So, when did each of us finally realize that this band would take up a lot of our time and resources? For me, it was probably when I started collecting the DSPs.
It was around late 2004. I owned Hybrid Theory and Meteora before that, but I joined the LPU in 2004 and I got really obsessed soon after that. I started buying all LP clothes, I went out at bought Reanimation and Live In Texas and then bought Collision Course when it came out around Christmas that year. I almost went to Live 8, but my parents wouldn't let me go... Sucks... After that everything was LP. I basically grew up with LP.
My first experience with LP was when my brother played One Step Closer on repeat way back when it first came out. I was in my rap/hip-hop only phase and hated that song. One day he finally let the whole album play and when With You was over, I was hooked.
Lol, nice thread. I guess I went from casual fan to obsessed fan when I started collecting their "rare" tracks included on the first LPU CDs, such as Dedicated and Sold My Soul To Yo Mama. It was around the same time I started listening to Grey Daze.
I think it was around the same time I made an account here and started watching all the LPTVs and LPUTVs of the past. Once I got a better feel for the band outside of just their music, it made me even more of a fan. Plus, the LPA was a website I would visit religiously during the lead up to ATS and since then, I've visited the site daily.
October 5th, 2002. I woke up in the morning after doing nothing but listen to HT on repeat the night before..... and then continued the morning doing the exact same. But perhaps that's just my usual repeat-abusive ways..... I think when I looked up the band online a week later and found a site full of the band's random uotes was when the ship left the dock.
I remember falling in love with Meteora and then lost track of the band in the time between Meteora and Minutes. Then one day I bought R2R which caused me to go on to the site and I went through all the singles. Leave out all the rest was the one song that really hooked me.
I'm actually pretty new here. LP first caught my attention with New Divide, but it was finally A Thousand Suns that made me addicted.
I was 10 (in 2000) when I first heard them, and in gym class we had to do a dance or something to music and one of my friends brought in Hybrid Theory. We picked Crawling, and after hearing that song over and over I was hooked. I think I became more obsessed when I got the CD for christmas later that year, and when I signed up for the LPU and got Hybrid Theory EP.
Meteora was the first thing I ever bought with allowance money, and Hybrid Theory and Reanimation came shortly thereafter. I'd play those three albums everywhere. My room, my portable CD player for car rides, on the boombox while I played sports outside, just literally everywhere. So, in a way I was addicted back then. I lost track of LP a bit in the M2M days. In fact, I had no idea there was even a new record out. What I've Done and Bleed it Out's frequent airplay on the local station got me back into them enough to buy ATS when it came out. Initially, wasnt a fan of it. But after a few listens, and going back to their old stuff for a while, I appreciated it and subsequently began collecting their songs. I used this list: http://www.linkinpark.com/profiles/blogs/list-of-all-linkin-park-songs and tried my best to make sure I had every single one. It was then that I was officially a LP - fantatic. They'll always be my favorite band of all time. Without a doubt.
I listened to Hybrid Theory over and over again. I didn't know about Meteora. I lost interest in them eventually until I heard What I've Done in Transformers. I got MTM for my birthday and didn't like the new sound, but when Shadow of the Day came on I was addicted to the album. Lost interest again Then heard New Divide in Transformers. I discovered all of their other albums and B -Sides, watched tones of live videos and loved them ever since. ATS is my favourite album
Back in the late 90's, I was really into the boy band pop scene. I loved N'Sync and Backstreet Boys. Then, when those groups started to die out, I started listening to some of the more modern music of the early 2000's that my parents had. One of those songs was In The End. That song really captured my imagination, and I eventually got Hybrid Theory for Christmas back in 2000. Linkin Park was my gateway into rock music. I loved the album, but at that point I would've only labeled them as "my favorite band". Now, obsession comes in 2003 when LP's website started streaming Faint, Somewhere I Belong, and Numb. I listened to those songs on repeat over, and over, and over again. There was something so spectacular about Faint's intro, unlike anything I'd ever heard before. Then, Christmas 2003, I got Meteora. On that exact day, my fascination with them became permanent. They've remained my idols and inspirations ever since. I remember hearing the first few clips of What I've Done back in early 2007, and thinking it was amazing. The 30-second intro clip on the band's Myspace, and the final 30-seconds on a different website I found. Hearing New Divide for the first time was incredible. The first time I listened to it, I was absolutely blown away.
Oh yeah, I remember this! I was really obsessed by those clips, and how they were different-sounding and more rockish than everything they had done before. It made me super curious about how LP could have changed in 4 years. From that point, I remember going back everyday on a certain french fansite to get news about the future new record. Looking back at it, this is where I really began to look for LP news on websites, so this could be what really got me obsessed
After hearing "In The End" on the radio for the first time in late 2001, I was 16 and was never into music. I was hooked after that, looked up everything I could about the band, stole Hybrid Theory off Napster and listened to it over and over, been obsessed ever since.
2007. That whole year was the year that I got absolutely hooked on Linkin Park. I think it was the moment I found out that Transformers was using "What I've Done" that confirmed it.