This song was written for the movie Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, in which Janet Jackson also played Eddie Murphy's love interest, Professor Denise Gaines. Producer/songwriter Jimmy Jam created the music and melody with drum programmer Alan Richburg, and Jackson wrote the lyrics. She wasn't crazy about the song, so she sent in "Feels So Right" along with it, but "Doesn't Really Matter" proved to be the right choice and soared to #1 on the Hot 100. Jam said: "I always tease Janet because I don't think she liked that record until it went to #1."

An alternate version of this song was included on the All For You album.

Jazz flautist Nestor Torres recorded a cover of this song for his 2001 album, This Side of Paradise.

Jackson and Jimmy Jam had to choose between two different choruses for this song. Jam remembered: "I wrote 'Nutty, nutty, nutty, my love for you,' and she wrote, 'Doesn't really matter.' I always think it's cool if you can somehow work the title of the movie in, but you don't want it to be forced. The 'Doesn't really matter' chorus was better but she liked 'Nutty, nutty, nutty' and said we should put it at the end of the song. It would have been a bad idea to have done 'Nutty' through the whole song."

Inspired by Japanese pop culture, Joseph Kahn created an abstract, futuristic landscape for this music video, famous for its dance scenes on a levitating platform. It cost $2.5 million to produce, making it one of the most expensive videos ever made up to that point.