would spur this exact reaction.

i don't think they were as big as linkin park either, but i still think they were big enough to be called the last big rock band

>guy dies
>suddenly all outlets who a couple of days ago would have cracked jokes at he mere mention of linkin park are now gushing over the band

disgusting

Worst was those cucks at p4k the guy dies and somehow they still spin it to be about rihanna and chance the rapper lmao like who the fuck cares what rihannas opinion is

Thousand Suns > Reanimation > Living Things > The Hunting Party > Minutes to Midnight > Horrid Theory > Meteorass > One More Shit

Huge among 14-year olds with dull razors under their matresses.

It is true though.
Name a bigger selling rock band that debuted after Linkin Park.

>when you accuse others of being mentally ill for their views when in reality you're just so fucking stupid that you don't understand simple sentences

yeah slipknow is not as mainstream as LP either