The songwriter, Rivers Cuomo, conceived it as a rock opera that would express his mixed feelings about the success of Weezer's 1994 self-titled debut album.

Inspired by how these works married music and narrative, he wrote a rock opera to explore his feelings about relationships, fame, and life as a touring musician.

[4] Cuomo conceived Songs From the Black Hole as a science-fiction rock opera with tracks that segued seamlessly, ending with a coda that revisited the major musical themes.

[5] The characters were to be voiced by Cuomo, the guitarist Brian Bell, the bassist Matt Sharp, and the Weezer collaborator Karl Koch, along with the guest vocalists Rachel Haden (of That Dog and the Rentals) and Joan Wasser (of the Dambuilders).

[7] To add a science fiction element to Weezer's sound,[4] he used synthesizers including an Electrocomp 101 he had recently purchased from a pawn shop in rural Connecticut.

[7] While Weezer was on tour in Europe later that month, Sharp returned to America due to a family emergency, leaving the band in Hamburg for a week.

Cuomo and Weezer's drummer, Patrick Wilson, rented a studio and recorded additional demos, including a version of "Blast Off!"

[12] By May 1996, Cuomo had settled on a new direction for Weezer's second album, expressing his loneliness and frustration at Harvard, and abandoned Songs from the Black Hole.

[6] In June 1996, Weezer recorded the Songs from the Black Hole tracks "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" (with Haden on vocals) and "Devotion" as B-sides for the Pinkerton singles "The Good Life" and "El Scorcho".

[15] In 2010, Geffen released an expanded reissue of Pinkerton, including Cuomo's demo of "You Won't Get With Me Tonight" and a version of "Longtime Sunshine" recorded at Electric Lady Studios in August 1995.

[16] In 2011, Cuomo released Alone III: The Pinkerton Years, including a "Suite from the Black Hole" comprising "Oh No, This Is Not For Me", "Tired of Sex", "She's Had a Girl", "What is This I Find?

Alone III was sold exclusively with a book, The Pinkerton Diaries, which collects Cuomo's writing from the era, including Songs from the Black Hole lyrics and sheet music.

was the "crown jewel", writing: "It is such a fleeting rush of distortion-driven joy that the edges of the supposed dialogue are entirely blurred, and are hardly essential to enjoy it.

[13] In 2017, the Stereogum writer Pranav Trewn speculated about how Weezer releasing Songs from the Black Hole instead of Pinkerton might have influenced music: "It's perhaps the greatest 'what if?'