Music Video Task 1 - Video Four

LINKIN PARK – BREAKING THE HABIT

 

 

I’ve always been a fan of Linkin Park and if there was a favourite song, it was this one and I think I may have seen the music video in the past but I can’t remember but anyway I choose this one as I love the song and it’s a different kind of music video because it’s not what every artist or band does – and I like things to be a little unexpected.

 

 

BACKGROUND

 

Breaking the Habit" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. It was released as the sixth and final single from their second album, Meteora.

Mike Shinoda had been trying to write a song with a certain lyrical idea for over five years but nothing seemed to work. While the album was being put together, he began working on an interlude, crossing a digitally manipulated beat with strings and piano. His band mates Brad and Joe suggested that Mike should make the small interlude into a whole song. The piece was extended to three minutes and sixteen seconds and went under the name "Drawing." Mike then took it home one night to write lyrics and it took him less than 2 hours to get the song that he was trying to write for years.

 

Mike Shinoda said this in an interview on shoutweb.com: "This was going to be an instrumental track that was 10 minutes long. The guys convinced me to turn it into a full song. I'm proud of this song in a lot of ways. I put a lot of work into it. I just think it's really powerful. Chester's performance is one of his best. Lyrically, it's kind of just about getting away from the parts of you that you do not like. It goes into great deal about that type of situation. The things about our lyrics in general is that we spend so much time on them that there is no way I can tell you in conversation any better than the actual lyrics. If I sit here and think up something, that's an off-the-top-of-my-head summary of what those lyrics are about whereas those lyrics took five years to do. So those lyrics are the most accurate depiction of what that's about, not what I can tell you."

The music video for "Breaking the Habit" was animated made by Studio Gonzo and directed by Joe Hahn with co-producer Eric Calderon. This anime-stylization was supervised by Kazuto Nakazawa, who had previously directed the animated segment of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 1 amongst other things.

 

It has gone on to be a favorite to the MTV viewers going as far as winning the 2004 MTV VMA Viewer's Choice Award.

 

PROMOTIONAL TOOL

 

"Breaking the Habit" features a strong electronica-influenced opening, live strings and guitar. This is different from their previous nu metal/rap rock performances as there are no distorted guitar riffs or any rapping vocals from Mike Shinoda. This is the style they would further explore on their later albums and for other artists as well for their future works.

This video with this song is also a great awareness about drugs, self-harm, depression and suicide as there are those today especially teenagers who go through life and taking this action as a way to end their inner pain without realising what harm could it truly do to them and to those around them, their family and friends.

SYNERGY

 

This song is mostly about someone who has the tendency to do things to hurt himself physically and mentally.

 

This lyric line: "You all assume I'm safe here in my room unless I try to start again" mostly means that the person spends a lot of time in their room where nothing could harm them there when little by little harm is being done by the second. The line could also mean that someone prefers the life of solitude than being around with others.

 

"Clutching my cure, I tightly lock the door" The cure for emotional pain is to cause physical pain and sadly for a lot of people especially teenagers, there are those who think that hurting themselves is the answers to all the pain and problems that is constantly thrown at them. 

When seeing this video and hearing the words, it isn’t just about drugs but about self-harm, depression and thought about suicide. The video also shows how bad habits can ruin their lives and others.

 

Throughout the video there are images of a man who killed himself and the remaining air left in his body and then time seems to rewind and slowly the man who was falling is now not falling and right where he reaches the roof, you will see it’s the lead singer Chester Bennington and singing the rest of the song and rocking it out. For Chester Bennington it’s very personal as he took drugs in the past and that from research he was reluctant to play the song in live shows because it was personal to him. It just makes the song better when he sings it as the emotions are there.

 

Studio Gonzo is a Japanese animation production studio that has been doing anime TV series and film for years. With anime shows like Full Metal Panic!, Burst Angel and Afro Samurai along with anime movies such as Origin: Spirits of the Past and Afro Samurai: Resurrection, it’s shows why the band picked this production team to make the animation video. It even helps when the band manager Joe Hahn who directed the music video got Kazuto Nakazawa (also known as Takeshi Tsuji) who has done a number of anime series over the years as a character designer and director so it helps when you have an except to help make the video the way they wanted it to be. In a interview Kazuto Nakazawa even said in a interview that Joe Hahn drew most of the frames for the msuci video himself.

 

To full the article click here: http://articles.latimes.com/2004/may/16/entertainment/ca-popeye16

Ever since the making the video, the production team have made two more music videos: 2007: “Freedom” by Blood Stain Child (2007) and “Forsaken” by Dream Theater (2008).

FAN REACTION/CRITICS REPECTION

 

Though the video was done back in 2003, there are still fans who remember the video and still think it’s a great music video. For example there is a fan website called Linkin Park Fan Corner where back in August 2012 there was a 30 day challenge – one of which on Day 4 the question was “Favourite Music Video?”.

 

Even though there are other music videos that fans prefer there are these two tweets that say otherwise:  

Here are also a few comments I found on YouTube:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AVAILABILTIY

 

 

The video can be seen online – most likely to be YouTube.

The video for "Breaking the Habit" is also available on iTunes 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.

There is also a second music video, entitled "Breaking the Habit (5.28.04 3:37 PM)", showing the band in their studio performing the song. The video was directed by Kimo Proudfoot and is available on the Breaking the Habit DVD.