We Don't Have to Dance

"We Don't Have to Dance" was produced by Ricky Reed[4] and John Feldmann.[5] The song is described as a "upbeat, dance-able" song and Black's "departure" from the musical style of Black Veil Brides.[6] Black described the song as "poppier than his work with Black Veil Brides".[5] The song's lyrics are about social anxiety,[2] loathing social events and hatred of small talk.[1] The song was written by Black and his team of writers in collaboration with Fall Out Boy vocalist Patrick Stump and former The Used guitarist Quinn Allman.[2] On writing with Stump, Black said that it was "very simple in that we just sat and talked about things that we mutually hated for like a half an hour and then we just put them in a list and that is the lyrics to the song.”[6]

On March 9, 2016, a 15-second teaser for "We Don't Have to Dance" was released.[7] A week later, the title for Black's debut album was confirmed to be titled as The Shadow Side and would be released on May 6.[8] The song was released as the first single to the album on March 18,[1][9] alongside a music video released three days later.[10][11] The song was the official theme song for WWE pay-per-view event Payback[12] and is included in the video game WWE 2K17.[13] At the 2017 Alternative Press Music Awards, it was named "Song of the Year".[14]

The music video of the song was released on March 21, 2016 and was directed by Patrick Fogarty.[10][15] The video is in black and white and is described as "eerie" with "vintage horror film aesthetic".[6]