"Should've stayed, were there signs I ignored? Can I help you not to hurt anymore? We saw brilliance when the world was asleep. There are things that we can have but can't keep."
These
are lyrics from Linkin Park’s “One More Light”, a song that has become
synonymous with the legacy of Chester Bennington. Written by Bennington
himself, Linkin Park’s frontman, the song was released posthumously after his
death in July of 2017. Originally written for a friend who died of cancer, the
song has taken on deeper meaning in the wake of Bennington’s tragic suicide. The
message of love, regret, and tragedy that it carries was made particularly poignant
when it was performed live by Mike Shinoda, guitarist for Linkin Park, in a
tribute concert to the life and legacy of Chester Bennington.
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| Chester Bennington (left) and Mike Shinoda (right) performing together on stage as Linkin Park |
As a longtime friend and
artistic partner of Bennington, Shinoda has struggled deeply with the news of
Bennington’s death and with questions regarding his own future. It’s unclear if
the remaining members of Linkin Park will decide to continue to perform without
Bennington; for the past year and perhaps indefinitely, the band has stopped
producing music. Shinoda, however, has not given up on music: the
rapper/vocalist recently released his first solo album, Post Traumatic. The
album started as a three song EP that channeled his pain and grief into the
outlet of writing and performing. The album, which has been classified as rap
rock, hip hop, and alternative/indie in turn, is a meditation on life, death, and
the uncertainty of the future.
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| the Post Traumatic album cover, by Mike Shinoda |
Featuring tracks like “Ghosts”,
“Hold it Together”, and “Running from my Shadow”, the album functions like a
musical autobiography of Shinoda’s life and struggles with mental health in the
months after Bennington’s death. In “Over Again”, Shinoda describes the dread
he feels about performing Bennington’s tribute concert and how to balance
respect for Bennington with anger and anxiety for his own future. Shinoda didn’t just lose a friend, he lost
his livelihood and everything he had worked for in making Linkin Park, described
as “America’s last huge rock band”, one of the most popular bands in the world.
Shinoda raps, "And everybody that I talk to is like, 'wow /Must be really hard to figure out what to do now' / Well thank you genius, you think it'll be a challenge / Only my life's work hanging in the fucking balance / And I wanted was to get a little bit of closure / And every step I took I looked and wasn't any closer".
The title of the album
itself, Post Traumatic, is a nod to mental illness and to Shinoda’s struggles
to process the trauma of Bennington’s suicide. Mental illness and creativity
have long been linked in popular imagination—the archetype of the suffering
artist comes to mind—but psychology has only recently begun to seriously study
and confirm this connection. Kaufman and Baer provide a literature review of
research regarding mental illness and artistry in which several studies found a
strong correlation between creative pursuits (like creative writing, poetry, and
music) and high rates of mental illness. In a study of 30 writers, Andreasen found
that 24 of the participants displayed mental illness, compared to only 9 people
in a non-writer control group. Ludwig similarly discovered that almost 60% of
writers suffer from depression, a much higher rate than the 9% found in controls,
and that male writers and poets were more likely to suffer from personality
disorders, depression, and bipolar disorder. It has also been found that eminent
creators more likely to suffer mental illness than those who are only average.
It’s little wonder then that the members of Linkin Park, which has sold over 100 million records worldwide across its discography, not to mention an estimated 1.25 billion audio plays and 6 million radio plays as of only 2017, struggle with mental illness. The frequently poetic lyrics, dystopian imagery, and fast paced rap sections of both Linkin Park’s old music and Shinoda’s new album blur the lines between poetry, creative writing, and music making; though perhaps not ‘writers’ in the traditional sense, it’s clear that both Bennington and Shinoda are part of the overwhelming statistics regarding mental illness and creativity. Post Traumatic is a testament to this struggle. From its conception to its execution, the album is a way of examining and expressing Shinoda’s anxiety, depression, rage, and regret. He copes with the trauma of Bennington’s tragic suicide the only way he knows how: through music. In Post Traumatic, both longtime fans of Linkin Park and new listeners can find an unprecedented look at mental illness and the way music can both hurt and heal. Linkin Park’s “Waiting for the End” says it the best: “So, picking up the pieces, now where to begin? / The hardest part of ending is starting again.”
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I'm really glad Mike Shinoda has continued to make music and talk about the grief of losing his friend. One More Light and Post Traumatic never fail to hit me hard every time I listen to them.
ReplyDeleteI was never an avid listener of Linkin Park, but I remember watching them perform "One More Light" on Jimmy Kimmel Live just two months before Bennington's death. Even though I was never super into Linkin Park, Bennington's death hit me hard after seeing him perform that
ReplyDeletesong as a tribute to Chris Cornell's death just two months before. I can't imagine how hard it must be for Mike Shinoda, and I love that he channeled his hurt into music. It sucks that tragic circumstances sometimes create the most powerful music. I will definitely give Post Traumatic a listen.