In the End by Linkin Park

Linkin Park have been through a lot of changes over the years, most of them pretty good, but looking at the band's discography, if I had to pick one Linkin Park to start with — we're not done with them here — I have to throw it all the way back to Hybrid Theory, the album (as opposed to their name before they were signed — yes, I am that old, and older), and not their first single, but arguably the album's best. In the End still hits almost 30 years later.

I knew Hybrid Theory was released in 2000, but today I learned In the End was the fourth and final single from the album, and the single dropped on September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC offset a few music as well as movie and game releases; this was not one of them.

I'm not really a fan of new Linkin Park. It's not just the new singer. She's fine and she's good with the band, it's just their music as a whole doesn't really hit with me. Neither did their last few albums. Their last song I liked was Waiting for the End, and that was an album or two before their most recent one. Interestingly, had the original singer not died, they would have toured with my favourite band, ONE OK ROCK, before the latter got big (they really haven't gotten big yet, but they've since singed with Fueled By Ramen (also Paramore's label and a few other emo/alternative bands) and they had that song in Sonic Frontiers). I'm not really bothered that they missed the opportunity of a lifetime, as a lot of Linkin Park fans would have loved ONE OK ROCK, but it still sucks. And, not to bury the lede, but of course it sucks that Chester is gone. Most of us (including myself) had no idea what he was going through. And it hurt him to hear that a lot of fans only liked the earlier work (which is his angriest) as he was working through his demons and he felt fans were leaving him behind. Sorry Chester, the music didn't click with me, so I listened to other stuff. I never really stopped listening to old Linkin Park. I didn't know. I still say thank you for the music. Hope you and Chris are tearing it up wherever you ended up.

Music means different things to different people. For me it's mostly entertainment. Some of it does relax me, like Enya. I rarely listen to hard/fast music anymore, but that can calm me down, too. Different times, different remedies, I suppose. For some, music is a lot more. So if you're facing something that seems too big for ya, hope some of these good tunes finds you at the right time.