On October 24, 2000, Linkin Park changed the music industry with the release of Hybrid Theory. As the iconic album celebrated 20 years, dig deep with seven facts about it below.

1. Linkin Park was founded in 1996 in Agoura Hills, California. They first went by the name Xero, followed by Hybrid Theory before legal issues with a Welsh electronic band named Hybrid forced them to change to Linkin Park. They decided to use their old band name as the title for their debut album.

2. Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda wrote the songs for the album based on the band’s earliest demos. Shinoda describes the lyrics as interpretations of universal feelings, experiences and as “everyday emotions you talk about and think about”. The album’s lyrics touch on issues Bennington struggled with in his childhood like excessive drug and alcohol abuse, the divorce of his parents, isolation and the aftermath of failed relationships. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2002, Bennington recounted the song writing process.

“It’s easy to fall into that thing — ‘poor, poor me’, that’s where songs like ‘Crawling’ come from: I can’t take myself. But that song is about taking responsibility for your actions. I don’t say ‘you’ at any point. It’s about how I’m the reason that I feel this way. There’s something inside me that pulls me down.”

3. “One Step Closer” was the band’s debut single. Until 2007, they would close every show with it. In 2012, the band revisited the tradition and used it to close out their show at SONiC BOOM. As of April 2020, the song has over 100 million views on YouTube.

4. Initially, Bennington did not like the song “In the End” and didn’t want it included on the album. The song has gone on to become the band’s most iconic song.

5. “Crawling” won Linkin Park their first Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance in 2002. Bennington called the song the most difficult song to sing live, saying, “‘Crawling’ has cause me the most trouble live than any other song.” He also commented that the song is about substance abuse and “feeling like I had no control over myself in terms of drugs and alcohol, hence the line ‘These wounds they will not heal…'”.

6. As part of the album’s 20 year celebration, the band has released the demo version of “In the End” and a never-before-heard track called “She Couldn’t”.

7. When Hybrid Theory was released, it was met with overwhelmingly postitive reviews. It has sold over 27 million copies worldwide, making it the most successful debut album since Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction (1987) and the best-selling rock album of the 21st century. It is 12x certified platinum. Since being re-released for the 20 year celebration, the album has re-entered the Billboard 100.

Order your 20th anniversary edition of Hybird Theory here. Stream the album on your prefered streaming platform below.

Filed under: Album Anniversary, Hybrid Theory, Linkin Park