linkinpark4eva November 13th, 2005 02:34AM  

Videos are not the best way of interpreting a song. Take 'Wake Me Up When September Ends' for example:

The actual song is about Billie Joe's father dying of throat/lung cancer (can't remember which). The video is either about 9/11 or going to war. It's how the director interprets the song.

'Pain' by Jimmy Eat World is the same. The song is about drug addiction, but the video is about a guy making an ass of himself.

Breaking The Habit was actually a song Mike was trying to write, but the lyrics were either too cheesy or too dark and melancholy. He finished it, and it became about a drug addiction. Unfortunately, Chester had only just come out of rehab for his coke addiction and broke down crying whenever he sang it. This was at the time of Hybrid Theory. The band put it to one side.
When they came to making Meteora, they made an instrumental track, which was 10 minutes long and in 6/8, but they didn't like it. They convinced Mike to turn it into a full song, with verses and choruses. Mike found the lyrics for the song they had put aside, and they fit almost perfect. Chester had grown more out of his addiction, and could perform it without crying.
And so you have the history of 'Breaking The Habit'.

anonymous May 5th, 2006 08:45AM  

ok, the post by darthjesus was completely wrong. I got on Wikipedia.org and found a completely diffrent summery.
here it is:
The biggest MISCONCEPTION about this song is that it was written about lead singer Chester Bennington, when in fact, Mike started writing the song in 1997, BEFORE HE EVEN KNEW CHESTER and it took him 6 years to write in full. The song is written loosely about a friend of Mike Shinoda’s, but is more focused around the general thesis of Breaking a Habit, and not specifically at any habit in particular.
Because of his history of sexual abuse and drug use, people believed that the song was about Chester because he was able to relate so closely to the song.

anonymous June 26th, 2006 02:57AM  

I can understand if it was done for just a habit and nothing in particular. Like when hear it I myself think of cutting but if it wasn't written about Chester's past I can see how it may remind him about it. Some songs have completely different meanings but they just remind you of something completely different. But yeah but I, myself, think it's about how quitting any habit is hard and not just one specific one.

MRO1989 July 10th, 2006 09:11AM  

Okay, I know some of you make think this song is about suicide because of the video, but it's far from that. Mike Shinoda said it himself, that this song is about Chester's cocaine addiction before they made it big. He orginally wrote it for Hybrid Theory, but Chester would breakdown in tears everytime he sang it live. So, Mike saved it for Meteora, which in this case, was a perfect fit for the album.

anonymous July 22nd, 2006 01:59AM  

I've read somewhere that mike started to write this song when he was at a very dark place in his life.

This song is about suicide, and in my interpretation
"clutching my cure......"
a gun.....What else could cure somthing?
"i'll paint it on the walls....."
what else could it be then to blow some brains out?

anonymous July 24th, 2006 06:17PM  

I find that the song has a meaning for almost every addiction. I talks about doing something, whether it is cutting or doing drugs, to hopefully forget the pain and hurt.

The best part in the song, personally, I find is:
"i'm picking me apart again
you all assume
i'm safe here in my room
unless I try to start again"
to me it talks about that you're pretending to the whole world and everyone seems to buy it. They think that you're okay, but they don't know how hurt you are from the inside.
It's almost like nobody cares about you.

The song also talks about helplessness.
"cause inside I realize
that I'm the one confused"

and

"I don't know what's worth fighting for
or why I have to scream
i don't know why I instigate
and say what I don't mean
i don't know how I got this way
i know it's not alright"

you don't know what to do except for the thing what you do, drugs or self harm. You feel helpless with yourself and there doesn't seems to be a way out.

And as last it can also talk about suicide. It's just the way how you see it and how it feels to you personally. I find everyone can recognize themselves in this song. Mostly because everyone battles an addiction. No matter if it are cigarettes, alcohol, drugs or self harm.

anonymous August 30th, 2006 05:44PM  

I'm surprised no one else thought of this - maybe it's about domestic violence:

"I don't know what's worth fighting for
or why I have to scream
i don't know why I instigate
and say what I don't mean
i don't know how I got this way
i know it's not alright"

batterers tend to think in ways that cause them to get angry over stupid things, and they also never learned how to deal with their anger appropriately. (they were usually beaten as kids because their fathers were the same way.) afterwards, they usually realize what jerks they were and apologize - but if they don't figure out a better way to deal with their anger (and to not get angry for stupid reasons) they fall back into the same 'habit.' I know all this because my father was that way until he went into anger management counseling. And yes, it worked!

anonymous March 19th, 2007 10:58PM  

I think saying this song is about cocaine or suicide or self-harm is trying to squeeze far too broad a song into far too specific a situation. Also, I personally don't think the song ends in suicide, simply because of the triumphant sound of the song's end, but that's just me.

anonymous April 29th, 2007 06:03PM  

I think this song describes depression and self harming. Picking me apart again means that manic depressives tend to over analyze themselves and look for the bad parts they don't like. I don't know what worth fighting for means that I don't see why I should live and carry on. Or why I have to scream means that I don't know why I'm mentally ill. Its a deep song I love it xxxx

Crittic47274 May 5th, 2007 03:48AM  

A common mistake about this song is that it was written about lead singer Chester Bennington, when actually, Mike Shinoda had been working on the song since 1997 when Mark Wakefield was still the band's lead vocalist. The reason for this huge mistake is largely due to Bennington's history of sexual abuse and drug use. However, the song can mostly apply to any difficult decision, and is not based on any one specific "habit".

anonymous May 12th, 2007 01:33AM  

Drum and bass influenced song by the nu metal band Linkin Park, from their 2003 album Meteora. It was released as a single in 2004. It became the fifth consecutive single from Meteora to reach #1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, a feat unmatched by any other artist in the history of that chart.

"Breaking The Habit" is one of the few Linkin Park songs which features neither Mike Shinoda's rapping nor Brad Delson's heavy guitar riffs.

A common misconception about this song is that it was written about lead singer Chester Bennington, when in fact, band member Mike Shinoda had been working on the song since 1997, when Mark Wakefield was still the band's lead vocalist. The reason for this misconception is largely due to Bennington's history of sexual abuse and drug use. However, the song is mostly ambiguous and not based on any specific "habit", but it mentions instigating and "saying what I don't mean" possibly referring to an aggressive demeanor.

anonymous May 25th, 2007 12:48AM  

Guys, you may know whether or not it's about Chester, but if I learned anything in my English class, it doesn't matter what the author thinks. If you feel a way about the song, it shouldn't change what you feel about the song if they think differently.

Now, in my opinion, I think it has to do with violence or anger. mostly cause of the lines:

"I don't want to be the one
the battles always choose."

When I hear this I keep thinking about anger or domestic violence cause it fits well into it more than the others. He doesn't want to be part of any fights or fits and he's using personification to make the battle itself to make it seem like he's constantly being searched by people for fights, probably leading to the whole "trapped in his room, nowhere to go" feeling.

anonymous September 25th, 2007 06:10PM  

This song isn't about Chester's addiction to cocaine or about him getting sexually molested as a child. It was written back when Mark Wakefield was the lead singer, back when that bands name was "Xero". This song was originally intended to be put onto "Linkin Park: Hybrid Theory". The song just connected with chester's past so well, it would make him cry when he would sing it. I think many have agreed that this song is better suited for "Meteora" anyways.

anonymous October 23rd, 2007 12:04AM  

Look, regardless of whether or not it's about Chester it obviously had an impact and a deeper meaning for him. like someone else said no one will know unless you ask the guys from linkin park. and even if it was written before Chester was there the meaning could have changed once/if it fit so well with his troubled past.

anonymous November 4th, 2007 11:12PM  

If you watch the special edition DVD of the making of Meteora, you will see in an interview with the band members that the song was written before hybrid theory and before chester was even in the band. when it was put to chester to sing, he felt a connection with it which brought back bad memories etc. Hence they did not roll with it at the time and it was left until Meteora for them to use once chaz had dealt with his feeling of the song.

there....end of confusion

anonymous December 28th, 2007 10:46AM  

Actually, the song was about one of Mike Shindoda's friends because he started writing the song before he ever met Chester Bennington, but most people think it's about Chester cause he used to do meth and coke.

anonymous January 4th, 2008 01:30PM  

Actually, the song was really about breaking a habit.In the general fact, not only about Chester's case.

But the meaning of the song and the feeling it's talking about is the same that Chester felt when he was addicted to drugs and sexually abused.
That's why he always cried when he tried to sing the song during almost all 2003.Search for "breaking the habit toronto 2004" on youtube,you'll see that chester hardly sings it,because of the emotion.

blu3prinz3 January 22nd, 2008 02:20PM  

Chester was a hardcore drug addict. He was addicted to meth I suppose because of the song crawling. I was a hardcore meth addict and I've experience that crawling sensation underneath my veins.

anonymous January 22nd, 2008 10:38PM  

I think breaking the habit is some what like an individual having drug addiction. He wanted to change this behavior, but he is experiencing what you called "withdrawal symptoms" where in it is very difficult to adjust because his body is already dependent with the drugs. That person is experiencing pains in the bones and muscles, and it is associated with muscle spasm and kicking movements. and I think the title " breaking the habit" is derived from the phrase "kicking the habit"(kicking movements).

anonymous March 23rd, 2008 06:05AM  

I was watching some episodes of LPTV and in one of them there was an explaination about this song. As far as I know, Mike denied the fact that the song was written about Chester but Chester knew it was. They perfomed it live a little while ago (you'll find it on YouTube), which surprised me a bit because I had previously known that the song was difficult for Chester to perform. So I am going to stick with the theory that the song was written about Chester's drug addiction (someone said that he wasn't addicted to coke. You are wrong. He was addicted to coke and meth). That is just my opinion, other people might think of it differently. I think that the song could have an individual meaning to everyone, so everyone is entitled to their own opinion.