Breaking the Habit

"Breaking the Habit" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. It was written for Chester Bennington since he had issues with narcotics (by Mike Shinoda). It is the ninth track from their second studio album Meteora and was released as the fifth and final single from the album. 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. It was also the third single from the album to reach #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song was a hit, peaking at #20 on the Billboard Hot 100. On September 4, 2012, "Breaking the Habit", "Shadow of the Day", "New Divide", and "Burn It Down" were released in the "Linkin Park Pack 02" as downloadable content for the music rhythm video game, Rock Band 3.

Background

"Breaking the Habit" features a strong electronica-influenced opening, live strings and guitar. It is an exception from their previous nu metal/rap rock performances as no distorted guitar riffs are included nor are there any rapping vocals from Mike Shinoda, a style they would further explore on their later albums.

The Habit Burger Grill

The Habit Burger Grill or just The Habit as it is commonly known, is a fast casual restaurant chain focused on hamburgers, salads, sandwiches, shakes, and french fries, with its headquarters in Irvine, California. The first Habit Burger Grill restaurant opened in Thanksgiving 1969 in Santa Barbara, California, and between 1969 and 2007, the chain slowly expanded around the Los Angeles metropolitan area to 23 restaurants.

In 2007, a private equity firm, KarpReilly, purchased a majority stake in the company and the chain began rapidly expanding. By 2014 it had 109 current and under construction locations. The company is one of the fastest-growing fast food chains in the United States, with a 40% sales increase from 2012 to 2013.

History

The Habit Burger Grill was founded in November 15, 1969 in Santa Barbara, California and up until 2007 was privately owned by a family. In 2007 it was purchased by KarpReilly, a private equity firm that began to rapidly expand the chain, including more recently by franchising the brand. The brand had grown rapidly, and multiple newspapers reported in 2013 that Habit Burger LLC, the parent company to the chain, was planning an IPO. The report IPO never occurred but as the chain grows even more, the majority owners may take action.

Linkin Park

Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album Hybrid Theory (2000), which was certified diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries. Their following studio album Meteora continued the band's success, topping the Billboard 200 album chart in 2003, and was followed by extensive touring and charity work around the world. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the music video era and the third-best of the new millennium.Billboard ranked Linkin Park No. 19 on the Best Artists of the Decade chart. In 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as the Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now by Kerrang!.

Having adapted nu metal and rap metal to a radio-friendly yet densely layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the band explored other genres in their next studio album, Minutes to Midnight (2007). The album topped the Billboard charts and had the third-best debut week of any album that year. The band continued to explore a wider variation of musical types in their fourth album, A Thousand Suns (2010), layering their music with more electronic sounds and beats. Their fifth album, Living Things (2012), combines musical elements from all of their previous records. Their sixth and most recent album, The Hunting Party (2014), returned to a heavier rock sound. The band has collaborated with several other artists, most notably with rapper Jay Z in their mashup EP Collision Course, and many others on the remix albums Reanimation and Recharged. Linkin Park has sold over 68 million albums worldwide and has won two Grammy Awards.

Habit

A habit (or wont) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur unconsciously.

In the American Journal of Psychology (1903) it is defined in this way: "A habit, from the standpoint of psychology, is a more or less fixed way of thinking, willing, or feeling acquired through previous repetition of a mental experience." Habitual behavior often goes unnoticed in persons exhibiting it, because a person does not need to engage in self-analysis when undertaking routine tasks. Habits are sometimes compulsory. The process by which new behaviours become automatic is habit formation. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form because the behavioural patterns we repeat are imprinted in our neural pathways, but it is possible to form new habits through repetition.

As behaviors are repeated in a consistent context, there is an incremental increase in the link between the context and the action. This increases the automaticity of the behavior in that context. Features of an automatic behavior are all or some of: efficiency, lack of awareness, unintentionality, uncontrollability.