From the executive director of music at Billboard, an extensive look inside the 20+ year career of mega-selling rock band Linkin Park, featuring new interviews, exclusive quotes, and insights from the band's associates and collaborators
Linkin Park is one of the 21st Century's most important, and most underrated, rock bands. When you look at album and streaming numbers, hit singles, tickets sold, their enduring legacy within rock and the contributions that this groundbreaking band have made in all metrics of music consumption and fandom, there's no group bigger in recent memory. Despite this, there has not yet been a full, comprehensive biography of the band, until now.
In “It Starts With One”, Billboard's executive director of music, Jason Lipshutz, chronicles the story of this legendary band, from their early childhoods to the moment their paths crossed to the genesis of their iconic first album, Hybrid Theory, and all that followed. The book features in-depth reporting and interviews, as well as new reflections from their collaborators and contemporaries. Through it all, Lipshutz explores how one band could mean so much to so many people; how they were able, in an post-grunge era of the late 90s and early 2000s, to synthesize trends in pop and hip-hop; and finally, rightfully, place Linkin Park in the pantheon of American rock acts.
Linkin Park helped usher in an era of artists (and fans) that are more open to discussing mental health and prioritizing inclusivity, led by their front men, Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, who balanced each other artistically and chose to write about their issues openly rather than suffer in silence. The philosophy of the band was to combine sounds, artistry, and talents into something that truly hadn't been heard before. And the people loved it. Tragically, Chester succumbed to his demons and passed away in 2017, but the music endures, and the fans are primed for the real behind-the-scenes story.
Beyond anything else, Linkin Park's singular power was to bring people together, but along the way they made music history and changed what we expect from musicians. “It Starts With One” is finally here to cement that legacy.
