I may end up failing too
But I know
You were just like me, with someone disappointed in you
"Numb" is a song by Linkin Park, released as the third single from their 2003 studio album Meteora. It quickly became one of the band's most critically acclaimed and well-known songs, spending three weeks atop the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The song was later remixed in collaboration with Jay-Z as Numb/Encore for the extended play Collision Course, earning the duo a Grammy Award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. Numb was also ranked number 95 on Rhapsody's list of the "Top 100 Tracks of the Decade." On March 15, 2022, it became only the second Linkin Park song, after In the End, to surpass 1 billion streams on Spotify.
The music video for Numb, directed by the band's DJ Joe Hahn, follows a day in the life of an outcast teenage girl, portrayed by Briana Evigan, interspersed with scenes of Linkin Park performing the song in a cathedral as the girl faces ridicule and alienation from everyone around her.
You can watch the music video—remastered in 4K—here
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Every trope that I take is another mistake to you:
- Abusive Parents: The protagonist's mother doesn't hesitate to ridicule her like everyone else in her life, and clearly isn't making her home life any better than school.
- Ambiguous Ending: The music video ends with the protagonist running into the cathedral where Linkin Park was playing, only for them to suddenly disappear as if they were never there. It's never made clear why this happens or what the band was meant to represent throughout the video.
- Be Yourself: The song's lyrics contain the concept of someone pretending to be someone else to fit in, and wanting to be their true self.I've become so numb, I can't feel you there
Become so tired, so much more aware
I'm becoming this, all I want to do
Is be more like me, and be less like you - Broken Ace: The songs lyrics also point to a person who is collapsing under the weight of their own ambition or expectations. This referenced at the end of the video as the protagonist angrily throws paint at her portraits.I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface
I don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes - Calling the Old Man Out: Another theme of what the lyrics are about.
- Downer Ending: The video ends with the protagonist running into the cathedral to try and find the band only to see that they have disappeared. This can possibly overlap with Have You Seen My God?.
- The Four Chords of Pop: The song has this.
- One-Word Title: As shown in the title.
- Performance Video: The music video is partially this, cutting between the protagonist's life and the band performing in a cathedral.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: While the all of Meteora is about angst and alienation this song acts as the centerpiece of albums themes.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Like prior female protagonists in the bands music videos the protagonist is a dark-haired pale female.
- Self-Harm: The protagonist of the music video has vertical scars on her left arm that spell out "NUMB".
- Three Chords and the Truth: While other songs on Meteora have accompanying booklet notes listing the more sophisticated production measures the band took, the band admitted that this song was largely based around the hook, and that there weren't many difficulties putting it together.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: The music video for the song is this trope’s incarnate, with the music video and lyrics all focused around a depressed girl dealing with a mom who is policing and dictating her daughter's life so much that she's forcing the girl to be a carbon copy of her and the girl has given up hope of ever trying to please her and has now gone numb with her emotions.