"Breaking the Habit" is a song by American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. The band's current lineup comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn and drummer ...
. It is the ninth track from their second studio album, ''
Meteora
The Meteora (; el, Μετέωρα, ) is a rock formation in central Greece hosting one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries, second in importance only to Mount Athos.Sofianos, D.Z.: "Metéora". ...
'', and was released as the fifth and final single from the album. The song was a hit; it became the fifth consecutive single from ''Meteora'' to reach number one on the
''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks
Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...
chart, a feat unmatched by any other artist in the history of that chart. It was also the third single from the album to reach number one on the
Mainstream Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...
chart. The song also peaked at number 20 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100, and was certified Gold by the RIAA. The song was also successful in many other countries, except in the UK where it became their first single to chart outside of the top thirty, faring only better than their previous single "From the Inside" which failed to chart. On September 4, 2012, "Breaking the Habit", "
Shadow of the Day
"Shadow of the Day" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. The song was released as the third single from their third studio album, ''Minutes to Midnight'', on October 16, 2007. The first public performance of "Shadow of the Day" was durin ...
", "
New Divide
"New Divide" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. The song is released as a single and was recorded specifically for the soundtrack, '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – The Album'' to Michael Bay's film '' Transformers: Revenge o ...
", and "
Burn It Down" were released in the "Linkin Park Pack 02" as
downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...
for the music rhythm video game, ''
Rock Band 3
''Rock Band 3'' is a 2010 music video game developed by Harmonix. The game was initially published and distributed by MTV Games and Electronic Arts, respectively, in late October 2010. Mad Catz took over both roles and re-released the title on N ...
''.
Background
"Breaking the Habit" features a strong electronica-influenced opening, live strings and guitar. It is an exception from their previous
nu metal
Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, sometimes called aggro-metal) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop, alternative rock, funk, industrial, and grunge. Nu met ...
/
rap rock
Rap rock is a fusion genre that fuses vocal and instrumental elements of hip hop with various forms of rock. Rap rock's most popular subgenres include rap metal and rapcore, which include heavy metal and hardcore punk-oriented influences, resp ...
performances as no distorted guitar riffs are included nor are there any rapping vocals from
Mike Shinoda
Michael Kenji Shinoda (; ja, 篠田 賢治, Shinoda Kenji; born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and was the band's collaborative vocali ...
, a style they would further explore on their later albums.
A common misconception about the song is that it was written by lead singer
Chester Bennington
Chester Charles Bennington (March 20, 1976 – July 20, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter who was best known as the lead vocalist of rock band Linkin Park. He was also the lead vocalist of the bands Grey Daze, Dead by Sunrise, a ...
due to his struggles with substance abuse. Band member
Mike Shinoda
Michael Kenji Shinoda (; ja, 篠田 賢治, Shinoda Kenji; born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and was the band's collaborative vocali ...
began writing the song before he met Bennington based on another close friend's drug addiction.
In the album notes, it was said that the song was originally going to be an instrumental track lasting a little over three and a half minutes, but Shinoda was convinced by the band to change it. The instrumental was later released on the ''Underground 9.0'' Fan Club as a demo track titled "Drawing".
Shinoda had a lyrical idea of an emotion he had been trying to express for 5 to 6 years before the production of ''Meteora''. To him, the lyrics had sounded wrong until listening to the "Drawing" demo one night and they fell together. He showed the lyrics he wrote to Bennington who read them and teared up, relating to the words to a point where he had difficulty performing the song live for almost a year after the release of ''Meteora''.
An original 2002 demo of this song with different lyrics and Shinoda on lead vocals appears on ''
LP Underground XIV
American rock band Linkin Park have released seven studio albums, three live albums, two compilation albums, two remix albums, three soundtrack albums, 12 video albums, 10 extended plays, 35 singles, 20 promotional singles, and 66 music videos. ...
''.
Music video
The
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
for "Breaking the Habit" was animated by
Studio Gonzo
A studio is an artist or worker's workroom. This can be for the purpose of acting, architecture, painting, pottery (ceramics), sculpture, origami, woodworking, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, industrial d ...
; it was directed by
Joe Hahn
Joseph Hahn (born March 15, 1977) is an American musician, DJ, director and visual artist best known as the DJ of the American rock band Linkin Park, doing the scratching, turntables, sampling, and programming for all seven of Linkin Park's ...
and co-produced by Eric Calderon. It uses an
anime
is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...
stylization which was supervised by
Kazuto Nakazawa
is a Japanese character designer and director of numerous anime series and video games who also goes by the pseudonym . His directorial work includes ''Parasite Dolls'', the anime sequence in '' Kill Bill: Volume 1'', and the Moondrive segment ...
, who had previously directed the animated segment of
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...
's ''
Kill Bill: Volume 1'' among other things. The video was shot of the band performing the song and was later
rotoscope
Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, animators projected photographed live-action movie images onto a glass panel and traced o ...
d. The video has gone on to be a favorite amongst
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
viewers, going as far as winning the 2004
MTV VMA
The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category) ...
Viewer's Choice Award.
As the video begins, a deceased man is shown lying on a car's roof. The surrounding area has been taped off and is littered with investigating police officers as well as onlookers. The video cuts to another character, a girl who breaks a mirror, then writes "I'm nothing" onto a sheet of paper. She picks up a shard of glass, clenches it in her hand, and smears her blood on the note. Throughout the different scenes, a wisp of smoke meanders around the characters as their stories play out, and the human face of Chester Bennington singing the song flashes various times. Another character is a young woman throwing tomatoes at a man. At a point, the ubiquitous smoke drifts over the deceased man's body and enters his mouth, and the video begins to seemingly rewind itself, the woman throwing tomatoes at the man who is her husband or boyfriend, is shown coming home to see the man with another woman in bed suggesting they just had sex. The body of the deceased man begins to rise, falling in reverse, towards the roof of a tall building. It is revealed that the body is that of Chester, who had apparently fallen to his death. Upon landing on the roof, he joins with the rest of the band in performing the remainder of the song.
As of July 2022, the song has 280 million views on
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
There is also a second music video, titled "Breaking the Habit (05.28.04 3:37 PM)", showing the band in their studio performing the song. The video was directed by
Kimo Proudfoot
Kimo Proudfoot is an American Music video director, director of music videos and concert films.
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Proudfoot has directed videos for several artists & groups such as Fort Minor ("Remember the Name"), Soulfly ("Roots Bloody ...
and is available on the ''Breaking the Habit'' DVD.
iTunes
The video for "Breaking the Habit" is available on
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
, along with a live video version of the video. The live video was taken from the ''
Road to Revolution: Live at Milton Keynes'' DVD concert.
Reception
“Breaking the Habit” has been ranked among the best Linkin Park songs by
''Billboard'' (6th),
Stereogum
''Stereogum'' is a daily Internet publication that focuses on music news, reviews, interviews, and commentary. The site was created in January 2002 by Scott Lapatine.
''Stereogum'' was one of the first MP3 blogs and has received several award ...
(2nd), and ''
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
''.
Live performances
"Breaking the Habit" was not initially performed in the tour for ''Meteora'', until it received a full performance on November 15, 2003, in
San Bernardino
San Bernardino (; Spanish language, Spanish for Bernardino of Siena, "Saint Bernardino") is a city and county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a ...
. Since then, it has found itself in the majority of their concerts. From its debut up until the end of the tour cycle for the band's 3rd album, ''
Minutes to Midnight
The Doomsday Clock is a symbol that represents the likelihood of a man-made global catastrophe, in the opinion of the members of the ''Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists''. Maintained since 1947, the clock is a metaphor for threats to humanity ...
'', "Breaking the Habit" was played with a piano intro, where the first verse and chorus were played, and after that, the actual song would start. "Breaking the Habit" is also sometimes played live with an extended outro consisting of an a cappella performance of the chorus. After Linkin Park's 'Concert for the Philippines' on January 11, 2014, "Breaking the Habit" was dropped from the band's setlist. It would not be played live again until May 17, 2015, at
Rock on the Range
Rock on the Range was an annual rock festival that was held at two locations. The first and main location was in Columbus, Ohio, United States at Mapfre Stadium (originally Columbus Crew Stadium; renamed in 2015) from 2007 to 2018, while the ot ...
in
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
.
Track listing
Personnel
;Linkin Park
*
Chester Bennington
Chester Charles Bennington (March 20, 1976 – July 20, 2017) was an American singer and songwriter who was best known as the lead vocalist of rock band Linkin Park. He was also the lead vocalist of the bands Grey Daze, Dead by Sunrise, a ...
– vocals
*
Rob Bourdon
Robert Gregory Bourdon (born January 20, 1979) is an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-founding member of the American rock band Linkin Park.
Early life
Bourdon was born in Calabasas, California. He received classical piano le ...
– drums
*
Brad Delson
Bradford Phillip Delson (born December 1, 1977) is an American musician, best known as the lead guitarist and one of the founding members of the rock band Linkin Park. – guitar
*
Joe Hahn
Joseph Hahn (born March 15, 1977) is an American musician, DJ, director and visual artist best known as the DJ of the American rock band Linkin Park, doing the scratching, turntables, sampling, and programming for all seven of Linkin Park's ...
– turntables, samples
*
Dave "Phoenix" Farrell – bass guitar
*
Mike Shinoda
Michael Kenji Shinoda (; ja, 篠田 賢治, Shinoda Kenji; born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and was the band's collaborative vocali ...
– keyboards, strings arrangement, samples
Additional musicians
* Joel Derouin, Charlie Bisharat, Alyssa Park, Sara Parkins, Michelle Richards, Mark Robertson –
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
s
* Evan Wilson, Bob Becker –
viola
The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...
s
* Larry Corbett, Dan Smith –
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
s
*
David Campbell – strings arrangement
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Certifications
References
External links
''Breaking the Habit'' official lyrics*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breaking The Habit
2004 singles
2003 songs
Linkin Park songs
Songs written by Mike Shinoda
Warner Records singles
Electronic rock songs
Songs based on actual events
Songs about drugs
Animated music videos
Anime-influenced Western animation