In typical Fall Out Boy fashion, the singer has some conflicted feelings for the girl in this song. Here's an interpretation: He's had some very emotional experiences with this girl, but on this particular night, he wants to detach from his feelings and just have a good time with her, as he thinks it "Can't get much worse." He dances with her (could be literal or figurative), and his plan seems to be working, although he is still filled with anger as he tells her, "why don't you show me a little bit of spine you've been saving for his mattress." Sounds like she has another boyfriend, and he's not happy about it.
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Suggestion credit:
Emzyy - Sydney, Australia
Katrina Bowden, who is best known as Cerie in the NBC sitcom 30 Rock, appeared in the song's music video. The actress also made an appearance on Law & Order: SVU and her involvement in the drama led to Patrick Stump spending a couple of days on the show's parent series. He portrayed a kidnapping suspect in the season 18 Law & Order episode "Darkness." The singer explained to AbsolutePunk how the opportunity happened: "Well, basically I met this girl on the set of the 'Dance, Dance' video, she was my love interest in the 'Dance, Dance' video, she's on 30 Rocknow, but at the time she was just the girl in the video. So I saw her on Law & Order and I jokingly said to Bob [McLynn, manager], 'Hey, if she can be on Law and Order maybe I can get on Law & Order as well,' and it ended up happening. I was a total fan, so I kept it going, I was like, 'Let's do this, I wanna do this.' They flew me out and I got to be an actor for two days, so that was cool."
This was released as the second single from Fall Out Boy's second studio album. It was also their second Top 10 hit on the Hot 100, following "
Sugar We're Going Down."
Lead singer Patrick Stump had David Bowie's "
Modern Love" in mind when he wrote the music. "We noticed a lot of bands referencing '80s music without really seeming to reference '80s music. Like, 'Oh yeah, I got an '80s haircut, I totally sound like an '80s band,'" he told MTV. "And we love '80s music, so rather than just getting a synthesizer and jacking it, I just tried to write 'Modern Love.'"
Pete Wentz, FOB's bassist and primary lyricist, appreciated the song's dance rhythm, which is rare in the pop-punk scene. He elaborated: "The cool thing about 'Dance, Dance' is that it's not afraid to have this rhythm that's dance-y. I think kids appreciate it, but people in emo and pop-punk bands are kind of scared by it. They're scared to have different rhythms that are a bit dancier and a bit '80s and a bit sexier. Not us. I think our motto could be, 'Don't be afraid to be sexy.'"
In the music video, directed by Alan Ferguson, Fall Out Boy plays at a homecoming dance for a crowd of high schoolers that includes the band's nerdy counterparts. They have trouble connecting with the cool kids, but nerd Pete - the only one who actually has a date - manages to get a Revenge Of The Nerds-style dance routine going that bridges the social gap. The clip was filmed at Salesian High School in New Rochelle, New York, and features cameos by Ben Jorgensen of Armor For Sleep and Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes.
The band performed this on Saturday Night Live on March 4, 2006.
This was used in several video games, including Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock (2010), American Pie Presents: The Book Of Love (2009), Band Hero (2009), Rock Revolution (2008), Juiced: Eliminator (2006), and Dance Dance Revolution: Supernova (2006), among others.
The music video won the Viewer's Choice award at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. It was also nominated for Best Group Video but lost to "
Move Along" by The All-American Rejects.
The band performed this when they appeared on One Tree Hill in the 2005 episode "An Attempt To Tip The Scales."
