2014Released
3:15

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Wastelands. By Songfacts®.

This blunt rocker finds Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington spitting lyrics about their discontent with the current music industry. Too many artists are choosing to follow the latest trends and playing safe, they declare, and the battlefield has become a wasteland. Mike Shinoda explained to Rolling Stone how he drew songwriting inspiration from an article about Japanese culture when he was working on The Hunting Party. "[The article] was talking about how people [in Japan] were concerned that the new generation of kids were becoming 'herbivores' – they were passive and they weren't going out and getting a job or getting a girlfriend," he said. "They were sitting and playing video games and waiting for stuff to come to them." Shinoda continued: "They were worried what was going to happen to their culture if there weren't any more 'carnivores.' I thought, 'What's going on in Rock music is really the same thing.' I connected with that on a deep emotional level because I was looking for something that was visceral and aggressive, and I wanted to hear this certain kind of music, and I couldn't find it."

Rather than reunite with Rick Rubin, who produced their three previous albums, Linkin Park decided to produce The Hunting Party themselves. On this track, however, they brought in Rob Cavallo as a co-producer, who's known for his work with Green Day, My Chemical Romance, and Goo Goo Dolls, among others.

Mike Shinoda wrote the first verse before he wrote any of the music.

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Wastelands.
DKey
MinorMode
4/4Time Signature
170BPM

Album

The album Wastelands is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Wastelands.
Warner Records
© 2014 Warner Records Inc.
℗ 2014 Warner Records Inc.

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