Linkin Park - In The End
Linkin Park, as I have recently mentioned a couple of times, are a 6-piece rock band consisting of Chester Bennington (vocals on chorus), Mike Shinoda (vocals on verses), Rob Bourdon, Brad Delson, Joseph Hahn, and Dave Farrell. I definitely like the way in which this song is sung, and the use of the two lead vocalists, it kind of splits the song up, and kind of suggests that it is real, and I don't really know what it is about it, but it makes the band stand out over many other bands, and they seem to do well when they split the vocals up (well lately they haven't been doing too well here in the UK, compared to the high charter of number 8 this song managed to achieve, but still...) I have to admit many bands have tried this concept, some have done well with it such as Evanescence (who only did it for their first song, but still managed to get a number 1), and some have done poorly such as We Are The In Crowd (although they are a fairly new band so they could still turn it around, hopefully). This song was released as their fourth single from their first studio album: Hybrid Theory, which people believe is their best album they've ever released, but people say that about most bands, because their first studio album is usually raw and fresh and new, and it's quite hard for bands to compete with the popularity of their first album.
As far as I can work out from the lyrics, it suggests a betrayal. It suggests that they trusted someone and to be stabbed in the back instead, and they tried so hard and only "got so far", could suggest that they tried to be with someone and it obviously wasn't working out, "but in the end, it doesn't even matter". It sounds as if they are over the betrayal and are realising that she/he wasn't a good friend in the first place. Don't quote me on that, I could be totally wrong and I'm sorry if I am, but that's what I get out of the song and what I can interpret from it. I'm not sure if it is such a good song to turn into a music video, would there be much you could do to link it? I'm not entirely sure and I have to admit as much as I want to not like the music video because I don't see the connection, I kind of find it enjoyable to watch. I'm blaming the song, it's possessed me into liking the music video.
Starting with Mike Shinoda and his rapping, he is usually seen in a wasteland, where thorny vines are appearing out of the ground and enclosing around him and shattering into dust. And then during the second verse grass and plants are sprouting up around him. When Chester Bennington sings the choruses he is standing on top of a platform with gargoyles on the edges. There is a door behind him which is shaped as a trapezoid (which is the lower half of a triangle). Near the end of the video the sky turns grey and it starts to pour down with rain, and the band still plays on. When the rain stops you are left with the piano playing, which also starts the song. And the camera pans outwards revealing the wasteland where Mike Shinoda was rapping, and it is now a lush Greenland. Also a whale pops up here and there although the significance is not as obvious.
I really like the concept of this video, it is very thought out and extremely imaginable and also out-of-the-box kind of thing. For those of you who haven't worked it out yet, the music video mostly uses CGI animation. The band originally performed this at 2001's Ozzfest tour, and it was also filmed there, then editing came in so that it became the way the band wanted it to be. The wasteland signifies the betrayal, and that it is quite hard and difficult to get over, but the vines and the grass and the plants covers it up, and suggests that "In the end, it doesn't even matter". I like the ending as well when it shows what used to be the wasteland. It kind of suggests that they've started a fresh, or even, they are better off now.
The band decided to let water pipes off during their performance at Ozzfest tour, which is how they managed to show the rain in the music video, and also proves that a hell of a lot of planning was involved. Now onto the whale... The whale appears quite a lot and is quite different. It was Joe Hahn's idea to put it in, although he has yet to reveal why he did it apart from the fact that "it made sense" to him. The only idea some people have come up with is that the whale could be identified as a "space whale" which takes the concept that life (or time) is too short for one to absorb all its mass surroundings. Which definitely goes alongside the song.
I'm not totally sure what all the statues are for, the only thing I can think of is that they first decided on the wastelands and then thought that the band had to be on top of something because they performed on stage during Ozzfest tour. On top of the statue is a winged soldier this is similar to the front cover of Hybrid Theory.
Overall I really do like this music video, and can now see the similarities with the song, and I have to admit, I think it is a very clever and a very ambitious music video that I could probably watch again and again. Some people may not understand the links at first (like I did), but it doesn't take an expert to see a few of them, and there is probably a lot more behind it than what I have uncovered. I hope you all agree that this music video deserves this rating, and I hope to see more weird and different music videos from this fantastic band.
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