Songfacts®:

• Hailee Steinfeld explains here that she prefers to work on her music instead of hanging out with the Hollywood crowd. She's not interested in "making love to Jack and Jameson" and "skiing in the powder room."
  
  Steinfeld, who was 18 when this song was released, had more exposure to Hollywood than most singers: she was well established as an actress, with roles in movies like Ender's Game, Romeo & Juliet and Pitch Perfect 2. She later appeared in blockbusters like Bumblebee and The Marvels.
• The outsider anthem was inspired by Alessia Cara's breakout hit "Here," where the Canadian teen sings about her hatred of going to parties. Steinfeld told Elle: "There are times often where I'm walking around in the world trying to figure out where I belong. Noticing times that I'm uncomfortable is something I've learned to do."
  
  "I don't have to conform to being cool or to something I'm not," she continued. "'Here' really struck a chord with me. This does have the same message of realizing, 'It's cool that I was able to go and hang out with friends, but it was just not my night.'"
• Like Steinfeld's debut single "Love Myself," "Hell Nos And Headphones" was written by the songwriting duo of Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter and produced by the Swedish pair Mattman & Robin.
• There was one specific event that inspired this song. Steinfeld says she was at a gathering at a friend's house and was getting the cold shoulder from everyone there. Standing there looking like a "complete loser," she faked a phone call and went home. "Then I went into the studio in a rage and was telling this whole story about not understanding why I couldn't get these people to talk to me," she told Entertainment Weekly. "It's amazing how something like that song can come out of one night."