Did Linkin Park mean anything special to anyone else?

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I've been recently thinking to visit here again...this place helped me a lot around 15-17 & I wish I could help somehow...anyway a few days ago, Linkin Park's lead vocalist, Chester Bennington, took his own life, and...I've been wondering just how and why that has seemed to strike me so hard. I believe this hits me harder than the cherished few real-life family deaths that I've had. Why is that?

I realized that, due to the way this let me cope with AS & ADHD, this is a bit like Batman dying (thanks, post on LP's sub-Reddit).

This guy spent his whole life being one of the few mainstream artists letting people know they weren't alone in feeling rejection, guilt, loneliness, anxiety, guilt, paranoia, depression, and suffering abuse. He was such a gentle & sweet personality (and a huge nerd, like so many of us ) and was an incredible philanthropist. A lot of their later stuff was about redemption and coming to terms, and as much as I grew past "nu metal", that still resonates with me.

(They were also influential into leading me to Deftones, which in turn lead me to...all the punk, indie, metal, and jazz that I got into)

Took it hard also, especially the method he chose, as that is how my dad ended his life too.
Yes, I agree with what you say about him giving back so much and being a genuinely lovely guy.
Also a huge influence and support for emerging bands.
He'll be sadly missed.

It hurt for sure, people made fun of them a bit but I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a fan of their music. My cousin was a few years older than me and I remember him showing me to bands he liked, it's so hard to believe that almost a whole generation separates us from the early 2000s. I remember liking in Limp Bizkit, Marilyn Manson, Kid Rock, Eminem, Creed(lol), POD(lol), and of course Linkin Park. That was probably the most contemporary my music taste ever was haha, it's crazy how time passes by. I think Linkin Park definitely held up better than most from the era, it's still music that I'll listen to and now it will be with extra layer of sadness. RIP Chester!

They were always just another band to me, so I was surprised how hard his death hit me, guess they meant more to me than I realized.

Nope, they were one of the bands I had friends who listened to but never could get into.

I was in high school in the early 2000's. At that time they were a very influential band. As the years went on I did not listen to them as much though.

Linkin Park is special to me because I first heard their music in 2007 in the credits for Transformers. What I've Done is my favorite song by them.

Linkin Park has been my favorite band since I was a kid, their music got me through a lot of hard times. I always wanted to see them live, when I heard they were touring the UK I rushed to get tickets but their were only the worst seats left at the back. I always wanted my first gig to be standing tickets and for me to be at the front of the barrier, so I decided to wait hoping they would come back soon.

Chester's death did hit me hard, even his side project Dead By Sunrise were great songs which not many people seem to know he did a side project with a full album in 2009

I've been considering getting a tattoo on my back, something like this but without the swirly bit at the bottom and the top, with some lyrics their instead going around the bottom.

I didn't know much about the band, only heard the name, but a Toastmaster from another club came to do a speech for an Evaluation contest. He spoke of the lead singer of Linkin Park and the horrible things he went through in his life. I had no idea of Chester's struggles until that day. The speech affected me a lot, even though I never heard any of the music.

Linkin Park Will Hold a Public Memorial in Los Angeles to Honor Chester Bennington

Hybrid theory got big in my early 20's.

It's tough to talk about music at this levels because if you're not talking gear, chords, scales, or something tangible you're trying to convey something that's only in your head.

I remember Flying Lotus saying he didn't get Burial's stuff until he went to the UK and there was something about the cold and wet that made it all click. I think Linkin cornered the flavor of a particular something in that era, a particular five year generational window, where they way they expressed themselves was perfectly on point. it's like when you hear someone make a tune that you always wanted to make but they killed it way better. I think that's the feeling a lot of people had, and I remember working at a local chain restaurant while I was at a local community college. The servers , line cooks, pretty much everyone was huge on Hybrid theory. Seems like everyone shared that.

As for his suicide - TBH, I might just be morbid, I didn't read about the how or why so I'd probably be reading causality in, but suffice to say when people are able to have a peak experience like an exquisitely high moment of fame and musical achievement and then it drops off into mid-age and obscurity; that can do people in. It's like you're at the pinnacle of human achievement, and then - just like that - you're anyone else. Life's hard on all of us, that kind of hard stop though is tough to imagine and it's hard to say how much it unbalances people. It's part of why I really hope the guys in Muse keep working on things, for what they were able to put together they could be be in trouble if they stop.

As for the suicide hitting me - I barely heard about it. I think I was more stunned by Prodigy of Mobb Deep passing in late June. Mobb was my favorite hip hop group (caught the hip hop bug late - my mid 20's, after I caught the techno and drum & bass bug; Mobb's albums did a lot for me at that time).