Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda: 'Indie Rock Has Turned Into Pop Music'

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda has lamented the state of indie rock music saying it has more in common with pop than its rock roots.

The 37-year-old band lynchpin made the comments in an exclusive interview with Noisey, who revealed today that Linkin Park’s new album is called ‘The Hunting Party’ and it will land on 17th June.

Asked about his thoughts on the state of rock music, Shinoda said: “There’s so much music out there; there’s so much stuff that sounds like Haim or CHVRCHES or Vampire Weekend that I’m full.

“The thing I’m hungry for is not that. I turn on the rock station in L.A. and it sounds like Disney commercial music. And I’m confused by that. The dude from Foster the People was literally a jingle writer. No disrespect, but for me to make that stuff was kind of out of the question.”

He added: “If you’d asked me this five years ago, I was obsessed with indie rock. A lot of the artists were coming from a place that was, ‘this is my scene, and this is my s***, and that’s why I’m making it.’ But now it’s become pop. It’s not indie, it’s major label.”

Referring to the ‘indie’ label, a riled Shinoda continued: “It’s stupid. It’s so f***in’ dumb. It’s the same thing when “alternative” happened. An alternative to what, y’know? It became pop. The alternative to alternative was, like, nu-metal. Which, again, became dumb.

“All these scenes… I don’t know, man. There just becomes a point where people are playing monkey-see, monkey-do, and it just cheapens the whole scene.”

Linkin Park headline Download Festival on Saturday 14th June playing their seminal debut album ‘Hybrid Theory’ in its entirety. Tickets are on sale from kerrangradio.co.uk/tickets right now.

‘The Hunting Party’ artwork

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