Crawling song by Linkin Park was the 2nd single from their debut album Hybrid Theory. It won a grammy for the Best Hard Rock Performance in 2002.
The song is about dealing with dr*g issues. Chester struggled with addic*ions in the past for a long time till he became sober after 2006. So, the song depicts his struggles with overcoming the problem. In the video we see a girl trapped inside something like a crystal. The girl can’t find a way out of it. So, when Chester was in a similar position during his early years, he found it difficult to get out of it.
The effects of the dr*g made his skin crawl like most addic*s feel during a withdrawal that is incredibly painful. Thus, Chester talks about it as crawling in my skin, these wounds they will not heal. The girl is a reflection of Chester. The girl is going through a lot of turmoil. She seems to be physically abused a man older than her. These conditions cause her to retreat into a shell and she is scared to socialise with other people. She pulls away from other people and also her boyfriend. These are symptoms of going through depression and anxiety.
This is what happens a lot of times in people’s lives. When someone is going through pain and adversity, they usually take their time off and stay alone. The problem can be so intense that they find it difficult to focus on the task at hand. So, at times other people who notice such individuals may think of them as weird or crazy, while they may not have any idea of what the other person might be going through.
So, Chester is telling us his story probably of what it felt like when he was going through this phase. As the bad habit increases you find it even more difficult to escape it. Also, the dependence on the dr*g increases so much that it restricts your freedom. That is what it meant by walls are closing in.
Eventually, one has to break the walls, ie. break the habit to get free from it. So, in the end we see crystals breaking and the woman is free from her problem. This symbolizes the woman getting over her problems.
Crawling’ has caused me the most trouble live more than any other song. ‘Crawling’ is about feeling like I had no control over myself in terms of dr*gs and alcoh*l.
Chester Bennington
So, this is what the song is about. Hope you guys enjoyed it.
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