Linkin Park - Rolling In The Deep
Linkin Park is a six-piece rock band consisting of Chester Bennington, Rob Bourdon, Brad Delson, Dave Farrell, Joe Hahn and Mike Shinoda. In the early days Linkin Park made a really big impact on the charts, and rarely dropped out of the top 40. However recently they haven been performing as well, however on the Albums side of the chart, they keep getting really high, with a couple of number 1s here and there (which is to be expected as rock bands seem to do really well in the Albums chart, which totally makes up for their not so good attempt at the singles chart). This song was released on their iTunes London Festival 2010 album which was exclusively released on iTunes. iTunes then decided to release this song as a single here in the UK, and it performed pretty well on the charts getting to number 42, which is usually an achievement in the world of rock.
This song was originally sung by Adele, who's voice gives off amazing emotion and you really feel what she sings about, however in my personal opinion I don't exactly like her, now I have no idea what the reason is behind it, whether I just don't like her voice or I don't enjoy her performances, I haven't got a clue. It usually takes me ages until I end up liking her songs, and that is mainly because of hearing it over and over again on the radio. Now Linkin Park's version blows me away. Chester Bennington's voice is filled with tonnes of passion and feeling that you can truly believe he wrote the song himself for the band. Although this song only features Chester on Vocals and Mike Shinoda on the keyboards, I like the ballad, it's interesting and I could listen to it all day and all night for the next twenty years and I still don;t think I'll be bored with it. Chester has this voice that's so magical and interesting, that it glues me to Linkin Park for a couple of months until they stop releasing songs, I don't know why but he is such a great singer, and I really don't think he gets enough credit for it.
Now unlike all the other music videos, this one is a little different, and although it could be considered similar to other music videos, there is only a few that is done in the same technique. This was done totally live, the audience are real, Chester and Mike are real, and so are the vocals and the keyboard. To create a music video like this is extremely difficult, one mistake and you'll either have to start right at the beginning again (which would annoy the audience), or leave in the mistake, which could be disastrous for the music video. So although many people (like myself) don't think much of live music videos, and we all think it's kind of lazy and there's no thought behind it; a lot of hard work and preparation and sound checks and audience calmality and effort goes into this to make it perfect first time around.
This music video is shot slowly, this helps us to connect to what Chester is singing, but also is a technique that could possibly cut off a mistake which might happen, such as a fan crowd surfing (which usually happens at a concert). It is clever how it is done, and I really like the fact that you can hear the audience singing along to the chorus as if there is a mike being held out to them. I really like, also, how stripped back this is, when I first watched it, I expected the drums to come in after the first verse, and then a guitar, somewhere else, which would make it more of a rock song, but then again this would've excited the audience, and they may have been louder that Chester's singing.
I also like how Chester sings it really slowly, especially after the chorus, because of all the fans screaming. I like how he carries on singing just after they've stopped , it kind of gives a real sort of feel, as if you're actually in the crowd singing along and listening to this amazing performance, those people who went to the Linkin Park iTunes London Festival 2010, had one big treat, and to be totally honest, yes I am jealous.
Overall I am in love with the song and I really can't stop hitting the replay button. But on the other hand the music video is not unusual, and therefore it lacks originality, even though it is a cover. Some of the comments on the YouTube Video (which has over 7,000,000 viewers) state that some people think this cover is better than Adele's original, whereas other people disagree and say that it could never beat Adele. I'm a little torn, I so want to be biased, and I think you know how I'd be biased, however putting my personal thoughts aside, Adele has a strong emotive voice that affects a lot of people, and I think Chester Bennington's voice, at times, can be just as good, so I'm planting myself right in the middle and I am saying that both versions (the original and Linkin Park's cover) are just as good as one another. Some people may be surprised by my rating, after all I've said, but I really want to remind you, I am rating music videos, and not the songs, otherwise it would've been higher.
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