Well, I apreciate your opinions and respect them, and I really hate to disagree with you, but I think you're wrong you maybe didn't listen to some good LP tracks.
Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions, but Linkin Park is one of the worst bands of the last 30 years. Maudlin and cliche, every single Linkin Park song is based on the same formula and thus each of the songs sounds the same.
Have you ever seen sheet music of LP? I agree, the songs are based on a formula, like 99% of all songs and compositions are. Really! Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Debussy etc, just to call some componists of older epoches had a formula, but I like them. Bach's type of compositions had so clear rules that you usually recognize them in a couple of seconds. Yo ueither way hate him, or love him, just because his style is unmistakable. I, from my side, like Bach pretty much, also due to the fact that I play acoustic guitar for a very long time (since I'm 8) and played (and also arranged) pieces from Bach. But back to LP:
There really are very few bands/ componists that don't have a clear line. Even Queen (which I like really much, maybe even more than LP) and Frank Zappa (who is also very nice) have certain lines they follow in their songs, even if they aren't that visible on the first look. It's clear that Linkin's style is more straightforward, but still ,I don't really think this is a valiable argument, especially when you look at the whole palette of songs they produced. If you say that "
Not Alone" or "Leave out all the rest" sound same like to "faint" or "papercut", then no one might help you, sorry.
The two singers say that the band gets the "pissed off" sound because they were ignored in high school. You're kidding, right? I stopped caring about high school when I graduated high school and went onto the next thing. I really don't see much difference in Linkin Park and "boy bands" like the Backstreet Boys, except for that they perceive themselves as being "hardcore."
In all of their efforts to be "unique" and "not mainstream," Linkin Park has succumbed to the generic angst-y sounds that plague this generation of listeners.
lol, I'm not sure what you wanted to say with that high school stuff, but they are, as pointed out before, obviously not the same as "Backstreet boys like" bands. Just look at the constellation of bandmembers:
* Chester Bennington – vocals
* Rob Bourdon – drums, percussion
* Brad Delson – lead guitar
* David "Phoenix" Farrell – bass
* Joseph "Mr." Hahn – turntables, programming, samples
* Mike Shinoda – vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboard
Now, what's the difference between LP and another "usual" rock band? Well, they have a DJ and a rapper, isn't that enough? I don't know any other band that does such style mixing like LP. From Pop to Heavy metal to Hip-Hop and Rap, there's nearly each popular music style of the 21st century represented here. And the second step, mixing those steps makes them so special.
Just to say, I know pretty much about music and such stuff, I'm probably going to study music and either become a) musician b) componist) c) music teacher. I'm just not sure yet, I like doin' all of these things. And when regarding those sheet music, you really can see the brilliant things that seem so simple, but they are not. Composing that sort of music is really hard, much harder than like Jazz or most Rock (I won't even compair it to Pop and R&B.. pff...). It seems to be simple, yes, that's what I thought. But writing songs in their style is nearly impossible. It's pretty easy to write songs in the "Justin Bieber style", you just take 4 chords, an easy beat and a nice text, then take someone who can sing pretty well and looks good and there you go. You can't do that process with LP.
And I don't really think their music bcame too "hard". Compaired to (most) other metal bands like slayer, you can call their music soft.
I'm sorry if I have offended anyone, but as my main hobby (and future profession) is music, I can't agree with you. You can use such clichés on every, and when I say every, I mean every type of music. Give me any song and I can tell you lots of clichés why this song is garbage (I did that before, as might see)

. Music is also about compromises.