After writing for various artists including The Pussycat Dolls, this was Lady GaGa's first solo single release.

Lady GaGa wrote this song a day after arriving in Los Angeles from New York. The singer-songwriter told HX Magazine: "I was taken very quickly out of my party lifestyle. I wrote it instantly - like it flew out of my body." She explained in the same interview the meaning of the song as "If you've ever been so high that it's, like, scary, the only way you can deal with it is not deal with it, so you just kind of dance through the intoxication."

GaGa explained on her website that the underlying theme of The Fame album "is about how anyone can feel famous. Pop culture is art. It doesn't make you cool to hate pop culture, so I embraced it and you hear it all over The Fame. But, it's a sharable fame. I want to invite you all to the party. I want people to feel a part of this lifestyle."