What I've Done

Infobox Single
Name = What I've Done


Artist = Linkin Park
from Album = Minutes to Midnight
Released = "Digital" flagicon|USA April 2, 2007 flagicon|UK flagicon|Australia April 3, 2007 "CD Single" flagicon|USA April 30, 2007 flagicon|Australia May 5, 2007 flagicon|UK May 7 2007
Format = CD single
Recorded = Los Angeles, California
Genre = Alternative rock
Length = 3:25 (album version) 3:28 (iTunes version) 3:29 (radio edit)
Label = Warner Bros. Records
Writer = Linkin Park
Producer = Rick Rubin, Mike Shinoda
Certification = Platinum (RIAA)
Last single = "Dirt off Your Shoulder/Lying from You" (2005/2006)
This single = "What I've Done" (2007)
Next single = "Bleed It Out" (2007)

"What I've Done" is the lead single from Linkin Park's third album "Minutes to Midnight", and is the band's highest debut on the US Hot 100. It had its first radio play on April 1, 2007, and was digitally released on April 2, 2007. The CD Single was released on April 30 2007. It was also featured in the movie "Transformers". The song has been confirmed as a playable track on Guitar Hero World Tour.

"What I've Done" boasts the band's highest place worldwide, with a top 5 peak.

ong information

Chester Bennington described the track in a March 2007 interview with MTV:

The single and video appeared in the iTunes Store shortly after midnight EST on April 2, 2007. [ [http://www.apple.com/iTunes "What I've Done" on iTunes] ] It became available the day after on iTunes in the UK and Australia. On April 2nd, the song was featured streaming on the front page of their official website, with the video being added to the site shortly thereafter.

The song starts out with a piano riff reminiscent of the "Halloween" theme, before going into a raw guitar sound. During live events, Mike Shinoda plays the piano intro and the guitar after that. This song differs from most of Linkin Park's previously released songs (except "Breaking the Habit") in that it features almost no lead vocals from vocalist Mike Shinoda, save for a brief "na na na" refrain at the end and contributing harmonies throughout. "What I've Done" was the last song written for "Minutes to Midnight". [ [http://lptimes.com/news2007/april/news04042007.html LP Times] reports on "What I've Done".] The song also has a downbeat exactly once every second, consistent throughout its entirety.

Remixes

A remix is available on the "Bleed It Out" single and on the Tour Edition of "Minutes to Midnight" entitled "What I've Done (Distorted Remix)" which was remixed by Mike Shinoda, one of the vocalists in the band.

Track listings

CD 1Tracklist
all_writing = Linkin Park
title1 = What I've Done
note1 = Radio Edit
length1= 3:29
title2 = Faint
note2 = Live in Japan
length2 = 2:45

CD 2 (Maxi / AU Single)Tracklist
title1 = What I've Done
length1 = 3:28
title2 = Faint
note2 = Live in Japan
length2 = 2:46
title3 = From the Inside
note3 = Live in Japan
length3 = 3:31

DVD VersionTracklist
title1 = What I've Done
note1 = Video
length1 = 3:29
title2 = Faint
note2 = Live in Japan; Video
length2 = 2:45

7" Picture disk formatTracklist
title1 = What I've Done
note1 = Radio Edit
length1 = 3:29
title2 = Faint
note2 = Live in Japan
length2 = 2:45All of the live tracks on this CD (and vinyl) were recorded at the Chiba Marine stadium in Tokyo, Japan on August 13, 2006 at the Summer Sonic Festival.

Music video

[
http://www.jeroenwijering.com/embed/mediaplayer.swf?file=http://download.wbr.com/bandbuilder/lp/mtm/WhatIveDone_v400h.flv Watch Full Video] )] The music video for "What I've Done" explores the many ironies of humanity and its ill effects on the earth and the environment. It juxtaposes various pieces of footage: a large, well-fed man eating fast food, a woman measuring her waist and a man who is so malnourished that his ribcage is visible through his skin; African Americans being hosed down and the Ku Klux Klan; nuclear explosions, the World Trade Center towers collapsing, children waving American flags, a Middle Eastern child holding an AK-47, clips of oil tankers torn in half and birds covered in an oil slick. The band's turntablist Joe Hahn directed the video for the single, which was shot in the California desert.cite web|url=http://billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003554313|title=Clock Strikes 'Midnight' For New Linkin Park Album|publisher=Billboard|date=2007-03-06] The video premiered on April 2, 2007 on MTV and Fuse. It premiered on MTV-Asia, MTV-Germany, TMF Netherlands and Canada's MuchMusic on April 3, 2007.

It features footage of the band performing in the desert, interspersed with stock footage reflecting on a variety of social and environmental issues including pollution, global warming, racism, Nazism, the Ku Klux Klan, abortion, homosexuality, starvation, terrorism, warfare, deforestation, poverty, drug addiction, obesity, destruction, rising gasoline prices and crimes committed by humanity. The video also features short views of important historical figures, such as Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln, Robert Kennedy, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Mao Zedong, and Mahatma Gandhi. Some cut scenes like the traffic scene and the napalm exploding were also featured on the Rise Against music video for Ready To Fall.

The video clip was featured and won on MTV's "Battle of the Videos" against videos by Evanescence ("Sweet Sacrifice") and Lil' Mama ("Lip Gloss"). [ [http://www.mtvbattleofthevideos.com/2007/04/16/finally-a-winner/#comments "What I've Done"] wins MTV Battle Of the Videos.] The video also marks the first appearance of a Linkin Park video in the #1 spot on MTV's TRL, hitting #1 six times so far. The video is among the all-time top 50 most viewed on YouTube (Currently 39th) with over 35 million views. AOL currently has a live performance of "What I've Done" on their website. [ [http://www.aolmusicnewsblog.com/2007/04/16/linkin-park-sessions-tease/"What I've Done"] live on AOL.]

When the band's logo is shown for the first time in the video (on the front of Rob's bass drum), it features a complete circle with the stylized letters "LP" within it. However, every time the logo is shown after this, the circle is not complete, being "separated" by two blank spaces above the "L" and below the "P". This is explained in "Making of What I've Done", where the band shows the original drums that were wrongly made, and that they had to use black tape to make the breaks in the circle.

So far, this is the only video in which Joe Hahn's face is not focused at although some parts shown his hands on the turntables.

Alternate music video

A second video, made exclusively for Australia, features a completely different scenario from the first; instead of clips of human sin, the video tells the story of a woman working at a government-run pharmaceutical company learning of a plan to develop a deadly new virus for "social control", and - with the help of several people dressed in black hooded sweatshirts with Linkin Park's logo on them - smuggles out several blood samples of a human test subject of the virus to expose the conspiracy. The video can be seen on YouTube and Linkin Park's Australian website. [ [http://minutestomidnight.com.au/ Linkin Park ] ]

Notable clips from the video

The following is a non-exhaustive list of historical and/or stock footage in the music video:
*A scorpion
*Clockwork
*A Bald Eagle
*Desertification
*The Iraq War
*The Gulf War
*A 1960s civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, Alabama
*Government-controlled societies (Fascist-Nazi-Militarist)
*The Vietnam War
*Global Warming
*Urbanization
*Pollution
*Poaching (Ivory)
*Deforestation
*a Polar Bear
*Citizens of the world's least developed countries
*Obesity
*An anorexic woman
*Starvation
*Effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans
*Stonehenge
*Hagia Sophia
*Great Pyramid of Giza
*Parthenon
*Vitruvian Man
*Mother Teresa
*Robert F. Kennedy
*Mahatma Gandhi
*Buddha
*Mao Zedong
*Abraham Lincoln Memorial
*Fidel Castro
*Ku Klux Klan
*Adolf Hitler
*Saddam Hussein
*September 11 terror attacks
*Cellular meiosis
*Reproduction
*Birth
*Genetic engineering
*Drug abuse
*a Penguin
*Oil spills
*The Trinity Test mushroom cloud and other Atomic weapons testing
*Ethnically diverse children with American Flags (Brad Delson)
*Palestinian child (holding an AK-47)
*Auschwitz concentration camp
*Joseph Stalin
*Nationalism (particularly Americanism)
*Acropolis of Athens
*Sultan Ahmed Mosque
*Robert Mugabe
*Benito Mussolini
*Martin Luther King Jr.
*Oklahoma City Bombing
*Supporting rights for homosexuals

Chart performance

The song made big debuts on the US charts during the chart week of April 21, 2007. The song debuted in the top 10 of the US Hot 100, at #7. It is by far the band's highest debut to date on the chart (this title was previously held by "Somewhere I Belong" which opened at #47), earning "Hot Shot" debut of the week, and subsequently becoming the second highest position for a Linkin Park single to date on the Hot 100. At the time of its debut it was only the eleventh song since 2000 to debut at #7 or higher on the Hot 100, and only the third song to do so by an artist not from "American Idol". [ [http://billboard.com/bbcom/chart_beat/bonus.jsp http://billboard.com/bbcom/chart_beat/bonus.jsp] "Billboard.com" Retrieved on 05-27-07 ] The song was partly fueled by digital sales, debuting at #4 on the digital chart.

In addition the song became only the third song ever to open at #1 on the Modern Rock chart, also becoming the band's seventh number one on the chart. It held the #1 spot on Modern Rock Tracks for 15 consecutive weeks, at the time tying it with "Sex and Candy" as the second longest running #1 in that charts history (it is now tied as the third longest running). It was the most successful song on the Modern Rock Tracks chart of 2007 until Foo Fighters released "The Pretender". The song also reached #1 on the Mainstream Rock chart, where it stayed for more than a month. In the iTunes music store, the song had reached number two. It was kept out of the top spot by "Give It To Me" by Timbaland. The music video is the first to reach the number 1 spot on TRL for Linkin Park video history. It has also become a moderate hit on the Adult Top 40, and Pop 100 Airplay charts, so far peaking at number 22 and 24 respectively on those charts.

In the rest of the world, the song has been their most successful overall, reaching the top ten in over twenty countries including Canada, Germany, Italy, and New Zealand to name a few. In the U.K. the song hit #6 once the physical format was released, making it Linkin Park's highest-charting UK single. The song was highly successful in China as well, where it became their first number one there. It is their best charting single on the United World Chart, where it peaked at #4. Statistically speaking, this is Linkin Park's biggest song to date.

In popular culture

"What I've Done" is featured during the film "Transformers", playing on Bumblebee's radio as Sam Witwicky is dropping Mikaela Banes off at home, as well as leading in to the end credits, and included on the official soundtrack and used heavily in the film's ad campaign. Megan Fox revealed that when the band first heard about the movie, they asked to be on the soundtrack.cite web|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MyRPHXvPAQ|title=Megan Fox Interview]

During Fox NFL Sunday "What I've Done" was one of theme songs for the show.

During the 2008 Olympics, the song was distinctly heard in the background during a replay in the swimming event.

"What I've Done" has been confirmed as a playable song in the upcoming 2008 music/rhythm video game Guitar Hero World Tour, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Wii gaming systems.

References

External links

* [http://linkinpark.com/lyrics/Albums/minutes_to_midnight-9#6 "What I've Done" official lyrics]
* [http://www.linkinpark.com Linkin Park's official site]