10 Greatest Secret Weapons In Rock And Roll
2. Joe Hahn - Linkin Park
When it comes to the age of nu metal, time has not been so kind to the DJs of the bands. I mean, as much as they may have had a hand in developing the electronic soundscapes of the genre back in the day, how many people are you going to find in the wild willing to go out on a limb for someone like DJ Lethal from Limp Bizkit, apart from his amazing work with House of Pain? In the case of Linkin Park though, Joe Hahn's attention to detail is probably the reason they stood apart from the rest of the pack.
Operating very much like a musician, Hahn's way of interacting with his turntables turned out to be a lot more informed by melody than your average atmospheric drone. Going back to the early days of Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the band weren't afraid to give Joe some time to shine, with the instrumentals Session and Cure for the Itch being some of their most captivating works.
Even going into the 2010's, their choice to go more atmospheric on A Thousand Suns only worked with Hahn in the background, taking the soundscapes and informing them with actual artistic credibility than just a bunch of noise. Aside from the millions of projects he has going on behind the scenes of their videos, Joe Hahn was one of the few nu metal DJs who was actually looking at the big picture.