Walk the Moon (stylized as WALK THE MOON) is an American rock band based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Lead singer Nicholas Petricca started the band in 2006, while a student at Kenyon College, deriving the band's name from the song "Walking on the Moon" by the Police. The group independently released their debut studio album, I want! I want!, in November 2010, receiving airplay for the track "Anna Sun" on multiple alternative radio stations. Along with the success of "Anna Sun", Alt Nation named them a band you need to know for the summer of 2012. Influential music blog Neon Gold helped to break the band in January 2011, calling "Anna Sun", "the kind of stuff British A&R dreams, and major label bidding wars, are made of." In February 2011, Walk the Moon signed to RCA Records and in June 2012, released their first major label studio album, Walk the Moon. The album includes a re-recorded version of "Anna Sun." In December 2014, the band released their second major-label studio album, Talking Is Hard. This album includes the song "Shut Up and Dance", which hit number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number one on the Billboard Rock Songs chart and Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Ryan Seed of Billboard gave "Shut Up and Dance" four and a half stars out of five. The band's latest album is 2017's What If Nothing, which peaked at #40 on the Billboard 200, and whose lead single "One Foot" peaked at #1 on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Three other singles were released from the album in 2018, and in 2019 several more stand-alone singles were released, with further plans to release a new album sometime in 2020. Walk the Moon have cited Talking Heads, David Bowie, the Police, Tears for Fears, and Phil Collins as influences. The band's use of 1980s musical mainstays, such as keyboard and synthesizer, is also notable.