"
Spiderwebs" is a
ska punk song written by
Gwen Stefani and
Tony Kanal for
No Doubt's third studio album
Tragic Kingdom (1995). It was released as the album's second
single in 1995 (see
1995 in music). When "Spiderwebs" reached the radio airwaves in the U.S, it began a revival of the
ska genre. The song is a combination of ska and pop. With its ubiquitous airplay for months, more ska-flavored singles became prevalent in later years such as
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones' "
The Impression That I Get",
Save Ferris' "
Come On Eileen", and
The Specials' "A Little Bit You, A Little Bit Me".
Initially, the song debuted number 10 on the Billboard charts and peaked at number 5 after three weeks of its release. The song's lyrics are about a man who had been calling Gwen at all hours to recite bad poetry to her.[1] Musically, the song uses a drum for the beat and various brass instruments, such as a trombone to build up the crescendos in the chorus.
Two different music videos were produced for "Spiderwebs". In the first version, the music video showed clips of the band playing. MTV thought that the exploding telephones were inappropriate for younger viewers so they added more footage of the band. These included lead singer Gwen Stefani walking around being covered in "spiderwebs" made of strings sprayed out of aerosol cans and Gwen being tangled in various telephone cords. In the second version, the music video featured the band playing in a Japanese restaurant entertaining the patrons. As the band plays, various Japanese-language sentences are displayed on the screen.
The subtitles displayed in the Japanese music video during the wedding reception scene translate to "Excellent party", "I really like cake a lot", "What is your name?", "This is excellent champagne", "What is this? Crazy kids", "It's making me sick".
