Linkin Park, from Agoura Hills, California, originally consisted of 3 high school friends, Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon. After graduating from high school, the trio recruited Joe Hahn, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark Wakefield to perform in their band, Xero, and begun recording and producing songs within Shinoda’s make shift bedroom studio in 1996. However, they failed to land a record deal, and the lack of success and stalemate in progress prompted vocalist Wakefield to leave the band in search of other projects, and Farrell to also depart to tour with Tasty Snax and other bands. After a while, Jeff Blue, then vice president of Zomba Music, referred Arizona vocalist Chester Bennington (formerly of Grey Daze) to Xero, and, upon Bennington joining, they changed their name to Hybrid Theory. However another name change was on the horizon – this time from Hybrid Theory to Linkin Park, a play on and homage to Santa Monica’s Lincoln Park. Despite these changes, the band still struggled to sign a record deal, however, Jeff Blue, who had moved on to Warner Bros Records, came to their rescue again, helping the band sign a deal with the company in 1999.

Debut album ”Hybrid Theory” was released in October of the following year, edited by producer Don Gilmore, and sold more than 4.8 million copies during its first year, making it the best selling album of 2001. The band were nominated for 3 Grammy Awards, winning “Best Hard Rock Performance” for the single "Crawling" (the other categories were “Best New Artist” and “Best Rock Album”), and MTV awarded the band their “Best Rock Video” and “Best Direction” awards for the single "In the End". Former bassist Dave Farrell rejoined the band, and they began work on a remix album, dubbed “Reanimation”, which included works from ”Hybrid Theory” and “Hybrid Theory EP”. It debuted in July 2002, featuring Black Thought, Jonathan Davis and Aaron Lewis, among others, and claimed second spot on the Billboard 200, selling nearly 270,000 copies during its debut week.

“Meteora”, inspired by the area of the same name in Greece, debuted in March 2003, going to the number 1 spot in the US and UK, number 2 in Australia, and selling more than 800,000 copies during its first week. After 6 months, sales were nearing the 3 million mark, and by the end of 2003, “Meteora” was the third best selling album of that year. The band also released an album and DVD, entitled “Live in Texas”, consisting of audio and video tracks of some of the band's performances in Texas during the US tour to promote “Meteora”. Awards such as MTV's “Best Rock Video” ("Somewhere I Belong") and the “Viewer's Choice” ("Breaking the Habit") came their way, in addition to “Artist of the Year” and “Song of the Year” at the 2004 Radio Music Awards.

Following the success of their first 2 LPs, the band postponed working on a new studio album for the next few years, continued to tour and also to work on many side projects, for example Bennington appeared on DJ Lethal’s "State of the Art", and material by Dead by Sunrise, and Shinoda worked with Depeche Mode. In 2004, Linkin Park teamed up with Jay-Z to produce another remix album, ”Collision Course”, featuring intermixed lyrics and background tracks from both artists' previous albums. It debuted in November 2004. Mike Shinoda also formed a new band, Fort Minor, as a side project, and with the aid of Jay-Z, they released a debut album “The Rising Tied”.

After winning the 2006 for “Best Rap/Sung Collaboration” (with Jay-Z), Linkin Park chose producer Rick Rubin to help them with their third album. After spending a little over a year working on the album, the band chose to further refine it, removing 5 of the original 17 tracks. ”Minutes to Midnight (a reference to the Doomsday Clock) was released in May 2007, sold over 600,000 copies in its first week, and took top spot on the Billboard chart. First single, "What I've Done" became number 1 on the both the Modern Rock Tracks and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. Also that year, the band collaborated with Busta Rhymes on his single "We Made It", and won the "Favorite Alternative Artist" award at the American Music Awards.

Linkin Park have sold more than 50 million albums worldwide.