Before the invasion of disco sticks and leotards, and before Born This Way gave birth to a new breed of superfan, the first chapter in the legendary Lady Gaga’s career rested on little more than a flashback beat and a wide-eyed girl with nothing to lose and only pop-cultural domination to gain. Now, fourteen years after Gaga’s breakthrough single “Just Dance” exploded onto the scene; the world remembers the catchy tune that made everyone dance!
In an interview with The Miami Herald, Gaga explained her inspiration for writing the song. She said, “I was very hungover. I wrote the song in about 10 minutes with [producer] RedOne. And it was my first time being in a Hollywood studio. Very pristine, big, huge room with giant speakers.” She mentioned in the same interview the meaning of the song as “If you’ve ever been so high that it’s scary, the only way you can deal with it is not deal with it, so you just dance through the intoxication.” She further explained that “It’s about being drunk or high at a club and you dance through it, as you do in all stretches of life when obstacles come, dance through it.”
“Just Dance” is a fast-paced electro-pop, synth-pop, and dance-pop song that combines soaring electronics with clipped marching drums. Music critics praised the song’s club-anthem-like quality and the sound it produced. “Just Dance” was a sleeper hit in the United States, spending over five months on the Billboard Hot 100 before ultimately hitting the top in January 2009. At the 51st Grammy Awards, the song was one of the nominees for Best Dance Recording. With over 10 million copies sold, the track is one of the best-selling singles of all time and Lady Gaga’s first-ever number one hit.
