Push And Shove
by No Doubt (featuring Major Lazer)

Album: Push And Shove (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • The title track of No Doubt's sixth studio album was produced by Diplo and features his musical project Major Lazer. The Philadelphia-based American producer is best known for his work with M.I.A. ("Paper Planes") and Beyoncé ("Run The World (Girls)").
  • The song crosses various genres and tempos, mixing Dancehall and Dubstep elements with No Doubt's trademark horn section, whilst frontwoman Gwen Stefani trades verses with Jamaican rapper Busy Signal. "We've never fit into any format," Stefani told Billboard magazine. "Luckily we've been able to fit into both [pop and rock] a little bit, though not really consciously... We've just managed to nudge our way in."
  • The four custom portraits of each band member for the album cover were photographed and then rendered manually into paintings by El Mac, who is known for his murals across Los Angeles. "It's a tricky photo-realistic way of painting the patterns," said the street artist, "because they have to look right up close but have a different experience when you look at them from far away. There was a lot of back and forth."
  • No Doubt decided to name the album after this song as it summed up the struggles they had coming up with songs for the record. "When we're choosing a title for the record, in the past, each one has its own story, and with Rock Steady, we had that title before we even started writing the record, I think; we had that early, early on," said Stefani to MTV News. "With this record, I kept waiting for the title to come, and everyone's like 'What's it going to be?' And up until the very last minute, we didn't have anything. But I wasn't worried about it; because it always appears at a certain point. "And 'Push and Shove' the song was one of the tracks we were working on last ... and we got so excited about that song, it just finally all came together, and it felt like the kind of song that was everything we've ever been, yet it was new and modern," she continued. "The record had been such a journey, and so hard to actually finish, we really had to fight to get to the end ... so it kind of rose to the top [as a title]; like 'Yeah, that's what this whole thing was.' It just seemed to sum it all up."
  • Drummer Adrian Young explained why the band released a video for this song. "We were in New York with Sophie Muller," he said, "and we did a one-camera, one-light shoot on the streets of New York, and even though it's not an official single, we made a video for it anyway, because we were really excited to put some visuals behind it."

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