The band used the genres nu metal and rap metal to make it suitable for radio yet heavy in layers in "Hybrid Theory" and "Meteora". The band used other types of music in their next studio album "Minutes to Midnight", which was released in 2007. The album also reached number one at the "Billboard" and had the third best beginning at number one of any album that year. The band also worked with other artists and bands. The most famous would be rapper Jay-Z in their mash-up (mixing more than one song together) extended play "Collision Course" and many other people on their remix album "Reanimation". The band's album, "A Thousand Suns", was released on 2010. They further changed their sound again. Linkin Park have sold more than 50 million albums all over the world and have won two Grammys.
The band was first made up of three friends from high school, Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon. After high school, they started to get serious in music and added DJ Joe Hahn, bass player Dave "Phoenix" Farrell and singer Mark Wakefield to their band. They were named "Xero". Even though they have few materials, the band started recording and making songs in Shinoda's studio in his bedroom in 1996. The band started feeling uncomfortable and angry with each other after they were not able to get a contract from a major music company. Because they did not become successful, Wakefield quit so he could look for other music projects. Farrell also quit so he could perform in concerts with many bands including his old band, Tasty Snax.
After a long time without a lead singer, Xero added an Arizonan singer named Chester Bennington. Jeff Blue, the vice-president of Zomba Music in March 1999, insisted them to get Bennington. Bennington, who used to be in a post-grunge band called Grey Daze, became the most wanted among the people who wanted to be in Xero because of the strength in his voice. The band then soon changed their name from Xero to "Hybrid Theory" in 1999 and released their EP the same year. Since Shinoda and Bennington sound good together, it helped restart the band into making new music. The band restarting also led to the band changing its name again to "Linkin Park" in 2000, a tribute to Santa Monica's Lincoln Park. Even with this, they still could not get a music contract. After many record labels (music companies) rejected them, they asked Jeff Blue, now vice-president of Warner Bros. Records, to help. After not being able to sign with Warner Bros. three times, Blue helped the band finally get a contract with Warner Bros. in 1999.
Linkin Park released "Hybrid Theory" on October 24, 2000. It was the result of over four years of work. It was edited by Don Gilmore. "Hybrid Theory" was very successful in sales. It sold 4.8 million copies in the first year, and had the most sales of any album in 2001. The singles of the album are "One Step Closer", "Crawling", "Papercut" "In the End". It made them always appear on many alternative rock radios during 2001.
Other songs from the album were included in movies like "Dracula 2000", "Little Nicky", and "Valentine". Linkin Park also worked with The X-Ecutioners for the song "It's Goin' Down". "Hybrid Theory" led them to win a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance for the song "Crawling". They were also nominated for two other Grammy Awards: Best New Artist and Best Rock Album. MTV gave the band the awards of Best Rock Video and Best Direction for "In the End". Because of the band's Grammy win, the success of "Hybrid Theory" made them famous in the mainstream.
At this time, Linkin Park had many invitations for them to perform on many famous concerts and tours like Ozzfest, Family Values Tour and KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas. The band also made their own tour called "Projekt Revolution". It included others bands and singers like Cypress Hill, Adema, and Snoop Dogg. In one year, they performed at 320 concerts. The band's memorable moments and performance were shown in their first DVD, "Frat Party at the Pankake Festival". It was released in November 2001. Farrell then rejoined Linkin Park. They then began working on "Reanimation", an album that had remixes of songs from "Hybrid Theory" and their first EP. It was released on July 30, 2002. It has appearances by Black Thought, Jonathan Davis, Aaron Lewis and many other singers and rappers. It became very successful. It started at #2 at the "Billboard" 200 albums chart. It sold almost 270,000 copies during its first week. The album has only one single, "Pts.OF.Athrty", a remix of the "Hybrid Theory" song "Points of Authority". "Hybrid Theory" is also in the RIAA's "Top 100 Albums".
After "Hybrid Theory" and "Reanimation" became very successful, Linkin Park spent a lot of time performing concerts around the United States. The band started working on new music, even with a very busy schedule. They used a short part of their free time in the studio in their tour bus. The band announced that they were making their new album in April 2002, it was initially planned to release between October and December (Q4) of that year but got delayed. They also said that the title was inspired by Meteora, a rocky place in Greece. Meteora has many places of worship have been built on top of the rocks. "Meteora" shows the band mixing their nu metal and punk rap styles with new special effects. Some of them include a shakuhachi (a Japanese flute made of bamboo) and many other instruments. On March 25, 2003, they released "Meteora" and instantly became popular around the world. It reached their first #1 in the US and UK and #2 in Australia.
"Meteora" sold 800,000 albums in its first week. It ranked as the best selling album on the Billboard charts at that time. The album's singles are "Somewhere I Belong", "Faint", "Numb", "From the Inside", "Lying from You" and "Breaking the Habit". Most of them always appeared in many radio stations. By October 2003, it had sold almost 3 million copies.
Because the album was a success, the band formed yet another Projekt Revolution tour. It featured other bands and artists including Mudvayne, Blindside and Xzibit. Metallica also invited Linkin Park to play at the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003. It included very famous bands such as Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Deftones. The band released their first live album and third DVD, "Live in Texas", in November 18, 2003. It includes audio and video tracks of some of the band's concerts in Texas during their tour. In early 2004, Linkin Park started a tour around the world called "Meteora World Tour". Bands that were opening concerts on the tour included Hoobastank, P.O.D., Story of the Year and Pia.
The band had many awards and honors because of "Meteora". The band won the MTV awards for Best Rock Video for "Somewhere I Belong" and the Viewer's Choice Award for "Breaking the Habit". Linkin Park also won many awards during the 2004 Radio Music Awards. They won the Artist of the Year and Song of the Year ("Numb") awards. Even though Meteora was not as popular as "Hybrid Theory", it was the third best selling album in America during 2003. The band toured in early 2004 around the world. They performed in their third Projekt Revolution tour and many European tours.