Rasa and Metal: Linkin Park Meets Indian Aesthetics

Chester Bennington

Eastern aesthetics has demonstrated a more profound appreciation for aesthetic-breakthroughs than in the tradition of western aesthetics — insofar as the notion of aesthetic-breakthroughs has been a concern of conceptualization. In Indian aesthetics, the concept of Rasa has been embraced. This concept entails spiritual-tranquility as its end, to be elicited via emotional inducement; in other words, art -by rasa- is for the sake of spirituality at bottom. The live performance of the song Given Up by the American rock band Linkin Park, explicitly displays rasa — both in the experience of the audience and in the experience of the performers (specifically, the performance of Linkin Park’s late lead singer Chester Bennington.) The manner in which it displays rasa is by its inducement of spiritual catharsis and by emotional proliferation on the part of the performer and the audience; the manner in which rasa is inapplicable to the performance of Given Up is the requirement on the part of the audience to be a polymath in order to experience rasa.

Given Up by Linkin Park displays loud distorted guitars, heavy drums and the emotional screaming vocals of Chester Bennington. The lyrics are completely hopeless:

Verse 1:

Waking in sweat again