Linkin Park's debut album Hybrid Theory was the best-selling album in America for the year 2001. Members of the metal/hip-hop band include vocalist Chester Bennington (born 20 March 1976), guitarist Brad Delson (b. 1 December 1977), emcee Mike Shinoda (b. 11 February 1977), electronics specialist Joe Hahn (b. 15 March 1977), drummer Rob Bourdon (b. 20 January 1979), and bassist David "Phoenix" Farrell (b. 8 February 1977). The group was formed in 1996 under the name Xero; the name later was changed to Hybrid Theory and finally Linkin Park. The album Hybrid Theory, released in late 2000, included the singles "One Step Closer," "In the End" and "Crawling." Collision Course, their 2005 collaboration with rapper Jay-Z, yielded the hits "Izzo/In the End" and "Numb/Encore," the latter a 2006 Grammy winner.

Reportedly the band changed the spelling of its name when they discovered that the Internet domain lincolnpark.com was already taken.