Songfacts®:

• This song is about a person who tries to control someone through intimidation and aggression. Chester Bennington was molested by acquaintances when he was young, which influenced the song. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Carissa - East Hampton, CT
• This appears on Linkin Park's debut album, Hybrid Theory, which established the band as nu-metal stars. It sold 5 million copies in the US (on its way to 12 million by 2020), making it the best-selling album of 2001 in America. But the band weren't fond of the nu-metal tag, which lumped them in with acts like Limp Bizkit and Korn. "We never liked it," Shinoda said in a 2008 Kerrang interview. "People lazily slapped that label on bands like us, but we never shared much in common with most of the bands we were grouped with. We didn't have the same interests, goals, musical influences, or sound. I felt like we weren't from the same scene."
• Shinoda's vocal scat in the intro was inspired by Black Thought of the hip-hop group The Roots. "I heard him doing that on Illadelph Halflife, and I just thought there was something so cool about that. And I thought it would mix well with the scratching, so we kind of did this back-and-forth with those things," he told Billboard in 2020.
• The song initially had a different guitar line that Shinoda thought sounded too basic, so he used ProTools to chop it up and move the pieces around to create a different sound. "I treated it like a sample off a record," he explained.
• Lead guitarist Brad Delson shared his view of the tune with Kerrang in 2020. He said: "The ethos of that song is deconstructing live music. The guitar is chopped up, so you've basically taken live instruments, something organic, and we were really making use of the technology at the time, digital technology, which is stutters and chopping things up. So, it's like taking organic ingredients, putting them in a digital blender, and 'Points Of Authority' is what comes out."
• Delson also explained that Shinoda's work on the riff was a prime example of the rapper's technical wizardry. "That's one of his superpowers," he said. "Even when he has basic technology, he really learns how to use it and he almost plays some of the recording technology like an instrument. I think you can hear that on this song."
• Linkin Park wanted a melodic chorus that didn't sound too soft, so they paired a simple melody with a shouting vocal.
• A remixed version of the album, Reanimation, was released in 2002 and the new version of this track, titled "Pts.OF.Athrty" was released as a single. It was remixed by Jay Gordon of the industrial-metal band Orgy.
• Joe Hahn, the band's DJ/programmer, directed a music video for the remixed version of the song. He also came up with the clip's concept, which involved Linkin Park waging a CGI-robot battle against an alien race. "I remember I was referencing Saving Private Ryan, and looking at a lot of anime, and the dynamics of things blowing up," he told Billboard in 2020. "It was so fun, because I had this crazy idea, and everyone was like, 'Okay! Go do it!' And they let me do it!"