Why didn't The Catalyst/Waiting for the End become big hits?

No, Not Alone, I agree with you on both points. New Divide sounds way generic for me, same as What I've Done, still WID does not bore me as much as this one.

 

How weird. Where I live, it was played on freaking pop radio stations like, every five minutes.

 

I see what you did there

 

Same.

I had friends who didn't even like Linkin Park posting about how much they loved WFTE.

 

I'd say Waiting For The End and The Catalyst were pretty big hits. They both went Gold in the USA didn't they? I think the fact that Waiting For The End was on Tap Tap Revenge helped it. Thats actually how I first heard it and after hearing it I fell in love with Linkin Park.

 

Same, I had the most unexpected people tell me WFTE was great. (All my friends are well aware that i'm the obsessive LP fan in the group haha).
And The Catalyst, whether for the right reasons or the wrong ones, did end up being a pretty major hit for the band

 

I agree, people seem to be overrating the success of WFTE. I heard it on the radio sometimes, 1 station that plays rock/indie/alternative stuff. 1 station that plays a mix of stuff, and 1 station that plays mainly pop. But it did not sell that well, it did not stay on the radio for that long, and it was played a little bit compared to others songs and how many plays they get on the radio. And it's not as known as a lot of other songs on the radio.

 

"The Catalyst" was better on the charts. "Waiting for the End" was a big hit commercially, since it was heavily promoted (EMAs, SNL, Tap Tap, CSI) and it was a great pop hit since their old style wasn't considered mainstream anymore. "Burning in the Skies" was successful internationally.

"Iridescent" was a sore loser, though.

 

Honestly WTFE did much better than The Catalyst. I tried to like that song but there's just too much going on.

 

I understand why The Catalyst wasn't huge (not that radio friendly), Waiting For The End on the other hand should have bigger (at least top ten on the billboard) but I think that it was a hit as far a modern rock songs are concerned. The real question to me though is why wasn't Iridescent a huge hit, it's a beautiful soft radio friendly song, it was the theme for Transformers (like What I've Done and New Divide, both big hits), had a poppy radio edit, it had everything going for it but flopped, I just don't understand it.

 

Maybe this one is too slow and too soft, I still cannot understand it though