In an April 2012 interview with Jacinda Govind for Music Feeds, Grimes explained that the song is about a violent assault:[1] It made me crazy for a few years.

I took a typically violent cultural situation and made it pop and happy.Chandler Levack for CBC in 2020[2] and Caz Tran for ABC in 2022 have reported on Grimes' sexual assault, with Tran writing that "as a survivor of a violent sexual assault, 'Oblivion' was the result of [Grimes'] most determined efforts to turn feelings of fear and paranoia into something light hearted and innocuous".

[14] It features Grimes, in a black coat and her signature pink hair, with headphones on at a sporting match with a largely male crowd.

[18][19] The video debuted on March 2, 2012 and shows Grimes amongst shirtless frat boys,[19] as well as in a men's locker room surrounded by weightlifting athletes.

[20] Grimes stated for Pitchfork:[18] Art gives me an outlet where I can be aggressive in a world where I usually can't be, and part of it was asserting this abstract female power in these male-dominated arenas—the video is somewhat about objectifying men.