Shut Up and Dance

"Shut Up and Dance" (stylized as "SHUT UP + DANCE") is a song by American pop rock band Walk the Moon from their third studio album Talking Is Hard (2014). It was written by the band members and songwriters Ben Berger and Ryan McMahon. The song is based on an experience lead singer Nicholas Petricca had at a Los Angeles nightclub. His girlfriend invited him to dance, inspiring the title. Petricca envisioned the song as an anthem for letting go of frustration and having fun. The song was digitally released as the lead single from Talking Is Hard on September 10, 2014. The song became the band's biggest hit single to date, peaking at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming a number-one hit on the magazine's Alternative Songs chart and the Hot Adult Contemporary chart. Outside of the United States, "Shut Up and Dance" topped the charts in Poland, peaked within the top ten of the charts in Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom, the top 20 of the charts in New Zealand and Sweden, and the top 30 of the charts in the Netherlands. The band has performed "Shut Up and Dance" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Good Morning America. Background The song originated between vocalist Nicholas Petricca and guitarist Eli Maiman, who first developed the verse and found something infectious about it. The following weekend, Petricca went to a party named Funky Soul Saturday at The Echo in Echo Park, Los Angeles, while feeling frustrated with the writing process. Petricca recalled, "We were at the bar, and it was taking forever to get a drink. I was frustrated because there was great music playing and I wanted to be out there." His girlfriend, in "a backless dress and beat up red Chucks", abruptly invited him to dance with her, inspiring the song's title. Petricca later went home to work on the song and incorporated his experiences into the song's lyrics. After creating the song's main refrain, he began picturing himself in high school: an "incredibly uncomfortable, awkward adolescent dude"; he imagined the song as an "anthem for the dork who is 100 percent me".