This cannot be underlined and stressed enough. Chester even reiterated this fact in Carpool Karaoke. He was not always a 'screamer', and a lot of his earlier works with Grey Daze and Sean Dowdell and His Friends? contained aggressively sung vocals (at best) and none of the kind of screams you hear on songs like Given Up, Faint, One Step Closer etc. He didn't even explore that side of his voice until he joined the band. So yeah, while he became known by some for having a powerful screaming voice, he was a full on singer before Linkin Park.
This doesn't mean that the screams weren't awesome though. It's just another testament of Mike's genius.
You know actually, I'm curious and a lot of LPA is non-American; did HT and Meteora blow up around the world at the same time as it did in the USA? I would assume so, since they were just starting up at the dawn of the internet, but I'm curious as to whether or not other countries go HT, Meteora, and maybe even Minutes all around the same time. I wonder if in some of the world, they actually didn't get HT/Meteora Linkin 20 ish years ago, and maybe it was a less of a stretch between all eras of the band, and so the idea they could (or could have) just easily "gone back" to that sound doesn't sound so far out of the realm of reality. Especially if those countries didn't have the same musical fads the US did.
As to my country (Portugal) I can say Meteora and MTM did chart very high (peaked at numbers 1 and 3 respectively). Meteora was on the chart for 35 weeks and MTM was there for 37, so I think both went for Platinum (20k copies at that time) or even more, but they were nothing compared to Evanescence's Fallen which sold 80k copies and spent 71 weeks on chart. Hybrid Theory and other prominent albums at that time like Nickelback's Silver Side Up didn't even chart despite the lead single having been massively promoted on the radios and being on the list of songs they play ever since its debut. That may be because people tend to go more with national music. Right now in the top 10 there are 6 portuguese music albums (half of the chart is dominated by portuguese-sung music) and OML is at number 42 after only 12 weeks.
Umm i listened to ATS enough and i do not like it, maybe besides WAK and the catalyst thats it. I've listened to alot of other music in my life pop, jazz, classic etc. And its not for me, you cant force or encourage or challenge someone to listen to something if they do not like it, i like heavy music. So if you wanna call me biased than fine, im alright with that. I listen to what i like and what i can relate to. You shouldnt judge me because i like heavy guitar riffs, screaming, and so on, im not judging you if u like soft cheesy soft pop music or whatever else you listen to. So thats that
Riiiight. Derek's the judgemental one who only cares about what he likes, and has an incessant need to take every opportunity to whine about music he doesn't like. Not you.
yeaaahh. I can whine about music all i want, lots of people do all the time im not the only one, i see people arguing and whining about who's better the backstreet boys or nsync or britney spears, or even korn or the deftones soo lol
Tbh i feel sometimes that people who prefer the "harder" side of LP get more "attacks" when the opposite. Tell me when i am wrong, but sometimes i think people tend to overreact if someone dont like ATS or OML f.e. . Dont get me wrong, i love ATS (and started to like OML, still my least favorite) but so i do THP. For me, Chesters voice was both: great singing and great screaming. He was great on both ways. And thats definitely the thing somone should have, IF the 5 guys tend t get another singer. Still powerful singing, but also able to pull some heavy vocals. Just my two cents.
I see it mostly from hardcore fans who, imo, seem to take harsh criticisms of the band a bit more personally than they should. ATS and OML are "risky" albums, at least for the band that put them out, so I think when people who are really really big fans of the band or Mike see people not appreciating the big swing they took and think they're being criticized unfairly, or that the attempt in and of itself deserved praise. Which isn't to say they realize the material isn't good and are trying to pretend it is, just that they believe people criticize the material unfairly to the point where they dismiss the points as the music being something they 'can't get' or something similar. Then of course you will have people who just openly go "No, I refuse to listen to you', which really doesn't help their case...
Didnt Brad say something like "fans are interested in the older stuff no matter what the new stuff is"
Agree. That's the reason why they struggle back then when Mark Wakefield left the band. The band needs a LEAD vocalist and that is the reality. Going 5 piece will limit the band's diversity in terms of vocal style and delivery.
He was saying it in " Why should we care ?" attitude. He was serving it as a motivation to do whatever they want rather than caring about bunch of people who will dismiss their new stuff anyway whether commercially or critically ( THP is a prime example of relatively weak commercial reception)
I get what you mean, but there's a big difference between 1998 Mike and 2017 Mike as a vocalist. He's definitely good enough now to carry the band on his own, but you're right that it would come at the cost of vocal diversity, which is arguably one of the band's biggest selling points.
It might seem unrealistic but Mike's voice has potential.He just need to get out of his comfort zone and sing in higher register more often and with some vocal training and diversity, I can see him as lead singer. The only stuff that would be too hard for him are the "heavy" old stuff and he doesn't even need to sing Chester's parts as I'm sure that most of people who go to their shows know the old songs by heart so there is a hope I guess.
The question is, would the hardcore LP fans accept their new sound with Mike as the new frontman? Maybe but idk would be the future looks like for the band. The trauma they experienced right now would definitely need an external producer if they decide right away to make an 8th album. OML World Tour is finished, I guess.
'Hardcore' LP fans are Mikes biggest supporters in the first place, they'll likely accept it fine. I don't think a huge chunk of the rest of the fanbase would be as into the idea, though.
Casual fans be like, "So the rapper is the new singer now?" "wt fudge is this?" "this is not linkin park"
Potential yes, but it's still not strong enough to take full lead. And that's not a knock on Mike, because I really respect him as a musician, but I'm sure he knows this too. On studio tracks he has the ability to sound phenomenal, but he struggles sometimes to pull off those same vocals live. He'll have his moments of perfection (Acoustic FB Live performance), but as a whole he's uneven and not as consistently 'on' as Chester was. And yes I know, Chester had his really rough nights too...but for the most part he usually sounded strong live. If he can have vocal training, and improve to that point? Yes, I'm totally on board for him to be the new lead vocalist. But with time and reflection, I've come to accept that getting a new vocalist altogether likely is going to have to be the right way forward.