Linkin Park

Linkin Park is a music band well known for its natural mixing of different music styles that is far different from the music nowadays bands would like to offer. This phenomenon makes this band a "hybrid" in the type of music they play and their fan-base too. Linkin Park began its early origin in 1996 when rapper guitarist, Brad Delson and the MC/vocalist, Mike Shinoda started a band called Xero. Both of them had attended high school together, where they met the band's drummer, Rob Bourdon. Later on Shinoda hooked up with DJ Joseph Hahn while studying illustration at Art Center College in Pasadena, where as Delson, who was attending UCLA, shared an apartment with bassist Phoenix, who left the band after college and returned a year later. To be the last member of the group was Mark Wakefield, the band's vocalist.

At the beginning of the group career, Xero released a four track demo tape, which includes Fuse, Stick N' Move, Rhinestone, and Reading My Eyes. Soon after Mark Wakefield left the band, the other members agreed to change their name to Hybrid Theory, after which Phoenix also decided to leave the band to tour with another band called the Snax. As the two persons left, the rest of the band continued to play together primarily for fun. Later they signed with Zomba Music, an occasion that fortunately came about when they played at The Whiskey Club in Los Angeles. And the time came for the vocalist Chester Benninton, who had made records since his 16 year age and whose pitch notes was "great," to complete the empty seat on the band. Replacing Mark Wakefield, the combination of Bennington's singing talent with Shinoda MC-ing talent has helped to define Linkin Park's distinct vocal quality that weaving influences as diverse as Deftones, Nine Inch Nails, Aphex Twin, and The Roots into a unified whole. That's the way Linkin Park "want everything to come together without feeling forced," explains Shinoda.