Why is everything so heavy?

July 20, 2017 12:32 PM

Chester Bennington, Linkin Park Singer, Is Dead at 41. [NYT]
posted by KTamas (64 comments total)

Of all the celebrity deaths/sucides in the last few years, this is the one that got to me. I grew up on Linkin Park's music.

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posted by KTamas at 12:35 PM on July 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

on Chris Cornell's birthday no less. He left behind a beautiful family. I just don't get it. RIP
posted by shockingbluamp at 12:38 PM on July 20, 2017

While I like their music, and he was talented and I hate to think about how the people around him must be hurting... I am not bothered by his death at all.

What I am bothered by is that he is my age and that I now must face my own mortality by staring at that number on the front page for a few hours...

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Thanks for the reminder

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posted by Nanukthedog at 12:40 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm on Quora often, and I've noticed that Linkin Park has a huge fan base in India.

Anybody know anything about that?

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posted by jonp72 at 12:42 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

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posted by Cash4Lead at 12:42 PM on July 20, 2017

I listened to Linkin Park 24/7 through my effective divorce a few years ago. I have their lyrics tattooed on the inside of my wrists. I was supposed to see them in my city a couple years ago (and bands like that never come to Greensboro), but that's when Chester broke his leg. And Hybrid Theory and Meteora are a couple of the only albums that I can listen to over and over and over without skipping songs and then starting back over again.

My best friend texted me and I couldn't believe it. I can't imagine how his bandmates are feeling. RIP, Chester. I hope whatever may be out there, you and Chris Cornell are having the jam session that never has to end.

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posted by joycehealy at 12:43 PM on July 20, 2017 [8 favorites]

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posted by limeonaire at 12:43 PM on July 20, 2017

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posted by sunset in snow country at 12:48 PM on July 20, 2017

I'm trying to think of happy memories like this one: Linkin Park Gave A Hilarious Shoutout To Indian Fans By Replacing Their Own Lyrics With Naan Puns [Buzzfeed]

“I’m caught in the Roti Dough, just caught in the Roti Dough”

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posted by Fizz at 12:53 PM on July 20, 2017 [20 favorites]

A lot of music snobs (and other pedantic tastemaker types) have made fun of Linkin Park and their angsty brand of nu-metal that is primarily popular with edgy teens, but this is a perfect example of why we should never discount people who are telling us that they are mentally unwell whether it is through music, art, comedy, or conversation.

I bring this up because I fear I may be guilty of this in regards to less-hip cultural trends (Juggalos, etc.) This should be a lesson to me and anyone else that an ideology of kindness is the moral imperative above and beyond cultural cache.

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posted by R.F.Simpson at 12:53 PM on July 20, 2017 [53 favorites]

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posted by zebra at 12:56 PM on July 20, 2017

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posted by Small Dollar at 12:59 PM on July 20, 2017

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I'm also going to drop this here. Mefi wiki page: there is help.
posted by fluffy battle kitten at 12:59 PM on July 20, 2017 [14 favorites]

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posted by JoeXIII007 at 1:04 PM on July 20, 2017

A lot of music snobs (and other pedantic tastemaker types) have made fun of Linkin Park and their angsty brand of nu-metal that is primarily popular with edgy teens

Never mind the concept album about nuclear war, and the most recent "you know, we've never tried pop, let's give this a go, oh look, it's awesome", or the collaboration with Jay-Z, or all the charitable work with Music For Relief, or the fact that they genuinely seemed to enjoy interacting with their fans and genuinely seemed to enjoy performing with each other, and posted their own concert boots on YouTube...

I know we all mean well and that there was a point in there at the end, but can we skip the comments about how many people don't care for LP's music or think that we're all just angsty teens, just for today, pretty please? It would be vastly appreciated.
posted by joycehealy at 1:10 PM on July 20, 2017 [33 favorites]

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posted by LegallyBread at 1:10 PM on July 20, 2017

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posted by Krazor at 1:14 PM on July 20, 2017

oh my snow covered heart

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posted by numaner at 1:17 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

I know we all mean well and that there was a point in there at the end, but can we skip the comments about how many people don't care for LP's music or think that we're all just angsty teens, just for today, pretty please? It would be vastly appreciated.


Sorry, just offering my own feelings about the situation as a kind of preemptive strike against any snobbery. I didn't think about whether it was inappropriate for an in memorium thread. Feel free to flag and/or delete as necessary.
posted by R.F.Simpson at 1:17 PM on July 20, 2017 [9 favorites]

It's okay, I'm a little jumpy (go fig). Lots of folks like to slam on LP on the green/blue though, and while you weren't, I just want us not to rabbit hole. Sounds like we were on the same page. Carry on.

(what the hell, universe?)
posted by joycehealy at 1:20 PM on July 20, 2017 [6 favorites]

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posted by mystyk at 1:27 PM on July 20, 2017

My god, six kids. Jesus.
posted by gwint at 1:27 PM on July 20, 2017

Only 41, jeez. RIP.
posted by holborne at 1:28 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

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Soundtrack to all of my nights out when I was a younger.
posted by threetwentytwo at 1:32 PM on July 20, 2017

I never liked Linkin Park that much, and I have never liked Jay-Z that much, but somehow the combination of the two of them on "Collision Course" is one of my favorite things.

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posted by moviehawk at 1:32 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

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posted by reductiondesign at 1:38 PM on July 20, 2017

I just don't get it.

He was a survivor of childhood abuse.
posted by thelonius at 1:39 PM on July 20, 2017 [12 favorites]

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posted by radwolf76 at 1:47 PM on July 20, 2017

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He was a survivor of childhood abuse.

Now this really hits home. We're failing abuse /childhood trauma survivors bad these days for some reason. It's touched my own life very tragically the last couple of years, so that aspect of this is just heartbreaking to hear.

Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.
posted by saulgoodman at 1:53 PM on July 20, 2017 [9 favorites]

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posted by candyland at 1:55 PM on July 20, 2017

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posted by floatboth at 2:00 PM on July 20, 2017

Not my kind of music, but I respect anyone who can make a living in art and entertainment. RIP.
posted by davelog at 2:08 PM on July 20, 2017

no angsty teen in ages, yet LP still helped me vent during a difficult time in my fully adult life.
very, very sorry to hear this.

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posted by helion at 2:12 PM on July 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

I've always loved nu-metal/rap-rock entirely unironically, but always mostly Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit. Hybrid Theory and Meteora are still two of the best produced albums I've ever heard, and I listened to them nonstop when they were released. Big headphones on my head while riding the bus home, trying to dodge the bullies, just keeping my head down low in class. Getting older gets harder every time someone I revered as a kid dies.

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posted by gucci mane at 2:12 PM on July 20, 2017 [7 favorites]

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I've loved Linkin Park for years. I didn't care that they were uncool.

Mental illness is a horrible disease. My heart goes out to Chester's loved ones and the rest of the band. They must be devastated.

One of my favourite songs is The Little Things Give You Away, a beautiful political song about Bush and Hurricane Katrina.
posted by daybeforetheday at 2:17 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

He only appears as a cameo in this but I thought I'd drop it here anyway.

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posted by googly at 2:45 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

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posted by Silverstone at 2:48 PM on July 20, 2017

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posted by yaymukund at 2:52 PM on July 20, 2017

I've always had a soft spot for nu-metal, especially for workout music. Been slightly ashamed of it, but whatever, it's got a beat and you can lift to it. If I'd been of the right age to have this instead of NIN for my angsty teen years, I probably would have.

While I didn't follow LP outside of what songza/pandora/spotify and local hard rock stations put in my queue, something about this makes me really, really fucking sad. Cube's got a serious bro who is out of town visiting their formerly-abusive family, history of serious depression, no drugs, thank fuck, who is this dude's age. So I'm sad, I'm kind of scared, and angry. And I don't know what the fuck to do except be there for my friends like my bro.

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posted by Weighted Companion Cube at 3:38 PM on July 20, 2017

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posted by get off of my cloud at 3:44 PM on July 20, 2017

I loved Linkin Park as a teenager, and I still listen to them whenever they pop up on my shuffle. Sad to hear this today. Vulture has a lovely, compassionate obituary up for Chester here.

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posted by yasaman at 3:56 PM on July 20, 2017 [3 favorites]

Linkin Park passed me by, but I will be making a donation to Music For Relief tonight in Chester's honor. If you have the means, I invite you to do the same.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:56 PM on July 20, 2017 [4 favorites]

CW on that Vulture piece: it leads with how he died.
posted by pxe2000 at 3:57 PM on July 20, 2017

I think it needs to made clear that surviving childhood sexual abuse and attributing his suicide to just mental illnesses is a little dismissive; as if as mental illness alone really encompasses why a talented, vocal, male survivor of long term sex abuse leads one to suicide.
posted by AlexiaSky at 3:58 PM on July 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

In a sky of stars,
Who cares if one light goes out?
Who cares? Well I do.
posted by numaner at 4:26 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

Reanimation was the soundtrack to a defining and very important moment in my life. I am really sad.

I listened to this record again today. Really brought me back to that time. Their music is pretty powerful.
posted by King Bee at 4:52 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

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posted by Joey Michaels at 6:05 PM on July 20, 2017

When I'm flipping channels on the radio, if I come across a Linkin Park song, I'll always keep it on. RIP Chester.
posted by mogget at 6:25 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

I had Hybrid Theory on repeat for at least a year of my teens. I heard about Chester earlier today and I listened to the album for the first time in forever. I'm no longer in a place to properly appreciate it, but oh, the lyrics all came back at once.

Poor man, and his poor family.

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posted by postcommunism at 7:05 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

A friend of mine at work is a huge Linkin Park fan - she spent part of a summer a few years ago following their tour around, and had tickets for a show in a couple of weeks. I felt so awful for her today. I don't really know their music, but I know how I felt when Bowie died, and then Prince. I hope she's taking care of herself tonight.

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posted by rtha at 7:53 PM on July 20, 2017 [5 favorites]

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posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:54 PM on July 20, 2017

I can't say that I could recognize a single lick of any Linkin Park song, being an oldster. But 41? Jesus. These are trying times. Get help if you need it...
posted by Windopaene at 9:13 PM on July 20, 2017 [2 favorites]

fuck i listened to HT and Meteora so much. fuck
posted by weretable and the undead chairs at 10:09 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

Hybrid Theory is a perfect pop album. Short, sharp, full of hooks that still get quoted, very well produced.

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posted by solarion at 10:45 PM on July 20, 2017 [1 favorite]

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Best to his family.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 11:24 PM on July 20, 2017

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posted by filtergik at 3:54 AM on July 21, 2017

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posted by Ms. Moonlight at 6:36 AM on July 21, 2017

At the very least, this story demonstrates that some of the language regarding suicide is changed. The usual construction is "committed suicide," but that is a bad construction, one usually used for describing crimes. And while suicide has historically been criminalized, it's not an inherently criminal act, and the phrasing risks the effect of shaming those who feel suicidal while generating ill-will toward those who do by their own hand, rather than sympathy.

A number of newspapers, rather than using the "committed suicide" phrasing, instead wrote "died by suicide." This is the first time I can recall seeing this from so many places. While the story itself is terrible, I am glad to see some of the language around discussing stories like this changing.
posted by maxsparber at 7:18 AM on July 21, 2017 [15 favorites]

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posted by bjgeiger at 8:48 AM on July 21, 2017

on Chris Cornell's birthday no less.

Bennington and Cornell were good friends. Bennington even sang at Cornell's funeral. I'll bet Cornell's suicide hit him really hard.

At this point almost the entire generation of major grunge/alternative singers is dead by suicide or overdose: Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, Layne Staley, Scott Weiland...Eddie Vedder and Billy Corgan are the biggest names that survive.

I hope this doesn't portend a similar devastation of Bennington's generation of musicians.
posted by Sangermaine at 10:03 AM on July 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

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This is so sad. I feel for his family and friends. I'm gonna go relisten to some Linkin Park albums, take myself back to middle/high school.
posted by one teak forest at 1:48 AM on July 22, 2017

I didn't explore them much beyond the singles, but I absolutely *loved* "Faint", "In The End", and "What I've Done" (which is sadly more poignant now). I also really respected their production and mixing - my standard joke about rap/rock stuff is that the live drummer always sounds wimpy compared to the sampled/programmed beats, but Linkin Park's records never had that problem.

Depression is a bastard. Rest in peace, sir.
posted by tantrumthecat at 4:41 PM on July 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

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posted by Faintdreams at 9:59 AM on July 24, 2017

I watched the video for Talking to Myself (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvs68OKOquM), which dropped last Thursday, for the first time today, and what do you know, someone's cooking onions again.
posted by joycehealy at 11:48 AM on July 27, 2017