Linkin Park is bowing to Warner Bros

The darkest day for Linkin Park (LP) fans yet to come, but the cloud has shown the sign that Linkin Park has started to ignore their base fans. This is what some Linkin Park fans (hardcore?) claim of what LP have done. From the release of Minutes to Midnight (MTM), fans had already lambasted Linkin Park for ignoring their old sound(nu-metal). The new sound is categorized as too commercialize.

The recent incident is LinLP's Live at Rock Am Ring 2007 (Germany). Initially, it was announced that the concert would be available via LiveStream. Suddenly, It was cancelled for no apparent reason. Some fans claim that It was based on the decision by Warner Bros Music to "ban" Linkin Park Live via internet ("ban" is emphasized by me). If it is true, then I start to wonder why.

However, based on the abovementioned issues, I still respect Linkin Park for what they have done till today. The reason why I like Linkin Park (I avoid to usage of IDOLIZE, as I don't want being branded as teeniebopper) is they have "revolutionized" their approaches to thank their fans,:

1) Their appearance in Linkin Park forums and chat. Well, you may have seen some bands or singers who have own blog (like Mobey). However, Arguably, Linkin Park should be considered as one of the first ROCK bands who did that. In the early 2000, LP would go to LP forums, posting some replies to fans' enquiries. As well, they will appear in chat occasionally, addressing queries directly with fans.

2) Meet and Greet Session. Until now, they never fail to set up Meet and Greet session with Linkin Park fans for every concert they have. Due to their big success, It is now limited to Linkin Park Underground members, with subject to the availability. They have no choice but to limit number of ppl for the M&G show.

3) Their big support for web design!!!. I guess that I never seen a lot of rock band who dedicate their time on website design. It is different from Linkin Park, as Mike Shinoda and Joe Hahn have background in art. Thus, those arts in their albums are mostly done by them. As well, they provide those images for us (esp for me)to use for our web design