“The Reason” by Hoobastank, Sunday, September 17, 2023

Nineteen years ago, Hoobastank killed rock music when they released their only ballad, "The Reason." The song rose to number 2 on Billboard's Hot 100 and is the only song remembered by the band, despite the group having several Alternative radio hits. The band formed in 1994 and played local gigs with Incubus and Linkin Park before those bands were popular. Like Incubus and Linkin Park, Hoobastank were known for an eclectic hard rock sound--something listeners of their 2004 hit probably wouldn't get if all they knew was their biggest song. And no, it wasn't the band that ruined rock music, but it was certainly an indicator of the changing of times when music A&R pressured rock bands to follow the Hoobastank model.

IT'S SOMETHING I MUST LIVE WITH EVERY DAY. Howard Benson produced Hoobastank's sophomore record, The Reason. We've talked about Benson as a rock producer of bands like P.O.D., Mae, and The Starting Line. While Hoobastank's second record feels more in the direction of pop punk than Linkin Park and Incubus, only the title track sticks out for pop radio. And without a second pop hit, the band faded into obscurity. The pop-rock ballad proved a double-edged sword for Alternative bands. The songs were catchy and belonged on their emo parent records, showing off the range of emotions the band was capable of. However, the song often propelled the band to a short-lived success. They had that song that everyone could hum, but the biggest problem was that they rarely became household names. This was partly because of their strange names: Yellowcard, Bowling for Soup, Fountains of Wayne, Jimmy Eat World, and what the hell does Hoobastank mean? The 2000s weren't like the '90s when a rock band could equally straddle both pop and rock radio with a few exceptions--Green Day, blink-182, Paramore, My Chemical Romance. And of course, the rock bands were competing on the charts with pop-rock bands: The Fray, Coldplay, OneRepublic, Maroon 5.

ALL THE PAIN I PUT YOU THROUGH. Similar to the Indie Rock bubble of that burst by 2007, rock music in general on the charts started disappearing by the beginning of the 2010s in favor of female pop singers, EDM, hip hop, and a resurgence of boy bands. But even in 2005 when Columbia Records tried to replicate the Hoobastank model on their new signee Acceptance, even bringing in Howard Benson to produce their proposed hit "Different"--a version that has never been released as Aaron Sprinkle's album cut was released with a video and very limited airplay, but that's a story for another day. Hoobastank--despite their nonsensical name which is often ranked as one of the worst band names ever--had a lot to offer the music scene: a punk sound with a frontman, Doug Robb, with a pop-radio-ready voice. Furthermore, being half-Japanese was needed diversity in rock music, a genre predominately by and for white males. But pop and rock alike seemed to forget Hoobastank as soon as "The Reason" left the Hot 100. And to be fair, the pining of the song may have not been everyone's jam, especially hardened rockers, even the emo ones. While the bands like Jimmy Eat World and Yellowcard had thriving careers beyond pop radio, who remembers Hoobastank? I guess Zach Galifianakis will never forget them after he famously misnamed Hoobastank as Saturday Night Live's musical guest the week that he hosted in 2011; it was really Vampire Weekend. So rock fans, today your mission is to dig back into Hoobastank. Enjoy a band that could have been a household name. 

Read “The Reason” by Hoobastank on Genius.

Music video:

Acoustic: