Jimmy Eat World's breakthrough 2001 album Bleed American nearly didn't happen, as the Arizona band spent much of the late 1990s struggling commercially despite critical acclaim, prompting them to leave their major label, Capitol, and their management at the end of 1999. Rebuilding from scratch, the band wove hidden lyrical references to acts including Motley Crue, Bad Company and Madness into songs on the record, a quirky creative decision that formed part of the reinvention that ultimately rescued their career and turned them into one of Taylor Swift's favourite bands.

Neither of Jimmy Eat World's Capitol releases, 1996's Static Prevails and 1999's Clarity, sold well enough to meet the label's expectations, leading to an amicable parting of ways. Drummer Zach Lind told the Phoenix New Times that the band felt they had been surrounded by people who didn't understand them, prompting a fresh start free of prior management as they set about writing and recording what would become Bleed American, the self-funded album that revived their fortunes.