"Session" - Song by Song, Let's Talk Linkin Park

Definitely one of the band’s more “under the radar” nu-metal bangers. The imagery in Mike’s verses combined with the low-key whispery delivery and the instrumental is my favorite part but the way Chester comes into that refrain with aggressive vocals is just mesmerizing and creates a really cool contrast.

 

With You gotta be one of my favorite Linkin Park songs. Those synths and the 7th string guitar just hit different

 

Points of Authority​

“Points of Authority” is the fourth track from Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory. Though never released as an official single, it is often regarded as a strong fan favorite and remains one of the clearest early examples of the band’s mix of live instrumentation, programmed elements, and sample-based production.

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RECORDING HISTORY
“Points of Authority” had its origins in an early programmed demo arranged by Mike, entitled “Oh No.” The demo, assembled using assorted percussion and pitched samples, is largely a skeleton of drum patterns, with some programmed melodic figures. However, the demo still has some semblance to the final Hybrid Theory track in its drum patterns, which went on to be the basis of the sampled percussion in “Points of Authority.” Several of the samples and patterns from “Oh No” were used in the verses and chorus of the final studio track.

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“Points of Authority,” unlike some other songs on Hybrid Theory such as “Papercut” or “With You,” took a while to land at its final form, even though it reached a fleshed-out composition comparatively early on. The song remained in development for an extended period, with the chorus being one of the biggest sticking points for the band from their late Hybrid Theory period into the NRG Studios sessions in 2000. Because of this, the song appears on nearly all known internal demos by the band, with the earliest dating back to February 2000. The song went through many variations, evidenced by the plethora of unique versions leading up to the final studio recording.

Mike shared some of his thoughts on the writing process for “Points of Authority” in an interview with the early fansite Linkin Park Web in 2001:

The most striking changes in these demos are in Mike’s rap verse and the development of the song’s chorus, reflecting its troubled development in that area. Early versions of the song, such as the recording from the six-track internal Warner demo CD from spring 2000, feature markedly different lyrics in Mike’s rap verse, with a common variant starting with the lines “Forfeit the game / Stop the talk show.”

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In even earlier demos, such as recordings dated to February 2000, the rapped section also serves as the song’s chorus, before Chester’s chorus part was finalized. As such, since Mike’s rap served as a chorus, another verse was used as a bridge, with Mike rapping “It’s time to sink or swim / To see who gets scared when the lights go dim,” alongside background screams from Chester. Reportedly, the final chorus was inspired by an earlier demo version, making the band’s process of narrowing down the structure something like a jigsaw puzzle, assembled from different parts written across multiple demos.

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When sharing one of the “Points of Authority” demos with Mike’s rap verse used as a chorus for the Linkin Park Underground 12 CD, Brad Delson also commented on that shift in the liner notes:

In terms of timeline, at some point between Chester joining the band and the recording of the demos that were compiled in February 2000, “Points of Authority” began to take the familiar form seen on the album, even if the lyrics were not realized fully. One of the song’s key features, its very staccato and digitally chopped guitar riff, began as an organic riff composed by Brad Delson. Mike, finding potential in the tone and structure, took Delson’s riff and resampled the power chords into the pattern found on the album version. The chopped riff proved so central to the song’s identity that, when the band brought “Points of Authority” back to setlists in 2012, the live production began using a timed gate for Brad's guitar to mimic the studio version’s hard digital cuts more closely.

Mike later summarized the idea succinctly during the Hybrid Theory 20th-anniversary rollout:

In a much earlier printed interview with Rolling Stone, during the Hybrid Theory era, Rob also described the process of the guitar riff coming together:

COMPOSITION AND PRODUCTION
The studio recording of “Points of Authority” is heavily built around sampled and processed instrumentation, with most of the song’s core elements deriving from samples or re-sampled live performances. At its foundational layer, “Points of Authority” is melodically and rhythmically anchored by a syncopated synth figure, arpeggiating an E-flat minor chord with a phaser effect. The remaining elements, many looped, build over this in the intro, including two stacked loops of Mike beatboxing—a touch he has mentioned was inspired by beatboxing in ’90s hip-hop, particularly The Roots.

The song’s signature processed guitar line enters as Mike begins a rapped intro verse. The guitar begins with heavy filtering alongside the beatboxing and a loop of vinyl crackle (originally found in “Oh No”), providing a lo-fi atmosphere for Mike’s delivery, before a short pause to emphasize the following full-band intro. As the guitar shifts to its full-bodied tone, live bass and drums enter. Joe Hahn performs a short scratch break, using a scratch sample with a sharp, synthetic character—this sample was also favored by several other turntablists in the nu metal scene at the time, such as Sid Wilson of Slipknot.

Brad also reflected on that process in Kerrang!’s Hybrid Theory 20th-anniversary track-by-track feature:

To further the ethos of “deconstructing” music, the guitar power chord riff is also complemented by programmed drum loops, most prominent with an additional high-pitched snare sample backing the live snare throughout all of “Points of Authority.” Additional sampled cymbals and percussion add further triplet movement to the groove, and—as revealed in a comment from Mike during a backstage interview at Sonic Temple 2025—there is also a sample of a sugar packet used like a shaker, most audible when the instrumentation drops out at the beginning of the second verse.

Throughout the verses and chorus, Joe uses a more heavily distorted variation of his scratch sample to accent the beginnings of measures. The sequenced guitar drives the verses as Chester sings in a low, breathier tone, until the song opens into the chorus, bringing back the opening synth to add rhythmic contrast as both the vocals and guitar take on a more sustained, legato style. The guitar here is not processed like in the verses, comprising of two held power chords, complementing Chester's overlapping vocals.

The song’s bridge reprises Mike’s intro verse before leading into a final chorus, which gives way to an extended programmed and sample-heavy breakdown, bringing the beatboxing vocals to the forefront alongside the guitar in a synchronized finale. Joe additionally adds backup to the programmed guitars with rhythmic turntable cuts, using a looped guitar chord sample. The sample strongly recalls some hard guitar-stab loops heard in older hip-hop productions, including tracks like LL Cool J’s “Rock the Bells” and Beastie Boys’ “Slow and Low.”

Lyrically, “Points of Authority” paints a picture of relational power struggle, centering on manipulation, humiliation, and learned cycles of control. While Mike’s verses read as a warning or indictment, Chester’s parts reflect on the emotional fallout of that relationship dynamic before loudly declaring “You live what you’ve learned” as the song’s central mantra.

RECORDING
“Points of Authority” was recorded at NRG Recording Studios in North Hollywood during the Hybrid Theory sessions beginning in May 2000. Chester recalled in interviews that when the group first played material for Don Gilmore upon entering the studio, “Points of Authority” and “With You” were the only songs he responded to positively—an early sign that the song’s core musical ideas were already strong, even if the lyrics and structure still needed work.

While several session bassists were used across the album, “Points of Authority” features Brad Delson recording bass. By contrast with the guitar, which was digitally chopped and rearranged, the bass tracking was comparatively straightforward, with even the muted strums left in on the final track. This contrast highlights how heavily the guitar was edited, stripping away incidental texture while allowing the bass to retain more of the harmonic and percussive feel of the original performance.

As with most songs appearing on Hybrid Theory, the guitars recorded for “Points of Authority” are PRS Custom 24 guitars, tuned to Drop D-flat tuning.

RELEASE HISTORY
Linkin Park spotlighted “Points of Authority” early in Hybrid Theory’s promotion, no doubt due in part to Don Gilmore’s strong reaction to the initial track. Working with the music marketing company StreetWise, the band distributed cassette samplers pairing “With You” and “Points of Authority” in summer 2000. As part of their Internet marketing strategy, Linkin Park also made the MP3 file available as part of their early free-download offerings online.

“Points of Authority” was then used as a radio promotional single for Hybrid Theory in January 2001, ahead of the single release of “Crawling” in the spring. The band continually pushed for the song to be released as a full single, though according to both them and Jeff Blue, there was disagreement with Warner Bros. Records. Blue encouraged the band to follow the label’s advice for singles, so as to rely on their experience with radio. The band relented for “Crawling” to be the album’s second single, and purportedly “Points of Authority” was slated to be released as the next official single.

Ultimately, however, “Papercut” was chosen as an international single next, and after that the label put its weight behind “In the End” for its crossover appeal. “Points of Authority” was still planned for an official single release, but was then pushed to January 2002 as the album’s fifth and final single.

This never materialized, and Hybrid Theory’s final single was “In the End.” “Points of Authority” was, however, used to promote the band’s tour documentary Frat Party at the Pankake Festival, released in November 2001. A music video was created for the song and released on the DVD, featuring live footage of the band performing “Points of Authority” across their Hybrid Theory touring cycle. Frat Party also included a hidden alternate video consisting entirely of the band’s February 3, 2001 performance at the Dragon Festival in San Bernardino, California, overdubbing the studio recording and adding additional live elements from the band's performance.

The alternate “Points of Authority” video from Frat Party at the Pankake Festival, featuring the band’s Dragon Festival performance on February 3, 2001.​

Despite never being released as a Hybrid Theory single, “Points of Authority” received some redemption as the central promotional focus of the band’s 2002 remix effort with Reanimation. The remix of “Points of Authority,” entitled “Pts.OF.Athrty” and reimagined by Jay Gordon—lead vocalist of industrial rock band Orgy—was released as the lead single to Reanimation in 2002. The remix by Jay Gordon was the catalyst for the band’s Reanimation project, with inspiration for the album coming from Gordon suggesting he do a remix of “Points of Authority” while both Orgy and Linkin Park were recording albums at NRG in the spring of 2000.

Though ironically the only band member not there for the recording process, Phoenix has shared how the original inspiration for the “Points of Authority” remix and Reanimation album came about:

“Pts.OF.Athrty” also received a music video to accompany its single release, directed by Joe Hahn, featuring then-state-of-the-art CGI graphics and sci-fi imagery to complement the new tone. The track was sequenced as the first full song on Reanimation, following the introductory piece “Opening.” Gordon’s remix retains the same structure as the original song, but largely moves toward an industrial tone, most notably replacing the signature guitar riff with a heavily distorted synth line. He was assisted in additional programming by John Magness, drummer of industrial/nu metal outfit Sins of a Divine Mother, as well as mixer and producer Doug Tantrow. Brad Delson is also specifically credited with contributing additional production to the remix.

The official video for “Pts.OF.Athrty,” directed by Joe Hahn.​

A second Reanimation remix for the song by electronic duo the Crystal Method was created but not released on the album. This remix was also to feature guest vocals from Ryu of Styles of Beyond, according to the rapper. The final version of the remix was released shortly after Reanimation through the Linkin Park Underground fanclub, as part of the LP Underground 2.0 EP, though Ryu’s feature ultimately never made the final version.

While Jay Gordon’s remix largely rebuilds the song around industrial synth textures, the Crystal Method remix leans more into the duo’s big beat style, layering sampled fragments of the original track with heavy breakbeat programming and fast-moving modulated synth lines. Mike’s beatboxing and Joe Hahn’s turntable breaks also sit much further forward in the mix, adding extra momentum alongside the electronic percussion. The Crystal Method remix of “Points of Authority” is notable as one of the few officially released Reanimation-era outtakes, alongside Marilyn Manson’s “Buy Myself,” which appeared on the “Pts.OF.Athrty” single and later bonus editions of Reanimation.

The Crystal Method remix of “Points of Authority,” later released on LP Underground 2.0.​

A third Reanimation remix also reportedly existed, potentially by DJ Z-Trip. The Phoenix producer and DJ was publicly announced as one of the project’s outside contributors, and Mike Shinoda even said late in the process that Z-Trip was one of the collaborators who should make the final album. When Reanimation released, however, nothing from Z-Trip appeared on the final tracklist. While there has never been any official confirmation, longtime fan consensus has generally held that his unreleased contribution was a remix of “Points of Authority.”

Two years later, in 2004, “Points of Authority” was remixed again, included as part of the Collision Course mashup project with Jay-Z. The track was used with fellow Hybrid Theory track “One Step Closer” and Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” in a three-song mashup. The first half of the mashup focuses on “Points of Authority,” using its verse and chorus instrumental as the bed for Jay-Z’s “99 Problems,” while Mike also takes several of the second verse’s spoken police-dialogue lines. After two verses and choruses of “99 Problems” over “Points of Authority,” the song pivots into “One Step Closer” for the remainder of the mashup.

“Points of Authority / 99 Problems / One Step Closer” from Collision Course.​

LIVE PERFORMANCE
In terms of the band’s live history, “Points of Authority” was a consistent presence from early in the band’s pre-album touring, beginning at least in the summer of 2000. Often occupying a mid-set position, the song served as one of the clearest live touchpoints for Linkin Park’s fusion of rap, metal, and programmed texture, introducing more and more of the band’s growing audience to that side of their sound as their live following expanded.

While “Points of Authority” was performed at nearly every show throughout 2000, it was on the band’s first headlining tour, the Street Soldiers tour in early 2001, that the song began to take on live variations that prefigured its later developments, emphasizing hip-hop influence. For the Street Soldiers Tour, with hip-hop group Styles of Beyond opening for the band, the group’s rappers Ryu and Tak regularly came out during Linkin Park’s set to back Mike’s parts on “Points of Authority.”

A performance of “Points of Authority” from San Diego in 2001 on the Street Soldiers Tour, featuring guests Ryu and Tak from Styles of Beyond.​

During the later touring legs of the Meteora era, the band introduced a new intro using the Jay Gordon Reanimation remix, marking the song’s first major live variation. This debuted at the band’s June 2004 performance at Download Scotland in Glasgow, the opening date of the Meteora International Tour. A section of the “Pts.OF.Athrty” intro was used as playback to lead into the regular album arrangement, while Mike’s intro verse was omitted and Brad played the opening riff into the full-band entry. This version remained in place for the rest of the cycle, including Projekt Revolution 2004. When “Points of Authority” next appeared at the band’s 2006 Summer Sonic dates in Japan, it was played in its studio form without the remix intro.

“Points of Authority” live at Rock am Ring 2004 in Nürburgring, featuring the Reanimation intro.​

With the release of Minutes to Midnight and subsequent touring, “Points of Authority” saw further evolution with the addition of extended drum intros and full band outros. Further emphasizing the song’s hip-hop elements, Mike regularly used these extended bookend sections to add additional rap verses from Fort Minor tracks and eventually older Linkin Park material. Examples of these extended rap sections included verses such as “Petrified” or “Bloc Party” by Fort Minor, the X-Ecutioners collaboration “It’s Goin’ Down,” and Linkin Park songs such as “High Voltage” or “Dedicated.” Altogether, this made the Minutes to Midnight era the song’s most fluid live period, with a stable central arrangement but constantly changing intro and outro frameworks.

The live performance of “Points of Authority” at the Milton Keynes Bowl in 2008, filmed for Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes. Fort Minor tracks “Petrified” and “There They Go” feature as extended intro and outro.​

After being dropped for the entirety of the live cycle for A Thousand Suns, “Points of Authority” returned during LIVING THINGS touring support in 2012, reverting to its studio form with minor sonic enhancements. This also marked the first time the band began emulating the clean digital cuts of the studio version, with the production crew adding a gate track to cut the guitar signal to precise timing. With the start of the Honda Civic Tour, the band began playing it paired with their mashup of LIVING THINGS track “VICTIMIZED” and fan favorite “QWERTY” from the Linkin Park Underground. The band consistently transitioned into “Points of Authority” from the end of the “QWERTY” section in live performances, and used one continuous backing track for the full performance. This format was kept for the entirety of the LIVING THINGS cycle, into 2013.

“Points of Authority” performed live in São Paulo in 2012, following the progression of “VICTIMIZED” into the “QWERTY” breakdown.​

In 2014, during the touring cycle for The Hunting Party, “Points of Authority” began rotating between a full performance, a shortened version, or dropping out of the set entirely, like several other Hybrid Theory tracks such as “With You.” When included in the setlist, “Points of Authority” appeared in two variations: a full performance early in the first act, or as a mashup intro to “Until It’s Gone.” In the case of the latter, Mike rapped his verse from “Points of Authority” twice over the sampled drum loop from “Until It’s Gone” to lead directly into the latter.

A full performance of “Points of Authority” in Monterrey while the band supported The Hunting Party in 2014.​

On the One More Light tour in 2017, “Points of Authority” functioned as one of several rotating pre-Minutes to Midnight throwback moments in the set, rotating with songs such as “From the Inside” or “Somewhere I Belong.” It was last performed with Chester Bennington on July 4, 2017, at the band’s “One More Night in London” event at the O2 Arena Brixton. It was not among the songs chosen to be played at the band’s Hollywood Bowl performance in honor of Chester that October.

Fan footage of the final performance of “Points of Authority” with Chester Bennington on vocals.​

However, with the band’s return in 2024, “Points of Authority” returned to its status as a live staple, making its debut with the new lineup at the band’s first full-length arena show in eight years, in Inglewood, California. In the new arrangement, Mike took on Chester’s lower-register verse parts, while Emily Armstrong sang the choruses. As more songs from the band’s new album made their way into the set, “Points of Authority” began rotating with songs such as “Lying from You” and “Cut the Bridge” in the early setlist, continuing this format throughout 2025 and 2026.

“Points of Authority” performed live at the Corona Capital festival in Mexico City in November 2025, featuring the current lineup of the band.​

Brad Delson sums up the central idea behind “Points of Authority” and Mike’s key role in creating it in a quote from Hybrid Theory's 20th anniversary:

 

25+ years in and POA is still so damn hype. The chopped-up riff, the scratching, the sampled percussion, the beat-boxing, Mike's verse, Chester diction and rhythmic delivery in the verse, and how, coupled with the higher doubled vocals, it builds tension and leads to the chorus .... What's not to love?

It's also interesting it took them long to land of that chorus. Definitely worth the wait, iconic one. The sheer power of Chester vocals, especially on "You wanna share what you have been through", is insane.

For real, one of those 11/10 moments on HT. Genius stuff.

And awesome write-up as always Chris!

 

I didn't think it was necessary to include but if you're gonna twist my arm about it...

 

Definitely one of their most simply badass songs with that riff and rap verse. And very fun to sing like any early LP

 

Seemingly molten hot take here, but I don't get the hype behind POA. Love the ambience and the guitar riff but once the first chorus ends you've heard everything the song has to offer. There's no big payoff. It never ratchets things up to 11 or even 10 honestly.

Semi-unrelated, but after With You and now POA, I'm realizing that's a big reason why I prefer Meteora to Hybrid Theory. Every song on that album has a payoff. The band really mastered the bridge and emotional build up from that point onward.

 

^ I get what you mean, although here I think the intro coming back as the bridge works like a charm. At that point we only heard Mike's verse once, so having it reappear, this time backed up by the full instrumental, feels impactful in my opinion.

If anything, it glues the whole song together. Otherwise it may have been a bit disjointed.

 

Yeah, I wouldn't call PoA an amazing song, but I'd definitely call it a great one and an absolute banger

 

Any examples of that from Meteora?

 

Can't speak for Atticus, but out of the top of my head, the bridges of

• Don't Stay
• Somewhere I belong
• Lying From you
• Easier to Run (or pre-chorus if you want to call it that ^^')
• Faint
• Figure.09
• Breaking the Habit
• From the Inside
• Numb

all contain big, dramatic emotional jumps, with often astonishing Chester vocals.

That said, I think HT also had its fair share of pay-offs. But maybe slightly less than Meteora, and sometimes just less dramatic, or with less variation. With You bridge is probably less "intense" than most of the ones on Meteora, POA is the intro beefed-up, Crawling doesn't really have one, By Myself is the pre-chorus beefed-up with Mike verses. In that regard, I see the point of Atticus that Meteora can be seen as fine-tuning the cinematic pay-off dimension.

 

Most of the bridges on these songs are followed by a third chorus that has the same intensity as the first two choruses... Exception being Faint, Breaking The Habit and Numb, but any song from HT does that better.

 

^
Yeah, also valid point. That comes back a bit to the discussion that HT is more subtle/intricate, even though, to be honest, both records rely heavily on copy/paste with rare exceptions.

If we talk about progressive structure, LP really came out of their shell from MTM onwards. But if we limit the discussion to "bridge = song pay-off", I guess Meteora had some decent evolution

 

I would call the outro for POA a payoff moment personally. It's all the programming elements coming together at once. Plus extra beefed up by Joe running a guitar sample. It's the most distilled spirit of the song.

I don't really measure a song purely by "payoff" anyway though. I actually feel like Meteora gets stale (comparatively) because every song goes for the big, dramatic, uber-produced finales. It's why Hybrid Theory sticks with me more. Meteora feels formulaic to a fault at times.

I think it also speaks to why I think Meteora is way more rock/metal oriented. I think things like the outro of POA compared to the final chorus of Numb show a difference of philosophy when structuring the songs. HT feels way more hip-hop to me.

 

Unlike many other songs on this album, this song actually has a really soaring melodic chorus that feels emotional and just hits right. On top of that, the main riff is one of the best in LP's whole catalog. This is one of the few songs on the album along with Papercut that stacks up to their later material for me.

Regarding the HT vs Meteora discussion, I think the intro and outro of this song are a prime example of what the album does right. Really none of their other albums have nailed the hip-hop flair like this aside from Reanimation. Mike's flow is excellent; sits in the nice spot where it's not too over-the-top and corny (cough cough Limp Bizkit rapping) but also still sounds cool.

I have a slight preference for Meteora over HT, because pretty much every song on Meteora has a soaring chorus with the perfect amount of melodic movement (Somewhere I Belong being a notable exception). AKA each chorus is emotionally satisfying. Even Nobody's Listening has that despite not really being that kind of song. Hit the Floor's chorus is more monotone but the harmonies fill the space well enough. Hybrid Theory on the other hand has numerous songs with pretty monotone vocal melodies that just do not soar, namely In the End, A Place For My Head and Pushing Me Away. Points of Authority doesn't have that problem. It does everything right, and I believe its lack of a "unique" bridge section is a positive in context with the album, just as a variation from the formula. On top of this, most of Meteora has pretty god-awful rapping from Mike, a major step down from his rapping on HT. I'd say PoA outranks everything on Meteora aside from Breaking the Habit

 

I like Hybrid Theory bro

 

I think POA itself is a good song, but honestly as a mash up with 99 Problems i think it hits so much harder. Also love Mike's cop voice

The Reanimation remix is also pretty strong, seems like the song itself just had a lot of potential in many different directions and the band proofed that they can work with it.
Live it is propably a song i wouldnt complain having in the setlist but i wouldnt miss it either.

 

Looks like I ruffled some feathers in here. I'm not saying I only listen to a song for the "payoff" but it certainly helps. And I didn't say Hybrid Theory doesn't have any payoffs. Papercut and A Place for My Head are masterclass. In the End does it well too. I think Crawling is a good example of a song that doesn't need that payoff because the volume dynamics are that wild and the vocal performance was, well, Grammy-worthy.

Yes and I anticipate a good bridge every single time. The bridge/breakdown is usually a song's peak moment. Not every song can be Waiting for the End or Good Things Go and just keep building and building.