Hoobastank’s “The Reason” Lyrics Meaning
It can be said that many of us go through life knowing that we have room for improvement but lacking the wherewithal to actually pull off the desired change. In other words, outside of a personal longing, we don’t have a solid enough reason to effect an internal transformation. But in Hoobastank’s “The Reason”, Douglas has indeed found his “reason” to do so. And that is, most simply explained, his love for the addressee.
More specifically, Douglas’s personal shortcomings have led to him somehow hurting this person. It’s easy to postulate that said addressee is his significant other, but the exact nature of their relationship is never made clear.
What is convincingly put forth is that whatever he has done to this loved one, the vocalist has now come to sorely regret, as it is something(s) he can’t get out of his mind. So as relayed in the second verse, he wants to make things right even though, as inferred in the first, he may have already caused the dissolution of their relationship.
“I’ve found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
And the reason is you”
It reads as if the vocalist has really learned his lesson, even if this is the end as far as he and the addressee is concerned. So into the future, he also wants to make sure that he never replicates the asininity, if you will, ever again.
To reiterate, up until now he has lacked the resolve to “start over new”. But after doing what he did to hurt this loved one so much, now the palpable “reason” exists to pull off this long overdue change.
“THE REASON”, HOOBASTANK’S SIGNATURE SONG
Hoobastank is a rock band from a part of California known as Agoura Hills. This crew has been around for a hot minute, from the mid-1990s but have dropped all six of their LPs to date in the 21st century. The second of those projects, “The Reason”, stands as Hoobastank’s most-successful album and its title track , their signature song.
For instance, the song has gone quadruple-platinum in the band’s homeland of the United States. Also, this is one of the three singles they came out with that actually made it onto the Billboard Hot 100 and, peaking at number 2, far outperformed the others on the list.
Additionally, “The Reason” has topped the UK Rock & Metal Chart and three Billboard listings stateside (Adult Top 40, Alternative Airplay and Mainstream Top 40, beside charting in approximately 20 countries overall.
The success of this song also accounts for the two Grammy nominations Hoobastank has received to date, which both came in 2005 (and were respectively lost to John Mayer’s “Daughters” in the category of Song of the Year and Los Lonely Boys’ “Heaven” in the competition for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals).
NOTABLE USAGES
This song was featured on the ever-popular sitcom Friends, which was nearing the end of its run when “The Reason” was dropped.
Well actually, it did not appear on a canonical episode per se but rather a special that aired on 6 May 2004, prior to the series finale, which was titled Friends: The One Before the Last One – Ten Years of Friends.
In any event, keep in mind that the conclusion of Friends was one of the most-watched closings to a television series ever. In other words, being featured on the show did significantly contribute to the overall success of the song.
“The Reason” also experienced an uptick in popularity more recently, in early 2021, serving as the tune behind a TikTok hashtag/trend called #NotAPerfectPerson. And it was shortly before then, in November of 2020, that Hoobastank celebrated its video achieving 700,000,000 views on YouTube.
RELEASE DATE AND CREDITS FOR “THE REASON”
This song was put out through Island Records in conjunction with Def Jam (i.e. the Island Def Jam Music Group) on 26 January 2004.
It was written by Hoobastank mainstays Daniel Estrin and Doug Robb, i.e. the co-founders of the band who are still in it to this day. At that time, they were joined by bassist Markku Lappalainen and drummer Chris Hesse, the latter of whom also remains down for the cause.
The producer of this song is Howard Benson, who went on to win a couple of Grammy Awards later down the line (working with Kelly Clarkson and Halestorm).
Brett Simon directed the cinematic music video to this piece, which is connected to that of Same Direction, the Hoobastank single which came directly after it.
CONCLUSION
This is a really-profound song, due largely to the fact that the type of relationship the two parties share is never specified. That is to say that it’s common to come across tracks revolving around a vocalist apologizing profusely and pledging to change to a lady he messed up with. But due to the general applicability of this piece, those same types of sentiments can now be forwarded to a range of other relationship types.
Not to get philosophical or anything, but that’s something the world can use more of, i.e. people confessing to their shortcomings and being cognizant of how their own faults negatively impact the interpersonal relationships that they are in.
