“Rattled by the Rush” is the second track on Pavement’s album Wowee Zowee, and the album’s first single. Released in 1995, Rolling Stones calls it Pavement’s reaction to the fame they gained from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, which was never their intent. Although a short portion of this song can be heard in the cutscene music in the television show Friends, it is more famous for MTV’s banning of its music video, in which the camera work was deemed to make people too dizzy after appearing on MTV’s 120 Minutes. A secondary music video featuring parts of the original footage playing on a bathroom tile, with less spinning cameras, was released.

When looking at the title of this song it is immediately evident that the words “Rattled” and “Rush” both have negative connotations. The preposition “by” also gives causality to why the author says they are rattled. The word “Rush” usually refers to when a person is in a hurry or when a mob of people are all moving quickly toward something. Regardless, one typically rushes in a frantic manner, which usually paints a negative picture. Another way that one can feel a rush is the intense flooding of emotion that would come after a certain act such as, skydiving, riding a roller coaster, or anything of that nature. The word “Rattled” could refer to being either disturbed, rattled, or unnerved, which would be the emotional way to look at that. When looking at the physical definition of rattled, it could be referring to shaking a musical instrument or a small child’s toy. The title is emotional and it gives the listener the sense that something is coming at them and it can’t be stopped.