Linkin Park’s From Zero Debuts at No. 1 in 10 Countries, No. 2 in the U.S.
Linkin Park’s new album From Zero has been a huge event in metal, even with all the controversy surrounding new vocalist and longtime Cult of Scientology member Emily Armstrong. Even with Armstrong’s controversial relationship to her inner thetan, the album is becoming one of the highest charting rock albums of 2024, as Loudwire reports that it debuted ate No. 1 on charts in 10 different countries. Strangely enough, though, Linkin Park’s home country wasn’t one of them.
The album debuted at No. 1 on the charts in U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Australia, and New Zealand. Meanwhile, in the United States the album debuted at No. 2, losing out to K-pop band Ateez whose new EP Golden Hour: Part.2 debuted at No. 1 after being released on the same day as From Zero. Apparently Americans love South Korean boy bands more than they love nu-metal reunions.
Still, by reaching No. 2 in the U.S., they still made for the highest charting rock album of 2024, so that’s still a pretty good achievement. Meanwhile, the individual singles have been fairing pretty well on the charts lately, with the lead single off From Zero, making it to No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and spending 11 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Rock & Alternative Airplay Chart.
Charts might not mean much to metalheads, but it’s significant considering that rock music’s popularity has been on the decline in the 21st century. Ranon Larpcharern, writing for Medium in 2021, charted the popularity of rock music from 1922 to 2021 and found that rock peaked as the most popular genre in the 1970s through the 1990s, but found that the genre’s popularity underwent a steep decline after the 90s. According to Larpcharern’s data, less than 5% of mainstream music in 2020 and 2021 classified as some form of rock music. So, while charts may seem silly, rock fans should take their wins where they can get them.
