No, some people just like MTM better than THP. I couldn't care less about the fact that MTM was the first album to break away from their earlier sound. I personally just prefer the softer sound of MTM over the heavier sound of THP.
And i prefer the less popier sound, about the poppier sound Not that the songs are bad, but i think they are way to radiofriendly.
Thats also what I think might be the case. I am not a native English speaker, so the lyrics aren't that important for how I like a song. But maybe their new writing technique Chester mentioned sometime ago, allowing them to bring out new material every 1.5 years, isn't that good after all.
LOATR has great lyrics and a neat melody. That's the thing about Minutes to Midnight, I liked the unique blend of emotional and political songs. I like how the album flows. It feels like each song stands out on its own in terms of atmosphere but at the same time joins together to give the album a certain tone. Its beautiful to me. ATS and MTM era had the most well thought out lyrics as far as LP goes to me. LT's pretty neat too, Castle of glass and Roads Untraveled are nice examples I believe. In that sense, THP is such a major disappointment as one of the biggest criticisms of LP are their lyrics and I didn't like at all that they took a few steps back. Just because its a heavier record doesn't excuse the worser lyrics, does it? And besides, if you guys think radio friendly stuff is bad, isn't LP pretty much a radio-friendly band? I mean, Keys to the kingdom would scare my mother, sure. But THP is still just a catchy record. And the songs aren't even that heavy, are they? Besides, I love the drumming on the album but I like the melodies on MTM a lot too. The strings on SOTD or the guitar solo on TLTGYA or the ebow in NMS, they're pretty nice too. Overall I think, HT, MTM and ATS are much more complete albums because they have a sense of direction while LT, THP and Meteora just seem broken to me. And no matter what Mike says, THP is a safe step, it might not have sold well but a lot of people wanted LP to make a harder record. It was destined to better ratings from the start from what I can see. Exactly, that's what I was trying to say. The lyrics on THP songs really feel like filler to me at some parts. I liked when their songs for better or worse had more meaning in them.
Yes/No. While its definetly not the heaviest album you can make, its pretty heavy for the casual radio user. I think you can play AFN , Wastelands, Until Its Gone and Final Masquerade on radio. But the rest is "too hard" i think. KTTK, GATS, War, MTG and ALITS arent typical radio songs or even radio songs. While here in Germany Living Things was played up and down in the radio (especially Burn It Down and Castle Of Glass) there wasnt even one song from THP on the radio. Also M2M is pretty often in the radio, LOATR, SOTD, WID, all songs you could play up and down on the radio. Isnt something bad, but it annoys me a bit. (Especially LOATR). Almost every girl who saw Twillight listened to this song up and down I think both albums have a kind of lack of what the other has too much. But i prefer "noise" in this case over "melody". NMS would also "perfectly" fit on THP. That TLTGYA is a masterpiece, no one can disagree with. Yeah, but i wouldnt say that i hate this song, in my opinion, its just the worst ballade the band has ever made. Its a bit too poppy.
To be fair, it's kind of hard to make a ballad that isn't "poppy", especially since Linkin Park are so firmly entrenched in the pop realm as they are
"...especially since Linkin Park are so firmly entrenched in the pop realm as they are" What? Linkin Park has done a more ballads on these last years, but they aren't pop. Pop is Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Lily Allen, Beyoncé, Kelly Klarkson, Taylor Swift, Maroon 5... Linkin Park it's a rock band, only they have albums with a softer style.
v What exactly do you mean by poppy? Too popular? Too generic? Too bland? How is Final Masquerade or Until its gone any other ballad they've made any less poppy? Besides, how original is stuff like ALITS then? It feels like everything linkin park shoved into one song. I don't see how just because MTM is much more mainstream sounding and the fact that THP is more of a rock record make MTM any worse. I don't see why rock is seen as some non-mainstream genre when it was huge some decades ago and when there seems to be so many people even still who are into rock music generally.
Seriously? Not even to say that there's anything wrong with it, but Linkin Park have built their entire career on making effective use of pop music conventions, starting with "Hybrid Theory". Only on one or two albums at most did they even try to go beyond them and use some unusual (perhaps progressive) arrangements. Anyway, people might complain that "x is too poppy" but, on the flipside, I feel that "Midnight" is an album which really showcases the band's melodic abilities, which have always been one of their biggest strengths as a musical act.
Why is the term poppy always seen as such a bad thing? Is a good quality pop song actually worse then a good rock song? Does it require less talent to make?
With Tony here. Really, any artist that stays relevant and successful (and in the mainstream) for as long as LP has has to have a lot of pop up elements in their songs to keep it interesting to the masses. Not a bad thing at all.
And honestly, does it really matter if Linkin Park makes a pop song? Personally, I've learned to open up to genres like pop and as long as a pop song is done right and is well written, why is it immediately bad because it's a "pop" song?
Well, the idea of "pop music" is that it's intended to have mass appeal, and, to a lot of people, that makes it less than genuine artistically. Progressions and rhythms are pretty simple and basically easy for the casual listener to wrap their head around ... but being able to appeal to listeners with a careful and particular blend of musical elements can be quite a technical feat in itself. On top of that is production, mixing and mastering, which is very important in pop (arguably more so than performance) and really takes a lot of skill to nail. Us hardxcore fans, who look very closely, will always pick out flaws, but I would say that, in general, Linkin Park succeed on all fronts.
Burn It Down was a big hit here, it has all typical elements of a good popsong. If they wanted to, they could make a "great" "pop" record i think.