Pink is her own worst enemy in this anthem of self-loathing that has her wishing she could be someone else. She told MTV's Making The Video that she wrote the song "about feeling inadequate and wanting to get away from yourself."
In this track, the frustrated singer complains:
Tired of being compared to damn Britney Spears
She's so pretty
That just ain't me
Pink entered the pop scene in 2000 with her debut album, Can't Take Me Home, an R&B-influenced collection of dance friendly teen pop that had critics and record executives comparing her to the resident Princess of Pop, Britney Spears. The rebellious singer bristled at the suggestion she was anything like Spears, who was being marketed as a virginal good girl. The tabloids even tried to orchestrate a feud between the pop stars, claiming that Pink purposefully sent an allergic Spears a bouquet of toxic flowers (Pink did send her flowers, but she wasn't aware of the allergy). Pink explained she's not dissing Spears in her song, she's actually complimenting her. "I don't want to get my point misconstrued," she said. "It's more about the record company than it is about Britney Spears."
With her second album, Missundaztood, Pink wanted to bust out of the pop star mold her label tried to force her into. In "Don't Let Me Get Me," the album's second single, she takes aim at LaFace Records co-founder L.A. Reid, singing:
L.A. told me, "You'll be a pop star
All you have to change is everything you are"
"I absolutely did not say that to her," Reid laughed on VH1's Driven. "But she was pokin' fun at me."
This was co-written and produced by Dallas Austin, who also worked with TLC, Madonna, and Boyz II Men.
Pink sang this on the January 12, 2002 episode of Saturday Night Live.
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This was used on Ally McBeal in the 2002 episode "Homecoming."
In the Dave Meyers-directed music video, Pink is a defiant high school student failing to fit in with her popular classmates. She ends up getting in a fight with her own reflection in a locker-room mirror, which attracts the scorn of her peers and lands her in hot water with her gym teacher. She told Making The Video of the scene: "To me, any truth is good whether it hurts or not, so me looking in the mirror standing next to what most people would call a perfect girl, I have those feelings. I think every girl does. And it's important for girls to know that, yeah I'm up here, I'm doing my thing - I am a strong individual, and I've gained that strength over the years - but I still look at myself in the mirror and try to pat my hips in."
Next, we're shown how the self-conscious singer navigates the pressures of the music industry - including a frustrating meeting in L.A. Reid's (Ted Lyde) office - before she triumphantly returns to her alma mater to perform.
The video was shot at Dorsey High School in Los Angeles, but is called Moore High School in the clip. The fictional locale is named after the singer, whose real name is Alecia Moore. Pink actually attended Central Bucks High School West in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, until she dropped out after getting a record deal. On her last day, a limo arrived to pick her up from school.
Pink confirmed that she was a troublemaker in high school and had 63 hours of overdue detentions when she dropped out.
The knife that Pink plays with in the video was a gift from Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, who provided guest vocals on the album track "Misery."
With 5 million copies sold in the US, Missundaztood was one of the best-selling albums of 2002.