Old Content:
Linkin Park + Transformers 2, A Good Idea. Seriously.
April 28, 2009 by Kyle BradyTags: "Transformers 2", Linkin Park, Michael Bay, Score, Soundtrack
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I'm here to tell you why I think this is a great idea.
The New Linkin Park
I'll be the first to admit that the new incarnation of Linkin Park isn't any good. In fact, they suck. I'm speaking of whatever happened to them between "Meteora" and "Minutes to Midnight", resulting in a bunch of radio-rock crap. Their old selves, the screaming rock-rap combo, is what got me into the true heavy music (metal), and while I don't consider myself a fan anymore their old material is still listenable.
It speaks to the inner middle school/high school kid hidden inside us, which is why they continue to get lots of attention. Probably something to do with the raw-but-accessible energy and anger found in their songs. You don't have to dig very deep for their meanings.
"Reanimation"
It never went mainstream, but the true LP fans of the day knew about the "Reanimation" album - a remix of mostly old songs with guest stars, song restructurings, and, in some cases, releases of B-sides or completely new material. It's this album that gives me hope.
"Reanimation" had a much smoother, more fluid sound than their traditional albums did, and actually had a subliminally robot feel. Don't believe me? Check out the album cover for further proof, but this album proved that, at a minimum, someone in the band has musical talent beyond cookie-cutter teenage-boy anthems - an ear for something different but great.
Have You Heard of KoRn?
If you know who LP is, then you likely know of KoRn. You may even know that Jonathan Davis is the lead singer/vocalist of the fallen-from-grace nu-metal band. But what you probably don't know is that he penned, and performed, the music that drove the Queen of the Damned movie. His vocals were then cross-mixed with Stuart Townsend, creating ethereal vocal tracks that sat on top of already-creepy "industrial slow jams".
Sadly, the actual released soundtrack had vocals performed by other artists because of Davis' contractual obligations.
The Point...?
There is a point, and it's this: most people laughed and poked fun at the people who decided to bring in a nu-metal rockstar to co-produce the sounds of a highly-anticipated vampire movie. But that changed when the results came out. Maybe you didn't like the movie, and God knows the critics didn't, but the soundtrack is truly epic - regardless of your musical tastes or movie preferences, what Davis created not only parallels the feeling of the movie, but becomes an integral part of the source, enhancing it beyond belief.
This is something recognized by fans, "the industry", and a bunch of critical acclaim. Not just me.
Hans Zimmer
If Jonathan Davis could do it, who's to say Linkin Park can't? Davis had always been associated with the dark and weird life, and the movie he was brought into was a part of that. Linkin Park has always been associated with the electronic world and a certain testosterone-driven crowd... Transformers 2 is just as much a part of that as they are.
If you have any lingering doubts, know that Hans Zimmer is working with them, so they don't have free reign - after all, they're a band, not composers, so they will obviously need help morphing song ideas and structures to a movie score format. But it's doable.
The man that brought about the sounds of The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Black Hawk Down, and a number of other "modern American classics" can surely combine with one of the largest robot-loving mostly-talented-when-they-want-to-try-hard-enough bands in the world.
Right?
Kyle can be found on Twitter and MySpace, or reached via email.
