Quote:
Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN
Me replying to posts doesn't mean I'm taking this personally. I couldn't care less. I'm just having a discussion.
And yes, we are talking about relevancy on a wider scale. Like I mentioned before, their massive respect amongst their peers in the industry makes them relevant. Their numbers/tours/awards over the years make them relevant. Their music inspiring other artists makes them relevant.
They aren't some artist clinging on to past hits playing at state fares for a fast buck.
I never said the phrase "relevant again". I've always maintained in this discussion they were always relevant.
Irrelevant acts don't headline big festivals across the planet and they were doing this in the recent years before Chester died.
It's funny because they were a main stage band during Meteora times, when they were massive for album sales, but often weren't the final act on a lot of those festivals.
I saw them as the 5th or 6th band on Ozzfest 01(supporting Hybrid Theory). I saw them as the third band in 03 behind Limp Bizkit/Metallica(supporting Meteora).
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But they weren’t always relevant. Their peak was somewhere between Hybrid Theory and Minutes to Midnight, which coincides with their best sales. At that time, they were not only at their peak popularity, but at their peak creatively as well.
Let’s pretend those three albums don’t exist. Do you think they would sell out shows or headline major festivals without that artistic output?
One More Light was a critical bomb, and received a boost in sales after Chester died. Otherwise it wouldn’t have amounted to much.
46/100 on Metacritic
3/5 stars in AllMusic
1/5 stars from NME
D+ from Consequence of Sound
Hunting Party faired a little better.
65/100 on Metacritic
2.5/5 on AllMusic
3/5 on NME
C+ on Consequence of Sound
Living Things was a mix.
60/100 on Metacritic
3.5/5 on AllMusic
5/10 on NME
3/5 on Rolling Stone
Thousand Suns was similar.
Compare this to Meteora, for example, with a 4.5/5 on AllMusic. Or Hybrid Theory with a 5/5 from both AllMusic and Kerrang. Not only were these by far their biggest albums in sales, they were also their best reviewed.
Linkin Park was relevant once. Absolutely. They defined a genre, had some major and influential creative outputs, and sold tens of millions of albums back when albums actually sold. But which bands were inspired by One More Light? What creative influence did it have? Any? Would they have headlined big festivals without the portion of their catalogue that came a decade prior? You seem like a diehard fan, but even you had to admit that’s a “no.”
They stopped making influential, culturally relevant music a long time ago. That’s OK. But if you disagree, tell me what about the new song achieves those things. Maybe the album will, who knows, but we have the new song, so tell me what ground is being broken here and how it’s going to influence the culture.