Linkin Park are one of the most popular bands of the so called "nü-metal" movement, along with Limp Bizkit, Korn and several others. Their sound is a mish-mash of influences, from metal to alt.rock, from hip-hop to electronica and industrial. Linkin Park's debut album "[Hybrid_Theory]" was a multi-platinum smash worldwide, selling over 13 million copies, 8 million of them in the US alone. "Reanimation" is the correspondent remix album.In fact, before Linkin Park's success, they had originally came up with the idea of naming the band Hybrid Theory. But this named would cause complication; Hybrid, a popular House music group, threatened to sue Hybrid Theory if the name was not changed. Without coming up with a name after that dispute, Chester Bennington had taken drive down a street one day, and saw a street sign with the area named "Lincoln Park". This got Chester Bennington thinking. Knowing that there are a lot of Lincoln Park's in the States, he decided to name the band after the name. Of course, by twisting the name, they created Linkin Park.
Released under the band name "Hybrid Theory", the band's first album, Hybrid Theory EP was released in 1995. Only 1000 copies of this very rare original EP were made.
The band's first full studio album, Hybrid Theory, released in 2001, had a huge success, selling 42 million copies worldwide as of October 2009. Among its singles were One Step Closer, Crawling, and the band's highest-selling single, In the End. In 2001, the band released "Frat party at the pancake festival". A dvd with live stuff, extra footage of the band and the music video's from Hybrid Theory. A remix album, Reanimation was released in 2002, and was based around Hybrid Theory songs.
The band's second studio album, Meteora (released 2003), was not so successful as "Hybrid Theory". Still, it sold 10 million copies worldwide, spawned the worldwide hit Breaking the Habit, and was the first Linkin Park album that was not fully rap driven.
A limited edition live album and DVD came next: Live in Texas. It was an opportunity for fans who have not been to the band's gigs to see their performance live.
Linkin Park and Jay-Z then released Collision Course in which previously-released songs from the two artists were mixed together. Some time after this was a major label attempt to combat the success of illegal mashup albums popular in 2004 and 2005, most of which also used Jay-Z's Black Album a cappellas. The album introduced fans of both artists to each other and marked the beginning of Jay-Z's return from retirement.
The band's newest album is Minutes To Midnight, often abbreviated MTM. The album was co-produced by Mike Shinoda and legendary Grammy wining producer Rick Rubin (Slayer, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash) The release date, originally somewhere between July and September of 2006, was pushed to May of 2007. The band cites their reasoning as having fun experimenting with new styles and sounds in the studio, saying it was their most fun recording session to date. The new album was finally released on iTunes on May 11th 2007 and in stores worldwide three days later. The sounds are new, more hip-hop based beats and rock song dynamics. It is 12 tracks long, including the band's 6th consecutive #1 hit, What I've Done. The video for the song was directed by Joseph Hahn.
Four more singles from Minutes to Midnight were released:
Bleed It Out (released August 2007), Shadow Of The Day (released October 2007), Given Up (released March 2008), and the final single, Leave Out All The Rest (released June 2008).
The band began touring again in late April in 2007 with a show in Berlin, and then continuing through Europe. 2007 also marks the return of the Projekt Revolution tour, which is always headlined by Linkin Park.
On 29 June 2008, the band played their biggest Projekt Revolution show to date at the Milton Keynes Bowl, the venue Green Day's 2005 live DVD was recorded at (a 60,000+ capacity venue). The PR UK lineup included Jay-Z who again performed some "Collision Course" tracks with Linkin Park. Other bands included Pendulum, N*E*R*D, Enter Shikari, The Bravery and Innerpartysystem.
The band's second live CD/DVD, Road To Revolution: Live At Milton Keynes, was released November 24th 2008. It included at least one song of each Linkin Park album including Collision Course with Jay-Z and featured excerpts from Fort Minor's The Rising Tied in Points Of Authority.
From Wikipedia:Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries. Its following studio album, Meteora, continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200?s album charts in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around the world. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth greatest band of the music video era and the third best of the new millennium behind Oasis and Coldplay.
Having adapted the nu metal and rap metal genres to a radio-friendly yet densely-layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the band explored other genres in their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight, which was released in 2007. The album topped the Billboard charts and had the third best debut week of any album that year. The band has collaborated with several other artists, most notably with rapper Jay-Z in their mashup EP Collision Course, and many others included on Reanimation. Linkin Park has sold over 50 million albums worldwide and has won two Grammy Awards.