Don't Let Me Get Me

"Don't Let Me Get Me" is set in the key of E♭ major^[2] in common time with a tempo of 98 beats per minute. The song moves at a chord progression of E♭–Cm–B♭–A♭, and Pink's vocals span from E♭₃ to B♭₄.^[3][2] Pink has since changed the controversial "damn Britney Spears" lyric to "sweet Britney Spears."^[4]

The song earned positive reports from music critics, but most gave sensitively mixed reviews upon her self-hating lyrical content. Robert Christgau in his consumer guide for MSN wrote that "Despite Pink's audacious claim that she's not as pretty as 'damn Britney Spears,' celebrity anxiety takes a backseat to a credible personal pain rooted in credible family travails, a pain held at bay by expression."^[5] Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "In Don't Let Me Get Me, she turns self-loathing into a perverse kind of anthem."^[6]

Jason Thompson of PopMatters wrote, "on the power rock of 'Don’t Let Me Get Me,' Pink herself tells it like it is and attempts to break free from the image making machine. 'Tired of being compared / To damn Britney Spears / She’s so pretty / That just ain’t me.' Well, that’s debatable in itself, but the fact that Pink takes it upon herself to call Spears out should be nothing short of revelatory. Spears certainly has nothing on Pink in the vocal department. Pink can actually sing. And damn well, mind you."^[1]

Jim Alexander wrote a negative review, saying that the rest of Missundaztood is full of bad songs and that "'Don't Let Me Get Me' and 'Dear Diary' see all pop joy expunged for acoustic seriousness, dreary unobtrusive beats and lyrics about relationship woes and record company badness."^[7]

A music video for "Don't Let Me Get Me" was shot on January 4–6, 2002 in Los Angeles and Malibu, California.^[8] Pink reteamed with frequent collaborator Dave Meyers to film the visuals.^[8] Most of the scenes were shot at Susan Miller Dorsey High School, a high school located in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles,^[8] while additional sequences, set at an office and during a photo shoot, were filmed at a private Malibu residence.^[9] Ted Lyde portrays music executive L.A. Reid in the video.^[9]

The video depicts Pink as a high school student, in various scenes in which her nonconformity causes conflict with other students and school officials. A similarly-themed scene depicts her meeting with Reid, who tells her that in order to obtain stardom, she will have to change everything about her persona, in order to exhibit a greater resemblance to Britney Spears, despite Pink's insistence that that is not how she sees herself. Yet another scene shows her modeling for the cover of a magazine, irritated at how she is being made up by the lighting technicians, makeup artists and other personnel involved in the shoot. The video then shifts to a scene in which Pink, now in control over her career, is welcomed back to her high school for a concert there.

Credits are taken from the Missundaztood album booklet.^[17]

Studios

• Recorded at Pinetree Studios (Miami Beach, Florida) and DARP Studios (Atlanta, Georgia)
• Mixed at Larrabee Studios North (North Hollywood, California)
• Mastered at Hit Factory Mastering (New York City)

Personnel