In spite of the limited finances, the band started recording several songs in Shinoda's bedroom, their first studio.
It took the group a while to find a new vocalist.Īfter multiple refusals of labels to cooperate, the original singer Mark Wakefield made up his mind to seek his fortune in another band. His unique voice made a deep impression on the other members. As he had agreed to join the band, it was called Hybrid Theory. The young men went into troubles with the other band under the same name charging them with a copyright infringement. Thus, they called themselves Linkin Park. In 1999, Linkin Park managed to get a contract with Warner Bros.
In a year, they released their debut album Hybrid Theory, featuring the material accumulated for many years. This album was a good seller with 4 million and 800,000 copies sold for the first year and earned then Grammy as the best rock album of the year.