The show biz adage that death sells is proving true in the wake of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington‘s suicide last Thursday (July 20).
Four of Linkin Park’s albums have returned to the Billboard 200 chart, with the group’s latest album, One More Light, hitting No. 17 after debuting at No. 1 in June, while LP’s 2001 debut Hybrid Theory reappears at No. 27, followed by 2003’s Meteora at No. 41 and 2007’s Minutes To Midnight at No. 115. On the Top Rock Albums charts, the albums re-entered at Nos. 3, 5, 6 and 27, respectively.
Meanwhile, streams of the group’s music have increased 730 percent since last-Thursday, with 12.6 million streams on July 20 compared to 1.5 million the day before according to Nielsen Music; “In The End” was the most-streamed of Linkin Park’s songs, heard 923,000 times on the day of Bennington’s death, followed by “Numb” (740,000), “Heavy” (684,000), “One Step Closer” (480,000) and “Crawling” (439,000).
LP’s music sales were up more than 5,000 percent according to Nielsen Music, with One More Light leading the way for albums and “In The End” the top-selling song.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.