It's always a hard sell to try and articulate how big a moment in pop culture history truly was. You may think that the Nu-Metal & Rap-Rock craze of the very early 2000s was simply a fun, but disposable, moment in time. First of all, you're wrong and stop gatekeeping people's fleeting happiness. But more importantly, even if you did think that, there's one band that hit so hard and captured such a wide breath of the general population that folks in their 30s and early 40s still fly their flag loud & proud to this day. That band is Linkin Park.
When their debut album, Hybrid Theory, hit in late 2000, it not only struck a big chord with its mix of electronic infused hard rock, tied together with Chester Bennington's powerful, raspy vocals, but sold so well it spawned a remix album, 2002's Reanimation, that remains the fourth best-selling remix album of all time.
That is where we find the music video for 'Pts.Of.Athrty': a remix of 'Points Of Authority' by Jay Gordon of the band Orgy. A nervy, anxiously tight version of the original that comes off like it could soundtrack the last moments of an apocalypse.
...about that.
The music video, directed by band member Joseph Hahn, is a fully-CGI affair depicting a frozen post-apocalyptic wasteland. Two warring factions are making a final stand. On one side, alien beasts that wouldn't look out of place in StarCraft. On the other side, robots controlled by the decapitated heads of Linkin Park, complete with exposed brains and Matrix-like attached wires.
Even today, the video is quite a showpiece. It definitely gives off the vibe of those old 90s Mind's Eye VHS compilations produced to showcase fully CGI vignettes scored by rock bands. The twist here are the influences. There's no getting around (nor is Hahn hiding) the fact that this whole battle is particularly evocative of where CGI was at in 2002. We're talking battle scenes shot and directed with wide pan outs and close cut ins like the cutscenes in PC games of the time, glowing blue amorphous tentacles calling back to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, dark & shiny metallic skins on aliens that would fit right in with the Protoss.
The video even aired during commercial breaks on Toonami. To say this visual style was a small part of a larger time & place would be selling it too short.
It's fascinating to watch this video with fresh eyes in 2025 and see something that can make me feel like I'm back in a specific year again. Because I want to make it clear. I'm not talking about "oh this feels like the 90s" or "this really captured the mid 2000s." I'm saying that this captures specifically the year 2002.
But that was Linkin Park at the absolute top of their game. Whether you were there to experience it or not, you'll always have 'Pts.Of.Athrty' to give you a small glimpse into the mind's eye of 2002.
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