Rob Thomas, the vocalist of the legendary band Matchbox Twenty, has expressed his delight at the fact that their famous song “Push,” which was released in 1996, was included prominently in the film “Barbie,” which was released in 2023. The audience was taken on a trip through themes of emotional manipulation and toxic masculinity as the sequence progressed, with Ryan Gosling’s fictitious character Ken, played by Margot Robbie, strumming his guitar and singing the alt-rock hit in front of Margot Robbie’s rendition of Barbie.
“Barbie” was directed by Greta Gerwig and included a star-studded soundtrack with popular artists such as Dua Lipa, Lizzo, and Billie Eilish. On the other hand, the song “Push” by Matchbox Twenty was the one that struck a chord with listeners the deepest since it precisely depicted the inner struggle that Ken experiences as a result of feeling lost in Barbie’s world and turning to toxic ideals.
It was significant to Thomas in more ways than one that the song “Push” was used in the movie. During the 1990s, when manufactured anguish was all the rage in music and vulnerability was not a typical subject for songwriters to explore, he collaborated with other songwriters to write a song about an emotionally abusive ex-girlfriend. When Thomas thought back on it, he recognized how intricate the lyrics were and how deeply felt the emotions were that were woven into the song. He also understood that the song was a result of a period in which counseling and self-awareness were not as freely spoken.
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The popularity of “Push” was not without its fair share of controversy, since some listeners took the chorus to be about physical assault, which was not the intended meaning at all. However, in an interview that was conducted exclusively with USA Today, Thomas said that the band’s management had purposefully stoked the issue at the time in order to attract more attention. Thomas made this confession. The song is analyzed in today’s more enlightened period through the lens of a more critical perspective, with consideration given to its description of emotional manipulation and the impact that it has on relationships.
Thomas and Matchbox Twenty’s contribution to the alternative rock genre as well as their influence on music in the ’90s were honored in a new light as a result of “Barbie” bringing “Push” back into the limelight. Thomas’ first reaction was that it was a bad idea to include the music in the movie, but after giving it some more thought, he realized that the entire notion was amusing.
“I did this thinking I’d be the butt of the joke, and I was fine with that,” Thomas said. “I did this thinking I’d be the butt of the joke.” “I have a rather thick layer of skin. But Atlantic Records’ Julie Greenwald visited the Hollywood Bowl about a month or two ago,” he said. “It was a great show.” “She had just finished seeing the film when she said something along the lines of, ‘You come out of it liking Ken and adoring “Push.'” And at that moment I was like, “Aww. Okay, this is pretty impressive!'”
The filmmaker has a personal relationship to the song “Push” that dates back to when she was a teenager, which had a role in the choice to use it in the movie in order to generate a feeling of familiarity as well as emotion. According to an interview that Gerwig gave to Entertainment Weekly, the song was “playing all the time” while she was in the seventh grade, but it wasn’t until she was in college that she really grasped what it meant.
“When I was a kid, that was one of my favorite songs,” Gerwig added. “And it wasn’t until I was really in college that I wondered, ‘What is that song about?’ Just the thought of myself at the age of 13 singing along and actually believing what I was saying prompted me to think, “That is so interesting.”
A week after “Barbie” was the most successful movie at the box office in July 2023, Thomas, who was on tour with Matchbox Twenty at the time, dedicated their song “Push” to Ryan Gosling at one of their performances. The video of Thomas’s performance has received over 1.1 million views and 14,000 shares, indicating that it has gone viral.