Rebellion

Album: The Hunting Party (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • The lyrics for this song talk about insurgents in certain parts of the world where they have a lot to rebel against. In comparison, America has it easy. Vocalist Mike Shinoda told Rolling Stone that what used to make the teenage Linkin Park members angry is not what makes them angry now.

    "We're not 18-year-old kids making a loud record – we're 37-year-old adults making a loud record." he said. "And what makes a 37-year-old angry is different than what made us angry back in the day."
  • The song features signature guitar shredding by System of a Down guitarist Daron Malikian.
  • This is the fourth single from Linkin Park's sixth studio album, which finds the band returning to their nu-metal roots after a foray into electronic music. The album peaked at #3 in the US, and the single reached #15 on the Mainstream Rock chart.
  • Linkin Park drummer Rob Bourdon told Modern Drummer about the process of creating the drum part for this track: "It's a triplet feel primarily, and ghost notes on the snare drum. It's 8th notes happening between my right and left hand. There are some sections with a syncopated ride pattern as well."

    "I had to play it over and over until it grooved," he added. "For me to really be able to play something well that has the right feel, I have to almost be out of my head. It's really a feel thing for me. So I put a lot of time in. It's about playing the part over and over until it almost feels like I'm observing myself playing the part. Then I can actually adjust the feel of it. Because I'm not formally trained - I learned to read music but I didn't pursue it - I was always so excited about playing by ear that now I do everything by ear. I don't think that analytically about the parts. It's more knowing if I like it and whether it sounds great."

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