Breaking the Habit
| Breaking the Habit | |
|---|---|
| Linkin Park | |
| publication | June 14, 2004 |
| length | 3:16 |
| Genre (s) | Alternative rock |
| Author (s) | Linkin Park |
| album | Meteora |
Breaking the Habit (German "break the habit") is a song by the band Linkin Park . It is the sixth and final single from their second studio album Meteora . The song won the MTV VMA Viewer's Choice Award in 2004.
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Breaking the Habit is clearly different from the other songs on the album Meteora . The song is sung exclusively by Chester Bennington and does not contain any rap parts by Mike Shinoda or distorted guitars but a complete, lively string section.
Contrary to popular belief, the drug abuse song was not written by Bennington, who had drug problems in his youth, but Shinoda. Because of his past, Bennington identified with this song and sometimes called it one of Linkin Park's best. In order to emphasize the emotions, the song was occasionally performed in an acoustic version during live performances, i.e. only vocals by Bennington and piano accompaniment by Mike Shinoda. This included a piano intro, the first verse, as well as parts of the chorus. After the acoustic version, the song was then performed in full length, as known from the Meteora album.
The idea for the piece was over five years old when the recording was made. The instrumental demo with the working title Drawing can be heard on the CD Underground 9 - Demos . In 2014, the band also released a version with Shinoda's original, unprocessed vocals.
Band member Joseph Hahn directed the music video. The music video consists of rotoscopically animated people, buildings, etc. They were drawn by Kazuto Nakazawa .
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