The Ravyn’s Nest

First, a bit of information from Wikipedia, just so everyone knows what we’re talking about:

Selling out is a common slang phrase. Broadly speaking, it refers to the compromising of one’s integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, success or other personal gain. It is commonly associated with attempts to increase mass appeal or acceptability to mainstream society. A person who does this is labeled a sellout. Selling out may be seen as gaining success at the cost of credibility. Though generally associated with the entertainment industry, regular individuals who similarly compromise their ideals (e.g. a Bohemian individual who suddenly switches to a socially conservative lifestyle) could also be considered sellouts.

All right, is everyone clear? Good. I wouldn’t want confusion.

So, I picked up Linkin Park’s newest album this week, Minutes to Midnight. If you’re not familiar with Linkin Park…well, then you haven’t been paying attention to the radio, MTV, or popular music at all for the last six in a half years. Their breakthrough album, Hybrid Theory, burst upon the music scene in October of 2000, and was played just about everywhere you could find. One of the biggest reasons (regrettably) that the airwaves have been clogged with Nu Metal and Rapcore for the last six years, it was perfectly poised among a music scene that was sick and tired of bubblegum pop, containing more angry teenage angst per capita then had been seen in years. While many of the songs were, to be generous, weak (“One Step Closer” and “Crawling” can hardly be called musical epics), it was all catchy, and there was enough talent simmering under songs like the ridiculously catchy “In The End,” the frenetically paranoid “Papercut,” and the Rapcore answer to “What Have You Done For Me Lately,” “A Place For My Head,” that you could see that this band could be something very good if they matured.

Their next two albums seemed to show that they were on the fast track to nowhere, being essentially a remix album of Hybrid Theory and a new album with more of the same (although admittedly, Meteora did show some lyrical improvement). They sold well, and Linkin Park looked to remain a fixture in the music scene for a while, while their contemporaries like P.O.D., Kid Rock, Papa Roach, and (thankfully) Limp Bizkit faded away.

Now, let me make this clear. I like Linkin Park’s earlier work. From a critical standpoint, it’s not the best music out there, by a long shot. In fact, some of the songs as I’ve said are seriously weak. Any fucking moron can right teenage angsty-angry lyrics. Smashing Pumpkins did “One Step Closer” light-years better in the 90’s with “Bullet With Butterfly Wings.” However, “Breaking the Habit” is a great song, as is “Papercut.” “My December” showed an incredible amount of depth from a song who was best known for blase, generic lyrics like “Crawling in my skin/These wounds, they will not heal/Fear is how I fall/Confusing what is real.” And…dammit, their first three albums are catchy. Yes, despite my opinion of them from a purely objective standpoint, I own all of Linkin Park’s albums, listen to them regularly, and I’m not afraid to say it. Music doesn’t always have to be rated “Absolute Genius” and be a 5-Star Masterpiece to be enjoyable.

So, I get my hands on Minutes to Midnight, cue up my iTunes, and let it roll. And I found myself…honestly stunned. I can say, without a single doubt in my mind, that MtM is Linkin Park’s best work to date. Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, with the help of legendary producer Rick Rubin, have gained some serious depths to their lyrics. I mean, seriously, did anyone ever consider it likely that Linkin Fricking Park would ever get a social conscience…and more to the point, do a good job expressing it? Well, with lyrics like in “Head Held High,” where Shinoda raps lines like “It’s ironic, at times like this you’d pray/But a bomb blew the mosque up yesterday” over a mellow harmony and a stripped down drum beat, that time has come. The album, while containing elements of the classic Linkin Park in angry tracks like “No More Sorrow” and “Given Up,” represents the biggest growth of a musical artist seen in the current decade, if not further back. And best of all, it’s still very easy to listen to. Catchy tracks like “Bleed It Out,” the only song besides “Head Held High” where Shinoda does his quintessential rapping, are present, catchy as hell and quite enjoyable. Meanwhile, they slow down on tracks like “Shadow of the Day” to great result. And through it all, the lyrics stand the test in ways their previous albums haven’t. This is, in a two-month period that’s seen great albums like Nine Inch Nail’s Year Zero and Tori Amos’s American Doll Posse come out, an album that can stand up with them without shame. (Ravyn’s Review: 8 out of 10)

In fact, remarkably, it sort of completes a trifecta with Year Zero and American Doll Posse for the first half of 2007, in an emerging trend in music, socially conscious music is finding it’s way back into the mainstream. It’s not entirely surprising, when you think about it. The current decade can be called, without hyperbole or pretentiousness, our generation’s 60’s. The parallels are astounding; both decades had their unpopular, unwarranted wars, and a crackdown on the public’s civil liberties that had the public learning (or remembering) how to fight back. Civil rights, so prevalent in terms of African-American and Women’s Equality, has found it’s way into the forefront again, in the form of gay rights. And, as a reflection of the society that they’ve found themselves a part of, music is following suit. It began in a big way with Green Day’s American Idiot, which held back nothing in going after the current Administration and its war in Iraq. Artists like Pink (with Dear Mr. President) followed suit, and slowly, activist music is finding it’s way back into the mainstream. I may well be called entirely too delusional about this, but one can’t deny the trend, brought one again to the forefront with NIN, Tori, and yes, Linkin Park. And I say, more power to them.

For the record…we hadn’t hit the rant yet. Not by a long shot. No, the rant is coming right about…now. Buckle your seat belts, folks, we’re about to hit some turbulence.

“Linkin Park totally sold out.”
“They’re a bunch of pussies now.”
“I just heard it…it’s like listening to the Backstreet Boys”
“I liked it when they were bad-ass and not gay”

These, folks, are actual, verbatim comments from Linkin Park “fans” I’ve heard that aren’t happy with how the band sounds on Minutes to Midnight. To which I say…what the fuck? Comparing Linkin Park to a BOY BAND? Seriously, give me a fucking break. Here’s a piece of advice, “fans.” If you don’t like the album, then that’s fine. You’re entitled to your opinions–just go listen to Hybrid Theory and Meteora until the next big, mindlessly catchy thing comes along to rock it like it’s fucking hot. But just because you don’t like what happens to a band when it matures and becomes better for it, doesn’t give you the right to apply the horrifically over- and misused label “sell-out.” The label has been viciously and petulantly applied to almost every artist that grew out of being the band that their initial, tiny little fan base liked. Consider Nine Inch Nails, who was said to have sold out after The Downward Spiral hit it big. Same with Bob Dylan when he went electric. Because Goddess fucking forbid it actually have anything to do with the fact that Trent dealt with his depression and his music changed because of it, or Dylan was taking a new creative direction that inspired him. No, no, it couldn’t have been that!

*GroinKick*

Here’s a clue, you ostentatious, self-important douche bags. These people are ARTISTS. Commercial artists, sure, and they have fans that ideally, they will satisfy. But you know what? They have to be artistically true to themselves. Just because you don’t like it because it’s not another “Hurt” or “Closer” (thank fucking Christ, I ~HATE~ that song), another “Blowin’ in the Wind,” another “One Step Closer” doesn’t give you the right to insult their artistic credibility. That displays a level of arrogance that’s simultaneously laughable and disgusting. Claim you don’t like it. Feel free. Feel TOTALLY fucking free. But I swear to all the gods in the skies and the Earth, if I hear one more person bitch about the fact that they’re favorite artist “is a sell-out little bitch” or anything like that because they simply matured as artists? I’m gonna shove their iPods so far up their asses that they’ll never have to worry about new music again, because they’ll have their precious Hybrid Theory reverberating it’s teenage, angst-driven screams through their colon until the end of time.

Pompous fucking idiots.

–Jer

Technorati : Linkin Park, music, politics, rambling, rant, review