DAVID BERRY
‘As someone who reads pop lyrics for a living, this is the underlying message of pretty much every song’
Shutup and dance
As someone who reads pop lyrics for a living, I feel like this is the underlying message of pretty much every song.
He knows how to make someone feel special, eh? “How did you meet?” “Stimulus response to a set of advantageous physical conditions, really.
Right, sweetheart?”
The singer seems like someone with a desperate saviour complex, too. Up there he attributes the attraction to the setting, but a few seconds of dancing later and they’re destiny, born to be together. All you know about this girl is that she’s an unpicky dancer, man.
The band has also said this was their attempt to write an ’80s-style song, by which I think they mean the “oh oh oh” and guitar line in the chorus, and not the attitude that dorks can just expect to be redeemed by wonderful, outgoing women desperate to be with them.
Chorus
Oh don’t you dare look back Just keep your eyes on me I said you’re holding back, She said shut up and dance with me This woman is my destiny
She said oh oh oh Shut up and dance with me
We were victims of the night, The chemical, physical, kryptonite Helpless to the bass and the fading light Oh we were born to get together,
Born to get together
She took my arm, I don’t know how it happened We took the floor and she said
Chorus
A backless dress and some beat-up sneaks, My discotheque Juliet teenage dream I felt it in my chest as she looked at me I knew we were born to be together, Born to be together
Chorus
Deep in her eyes, I think I see the future I realize this is my last chance
She took my arm, I don’t know how it happened We took the floor and she said
Chorus
Oh don’t you dare look back Just keep your eyes on me I said you’re holding back, She said shut up and dance with me This woman is my destiny She said oh oh oh Shut up and dance with me Oh oh oh shut up dance with me Oh oh oh shut up dance with me
Walk the Moon have called this “their dork song,” about being too nervous to do anything and being dragged into it by a girl. That’s meant to be endearing, but it’s a common trope in shy-boy writing: the woman who exists solely to unlock the potential of some sensitive little dude.
In film, it’s the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”; music is simpler, so it’s usually just someone with less inhibitions.
This is code for someone who’s down to earth (sneakers!) but not so down to earth that she’s, like, gross or unattractive or something (backless dress!). A girl who can hang, but who still only ever uses the washroom to put on cat-eye makeup.
The lack of agency is part of the fantasy, too. He has no idea what’s going on, so it must just be his inner light that’s attracting her like a moth in American Apparel tights. He’s so special, and he didn’t even realize it until she did, for some reason.