This past August, Hoobastank's "The Reason" reached the billion-view mark on YouTube. While joining the Billion Views Club is an impressive feat for any artist, it's particularly remarkable for Hoobastank — not only is "The Reason" 20 years old, but it racked up 300 million views this year alone.
The title track to the band's second album, "The Reason" is still crashing through our consciousness courtesy of a comedic (and very memeable) scene from the hit Netflix series "Beef," as well as a viral trend on TikTok. For Hoobastank, the massive resurgence is both perfect timing — The Reason turns 20 on Dec. 9 — and a reminder of the good and the bad that came with their ubiquitous hit.
Ironically, they didn't see the ballad as a single at all, nor did they want it released when their then-label, Island Def Jam, wanted. But it undoubtedly launched Hoobastank into another dimension — even if it created some challenges for the band later on.
When frontman Doug Robb and guitarist Dan Estrin — two of three founding members still remaining alongside drummer Chris Hesse — sat down to speak with GRAMMY.com to discuss the anniversary of The Reason, they seemed very happy and comfortable with where they are today. It's obvious that they've come to terms with the overwhelming success that seemed daunting to follow up at the time, but which gave them their career. Hoobastank's second studio album remains their sales watermark, but the group has gone on to record four more albums, continued to tour, and is even working on new music for 2024.
The band's history actually extends back to 1994, when it was formed originally as a mixture of rock, metal, ska, and funk influences (with saxophones!). The group's quirky, long-lost 1998 debut under the name Hoobustank, They Sure Don't Make Basketball Shorts Like They Used To — which is only available on YouTube — was very influenced by the likes of Fishbone and early Mr. Bungle. But after signing with Island Def Jam in 2000, the band focused on the bristling hard rock that immediately made a splash with their eponymous 2001 debut album, which included the popular anthem "Crawling In The Dark." Plenty of airplay and international touring ensued, and the album was certified platinum within a year.
But it was their sophomore album The Reason that broke Hoobastank big. With high-octane tracks like "Out Of Control" and "Same Direction" and the ballads "Disappear" and the mega-hit title track, the album was certified double platinum in 2004 and nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2005 GRAMMYs. "The Reason" hit No. 2 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (where it resided for 38 weeks), No. 1 on the Adult Pop Airplay and Alternative Airplay charts in 2004, earning Hoobastank another 2005 GRAMMY nod for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.
Their mainstream crossover may have pegged Hoobastank as a one-hit wonder to many, but their catalog is richer than that. A potent hard rock album, The Reason hit No. 3 on Billboard's Top 200 albums chart, where it endured for more than a year. (It should also be noted that their platinum-selling debut album broke the Top 20.)
Before Netflix brought "The Reason" back, Hoobastank was name-checked on the debut episode of Hulu's satirical "M.O.D.O.K." series in 2021, when the titular character told his son that Hoobastank were "the Beatles of the late '90s." While the quoted time period was slightly off, the line itself was jokey — and not the first time that the band got a shout out.
"We've been named checked enough," Robb says matter-of-factly. "More often than not, I feel like it was kind of a punchline. I think years ago it might have stung a little bit, but I think some of it's pretty funny, man. I get it.
"In our old age and wisdom, we pride ourselves of being a band that's really self-aware of who we are and how we approach things," he continues with a smirk. "I think we're in a place where you can say whatever you want, and it's just water off a duck's back, so I get a good laugh out of it."
The overwhelming popularity of "The Reason" inevitably meant that the public would become largely weary of the song and the band. But like anything revived by nostalgia, people who claimed to dislike something later embrace it. "I mean, when you're ready to hear it, it's there," Robb quips. "I think there's definitely a subset of people who were like, 'We're too cool for Hoobastank.' Now X amount of years later, whatever they thought they were too cool for, they realized they were probably just being dumb."
The universality of the song's themes has resonated with fans over the years. Robb has admitted that his lyrics for "The Reason" were stitched together from unused verses and other ideas, while fans have offered their own interpretations. "People are saying that it was a breakup and makeup song, or a song that they proposed to their significant other or something at their wedding," the singer says. "It's a lot of that kind of stuff more than anything else."
Though the video for "The Reason" has no direct connection to the lyrics, its billion-view status certainly proves it made an impact in its own right. Starring the band in a gem heist, they use a fake car accident with a female "victim" to divert the pawn shop owner's attention. The crooks get away with it — or so they think.
Incidentally, the sequel to that story arrived in the next video for the high-energy song "Same Direction," where we learn there's a police mole in the group. It features hammy cameos from Linkin Park's late frontman Chester Bennington, Good Charlotte's Joel Madden, and Kanye West — a testament to the group's popularity with their peers at the time. That sequel clip has close to 10 million views, which means many people today have not seen how the story turns out.
Estrin explains that the idea initially was to have a trilogy of videos and that "Disappear" was supposed to be the third installment, but it was whittled down to a two-parter. Robb says the label kept barraging them with clichéd boy meets girl, boy hurts girl storylines. The band fought back, proposing an ultraviolent, Matrix-type action video with a doomed bank robbery in which they all die.
After the label objected to that route, all of the initial ideas were scrapped. As Robb puts it, "we ended up with this weird story that has absolutely nothing to do with the song at all."
According to Estrin, the narrative's randomness apparently resonated. "I have to say that over the years there's been a couple of videos that have been made outside the United States that have completely 100% ripped off the video," he suggests. "I laugh when I see it. I'm flattered, but at the same time I'm annoyed."
After "The Reason" blew up, Robb recalls how he later tried to dissect "The Reason" to understand how it got so big. But the singer came to understand that it was largely factors beyond his control — and ultimately, the band did not try to replicate the song's success.
Even so, the song and album's popularity also created immense pressure for their next LP, 2006's gold-certified Every Man For Himself — especially as its ubiquity meant some people were tired of Hoobastank altogether.
"I remember anytime anything [we were writing] started in the key of E and was mid-tempo, I would be like, 'No, no, no, that's too close,'" Robb recalls. "We were very sensitive about it, and in hindsight we probably shouldn't have been, but we were experiencing a little bit of the backlash. We rode the highs with the popularity, and now the other side of that double-edged sword was being felt. People were just tired of it. It was overplayed, which I understand, so we were trying to fight that a little bit."
Back in 2006, when I interviewed Robb for Metal Edge magazine about Every Man For Himself, he admitted he was not a big fan of The Reason because he felt the process was rushed and the album was rather assembly-line in its creation.
"I think maybe if it felt that way last we spoke, it was because I like long albums [and] songs that are 8 minutes long. I have the attention span for that," he suggests now. "I never get bored listening to a 9-minute Tool song, so pumping out three-and-a-half minute songs felt a little formulaic. There's definitely a kind of Mad Libs structure to songs like that. While it's cool, it wasn't my style in general … and I still feel that way."
Since The Reason, Hoobastank has explored several genre influences, from pop and funk to alt-rock and EDM, at one point earning the fan-dubbed label of "romantic metal." Many of their subsequent releases — particularly their most recent effort, 2018's Push Pull — are not as intently frenetic as The Reason; in turn, they never reached the same commercial heights. But that never fazed the group, as they've retained a consistent fan base.
And 20 years after their breakthrough, Hoobastank is far from done. Robb reveals that new music is in the works for 2024, and they're set to perform at festivals alongside bands like Yellowcard and Sum 41; they're also toying with the idea of a nostalgic tour package of their own.
Their diversity has presented a conundrum in a music business often predicated on genre. Estrin notes that while the band played the nu-metal oriented Sick New World Festival this past May, they could also feel at home at the emo-flavored When We Were Young festival. "We don't really fit in here, or in here," he acknowledges. "So when these [bands] are all thinking about who to take out or who to package up with, they might not be thinking of these dudes right here. We're going, 'hey, we can fit on both sides."
Hoobastank undoubtedly appreciate what "The Reason" did for them, highlighting both its one-billion YouTube threshold and 900-million stream Spotify tally on social media; they'll also and are performing the album in its entirety at The Echo in L.A. on Dec. 11. Above all, Robb and Estrin are happy that, even after making music together for three decades, they can still create new music at their own pace and on their own terms.
"My personal goal was never to be a rock star, whatever that stereotype is," Robb declares. "In some ways, the attention and the pressure that comes with that spotlight has been one of the negative things about what I do, ironically. But I enjoy creating music and rehearsing and traveling with these guys, and that to me is the success. The fact that we can still do this, and this is still our 'job' 20-plus years later, that's pretty remarkable."
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