Share your stories of when you first heard LP, some memories, and why you like them. I first listened to Linkin Park when I was seven years old. I heard "Crawling" on the radio in the car. I then later heard "One Step Closer" and have been a fan of the band ever since. On the same day my friend traded my the Hybrid Theory cd for Sonic Advance, my brother got Meteora. I was instantly hooked. Some good memories that I have are downloading Reanimation from Kazaa and shortly getting the CD in 2005. The construction site layout that changed in 2006, the arrival of Minutes to Midnight, LPU9, and the hype behind A Thousand Suns. No matter what they do they always will have a lasting appeal on me.*
I first heard Linkin Park right around the time "In the End" came out. I was about like 4 or 5 and I loved the song. About a year later, my brother had "Hybrid Theory" and we'd listen to it constantly on his cd player. As years went on, I bought every album from them. I became a bigger fan of them in the process. Now as in 2010, they are my favorite band. Their way of music is so different than any other artist out there. Linkin Park really changed my way of seeing music as a journey.
I first heard Linkin Park back in early 2002 when I had a group of friends over one night and one of them happened to bring over Hybrid Theory and as soon as One Step Closer was playing I was totally hooked on to it right away! That much I decided to purchase the CD the next day and been a fan of them ever since then no matter what. I always think to myself if I would of liked them till this day if they ever brought that CD over in the first place?
I got into them May of 2007. My friend played me In The End and It instantly became my favorite song by a big margin. Coincidentally, M2M was coming out at the time. I heard What I've Done and actually didn't like it. So I went a good month or so just listening to In The End. Eventually, my same friend had WID and I then got it myself. I wasn't much of a music fan in general at the time, so I went a pretty long time with just listening to In The End and What I've Done. Looking back, I have no idea why I didn't listen to the rest of their songs sooner. I slowly collected individual songs. These included One Step Closer, Pushing Me Away, SIB, Numb and Faint. My dad actually had HT (but he didn't listen to it). I played a few of the songs and HATED it. I couldn't even finish songs like Papercut, POA and Forgotten. Around this time, my parents bought tickets to the LP show in Minneapolis in the winter of 2008. I liked 10-12 songs at the time and I believe they played all of them, since they were all singles. So I greatly enjoyed that and it had me fall in love with Bleed It Out and Shadow of the Day. But yet it still took me another year to convince myself I liked HT and to buy the rest of Meteora and M2M. I bought Songs from the Underground later on and was hooked on QWERTY and And One. Honestly, without that CD, I may not be here on LPA/LPU today. I would always see LP's Facebook talk about "LPU" and had no idea what it was. Thanks to Songs From the Underground, I did and in the winter of 2009, I became a member of LPU9. Another one of those moments that helped me realize how much I loved these guys was when I wanted to buy that song that goes like "10% luck 20% skill...." I found it on youtube and loved it. But when I was watching the music vid I was like "Hey! That's the Linkin Park guy!" Haha so that got me into Fort Minor. Around the time DBS was coming out was when I discovered the fan sites. First LPL, then LPA. So my story is a unique one. Unlike most of you, I've only known the band for 3 years and have only been a HUGE fan for 1, or maybe even less than one year. The ATS build up was one of the greatest times of my life and I thank LPA for that. I loved waking up in the morning and checking the computer to see if anything new happened. And those puzzles were just amazing and also motivated me to get an account.
I started listening to LP thru a coworker about 7 years ago. I heard their first CD and started getting into them. My first CD was Reanimation. They affected me in ways any other bands ever did for me. They helped me go thru my mom's death and meet my first real friend. I meet her thru LPU and we became good friends. LP have a fan for life and no matter what, I will remain a loyal fan! And they say only kids let LP help them with their lives, I'm older than them and they affected my life in a big way!
It was around summer of 2007, 12 years old, after the release of Minutes To Midnight I believe, but I didn't listen to that album, I didn't even know it came out. I first listened to In The End and I could relate to the song. Later, one by bit, I listened to the whole album "Hybrid Theory". I had somewhat of a unhappy life back then so I could relate to the whole songs, made me forget about stuff in my life, so it was obvious that I would love their 2nd studio album "Meteora" after listening to Hybrid Theory a month before. Just like Hybrid Theory I listened to Meteora one bit bit and instantly choosed Linkin Park as my favorite band cause their songs helped me when I was depressed. For almost a year I basically listened to Linkin Park every day, and that was during a time of "teenage angst" for me. I didn't love their 3rd studio album "Minutes To Midnight" because it didn't have the same energy or "teen angst" like their other previous albums. At the time I was just a HT and Meteora fan, not a Linkin Park fan. In the summer of 2008 I began to grow for more Linkin Park songs, so I listened to "Reanimation" for the first time and the album made me fall in love with rap for the first time, then I took a gander of "Collision Course" and became more in love with Linkin Park. I still didn't listened to Minutes to Midnight because I was still stuck in "teen angst" mode. I later became a Metal fan and started listening to other bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace, Slipknot, and other rock/metal bands. I began to grow tired of metal songs in the winter of 2008, at that time I was listening to soft songs for the first time, that was the time I began to actually give "Minutes to Midnight" a try to listen to it. When I head MTM I was surprised and interested in it, I kept playing the whole album because of how the messages and the instruments stuck to me. Slowly into the beginning of 2009 I absolutely loved MTM and declared it my favorite Linkin Park album ever (next to Reanimation). Around spring time of 2009 I began to separate myself from "teenage angst" mode and was growing up, I still loved HT and Meteora, but MTM had a special feeling to it that made me just want to hear the whole album every day. In a side note during that time I began to pay attention to what Linkin Park does, like watching the LPTV videos in their websites and learning more about the band, even listened to songs from the time they were "Xero" listening to songs from LPU CD's. I began to know more about Linkin Park and listening to songs before they were Linkin Park and songs that were made exclusively for LPU. One day while looking at videos in youtube, Linkin Park released a new video in their Youtube page entitled "Linkin Park - 'New Divide' trailer". This was the first time for me to see the release of a new song from Linkin Park, so I was ecstatic with the news for two reason: 1 - it was Linkin Park and 2 - I loved the first movie of Transformers. I loved the song and watched the movie. Fast forward to 2010 I'm still finding out more things about Linkin Park and hearing other unreleased songs from them, then I heard the news of the earthquake in Haiti, I was in shock how the effects of the earthquake have occurred to Haiti, days later I hear that Linkin Park is making a album full of other artist to help the people of Haiti. Not Alone was the most beautiful song I have ever heard, not to mention my respect for the band grew, that was also the time I found out about Music For Relief. As the months progressed I began to grow more mature and my taste in music was diverse, listening to more music from other bands, but still loving Linkin Park and them being my favorite band. In the summer I began to hear news that the new Linkin Park album was coming out this year, it was the first time I ever got to experience the wait for a new album of Linkin Park just like New Divide. One day after hearing puzzles were being made from Mike to uncover hidden messages about the album, mike posted a link to LPA. That was the first time I heard about LPA and soon became a "creeper" to the site, because it involved everything to Linkin Park and the hype of the new album. In a side note I like to mention that I was a bit scared that the new Linkin Park album would be so different that I would hate it and dislike the new album, I was both excited and scared to hear the new sound that the band keeps saying is so different from their other previous albums. In another side note when I heard that Linkin Park wanted fans or people who are not fans of the band to make their own version of "The Catalyst" by giving stems to them so that they're remix can be featured in their new album, my respect for them grew even higher, it was bold of them to do so, made me fall in love with Linkin Park all over again. On August 2nd, 2010, I was listening to a radio station from Europe I believe "Radio 1", because it was going to play "The Catalyst" for the first time. After I heard it, I was shocked on how different it was from anything Linkin Park has ever done, it was something new to me but it slowly grew on me and I listened to it almost every day, I was surprised Linkin Park could do something new. The following months I found out the album would be called "A Thousand Suns" from LPA and also the album's cover. I was so excited to hear ATS that I pre-ordered that album (it was the first time I pre-ordered an album). Fast forward to September 14, after hearing the album I was so amazed and confused at the same time because it was so different and thought puzzling. It grew to me and I was loving it every time I listened to it, it became my favorite album of Linkin Park.
My sister had some Linkin Park songs on here computer in 2003. The first one I gave a listen to was My December. From then on, I wanted to listen to a lot more Linkin Park. I got Hybrid Theory in 2004 and I first heard Meteora a year after that (better late than never ). Well anyway, I started to REALLY follow the band after Minutes to Midnight came out, and I REALLY enjoy that record a lot. In 2008 I first joined the LPU, before the activity died in the chatroom. I remember ACTUALLY translating a sentence in another language, I believe it was Dutch, though I don't totally remember. And here I am now, in 2010, bumping A Thousand Suns in my headphones, and postwhoring on this site, while finding a crapload of Linkin Park stuff to buy and collect
I was pretty young when I got into LP I think I was 11 or so. My cousin played Hybrid Theory for me and I fell in love instantly. I kind of fell off of them for a while because I was 12 and had ADD. But then I was sitting in my mom's office at her work on "bring your kid to work day" filing papers with MTV on in the background (back when they actually had music videos on [YEAH, I KNOW.]) and the music video for Numb was playing. I was like "hey, this song is awesome" and I looked up and I was like "whhaaaattttt?! Linkin Park! I remember them!" So I went out that weekend and bought Reanimation and Meteora. Then I was hooked again. I immediately joined LPU (I think it was 3 or 4 then) and was almost spellbound by LP. Linkin Park has sort of grown up musically as I've grown physically and that's probably why they're still my favorite band. Their albums always drop right around huge turning points in my life and I just love listening to them. So I suppose that's my story. :]
I first got into Linkin Park when I was 7 or 8 playing with my WWE toys while my dad was ironing clothes and watching the 2001 Grammys. My attention was suddenly hooked onto the TV at one point, and ironically enough it was on LP's "In The End" being nominated (and later winning!) the Best Rock Grammy. I told my dad I loved their name and that the song sounded cool. My dad then said "Ah, Linkin Park? Cool name, Josh." Me being the normal 7 or 8 year-old I was, I didn't get to hear more from them (although I almost got my cousin's HT CD that I accidentally left back in Chicago -.-). 2004 - I was listening to Z100 on my way to piano school one day when I heard from a DJ there "Now here's Linkin Park, with Numb!" I instantly got ADDICTED to "Numb" after the first time. Linkin Park suddenly became my favorite band, and along with Sean Paul, LP became the biggest thing in NY that year since Meteora DID come out the previous year. I tried to vote "Numb" into the Top 20 Video Countdown on VH1, but I couldn't find the video (GAAAAAHHHH) until "Breaking the Habit" came out. Right there, I knew I was gonna stick with LP until the end, cause BTH is now my favorite pre-MTM/ATS era song. I felt so pumped and happy to be an LP fan. This went on until mayb 2005, when LP suddenly disappeared to me after Collision Course. 2007 - I just moved to Vegas, and I happen to be searching through iTunes (that's right, a 12-going-on-13-year-old searching through iTunes) when I saw it front page: "LINKIN PARK: WHAT I'VE DONE - COMING SOON". I simply thought, "Cool." I wasn't interested until I actually HEARD "What I've Done" on the radio and I was suddenly back into my LP phase, except this time I got deeper into it unlike my previous phase (xD). I got MTM a week after my birthday (May 7 ) and right there, MTM became my favorite album of all-time. ALL-TIME. No album has ever done that for me ever since. I fell in love with all the singles ("Given Up" took some time though) and from that year on, MTM was what I was listening to. From 2008-2010 I suffered from depression. I felt that everyone was trying to get away from me, that I was a mistake, that I should just be gone from this world. Every night I didn't talk as much, I thought really horrible thoughts (I wasn't psycho though) and I felt really out of it. But I always had MTM to calm me down and soothe me. Linkin Park was the only band that ever comforted me when I needed comfort. That is, until I re-constructed my faith, finally got my beautiful and amazing girlfriend in December 2009 and I felt very happy again...and then heard LP was releasing a new album next year, which only made my life stronger. 2010 - I was going through Fayshbookz around June, fresh from some weird puzzles Mike posted, when I saw the news "LINKIN PARK TO RELEASE NEW ALBUM SEPTEMBER 14". I suddenly became a fanboy (XD) and spammed the news all over my FB. I heard about The Catalyst and the contest got my hopes up. I was hoping for some daily dose of the usual LP...until I actually HEARD The Catalyst. I was shocked. Sorta happy, but definitely not angry, not sad. Just...shocked. It was so different from what I was used to from the guys. Then I went online and heard the full version, and I suddenly had a HUGE grin on my face. Linkin Park was BACK! I waited oh-so-IMpatiently for A Thousand Suns to finally release on September 14th until I gave in and downloaded the leak. I loved ATS immediately. I soon got it (actually, my dad got it at midnight and placed it next to me when I was sleeping ) and now it's on repeat on my iPod ever since. Linkin Park made a diehard fan out of me...and now they're my band for LIFE. I'm always bragging to everyone that my favorite band happens to be Linkin Park, compliments or insults included from them. LP was there for me through thick and thin with their music, and I cannot be happy enough to thank Chester, Mike, Rob, Joe, Brad, and Phoenix for being my BFFs forever. Thank you Linkin Park. Best band ever.