Songfacts®:

• This is the first single from Matchbox Twenty's fourth studio album, North. It was the first record of new material that the band has released for ten years, although they did record seven new songs for their 2007 compilation album Exile On Mainstream. The song was released on June 12, 2012.
• Frontman Rob Thomas explained to Billboard magazine that the song's about, "the wrong kind of girls that we've probably all dated." However, as a band of mostly married men for the past decade, they turned to other sources of inspiration. "Luckily, you have single friends who are making really bad decisions, so you can draw on their experiences," he laughed.
• Thomas penned the song with guitarists Paul Doucette and Kyle Cook. The band wrote over 60 demos for North and to keep it flowing, they'd set little challenges for themselves such as trying pen something in every key. Doucette told Artist Direct how "Mean" came to be written: "This one came out of a simple chord progression," he said. "We had to write an entire song over this chord progression. Everyone would come up with a section. The basic melodic structure was written in a few minutes. We were fairly drunk at the time [Laughs]. We were recording everything we were doing. We traded off singing different melodies over it. It's pretty funny to listen to, I have to say."
• North debuted at the peak position on the Billboard 200 giving Matchbox Twenty their first ever #1 album. However, it wasn't the debut chart-topper for lead singer Rob Thomas. The group's frontman led with his solo debut, ...Something to Be," which entered the album chart at #1 in May 2005.