10 Perfect Rock Albums Of The 2000s

It's hard to believe it now, but the nu metal genre still felt pretty niche in the early '00s. Regardless of how much Korn was featured on TRL and Fred Durst becoming one of the hottest stars in the world, the casual music fans weren't just going out and buying records like Follow the Leader or anything. It'd make sense if things just stayed where they were, and then Linkin Park comes out and blows the doors off their hinges.

Bringing the best of both worlds together, the band's biggest strength on Hybrid Theory was just how eclectic their tastes were, bringing in bits and pieces of rap, metal and electronica that meshed together perfectly. Outside of the few dated songs by today's standards, things were taken up a notch by Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda trading verses, which was a welcome change of pace from the usual nu metal formula.

Now you had a rapper who could flow meshed with a singer who could go for some of the most blistering screams you've heard. And the public quickly followed behind, with songs like In the End spanning genre boundaries and reaching the top of the mainstream charts. After Hybrid Theory, nu metal wasn't just some dirty word in the music industry. This was a genre that now belonged to everyone.