Can’t Change Me

About the Song

“Can’t Change Me” is a song in which the speaker sings about a virtuous woman who wants to make the world better by making everything virtuous like her, including the speaker. The speaker confirms that the woman has the power to make the world as virtuous as herself, but no matter how much power she has, her virtue will never change him. Throughout the song, the speaker never says what is wrong with him that the woman is trying to change. However, the listener can guess that he is talking about the depression and darkness he feels inside himself due to Chris Cornell’s experience with depression and his singing in a lamenting tone. In other words, he is sad that there’s nothing she can do to change him. Although the speaker tries to change his ways, he comes to the realization that he is who he is, and accepts that he will always be have darkness inside of him, and that will not change.

Impact

The first time I heard this song was actually around the time Chris Cornell died. I was familiar with his music with Soundgarden and Audioslave, but I never listened to his music as a solo artist. When I first heard this song, I fell in love with it because I liked the way it explained human nature. In other words, it explained this idea that human beings know who they are and will not change that because they simply cannot be who others expect them to be. In my opinion, it is possible for a person to meet another person who has an impact on him or her and changing one’s ways is successful. However, this song explores the ways in which the person will always hold onto oneself rather than being a person whom with one is not familiar. When I relate to this song, I see myself in both roles. I see myself as being the person who wants to impact everyone’s life, and wants to bring out the best in everyone. How could I not see myself as a person who wants to bring out the best in everyone? I want to be a teacher. At the same time, I see myself as one of those people that no matter how much I try to change my ways, I will always be the person I am with all my flaws; for example, I mention that I try to change my awkward mannerisms. However, even though I have tried to change my ways to be less awkward and less shy, I can only accept the fact that I am who I am. I can also understand this from Cornell’s perspective of being depressed because even though there were moments I hated who I was, I knew I could not change it because of who I am. In other words, I could not change who I was because I simply could not allow the change because I feel like I will always be the person I know.

Values

“Can’t Change Me” teaches people about the idea of being oneself in a very cynical way. The speaker promotes this idea of being a better person who can “change the world” by talking about it as being preferable to dark and depressing person he knows as himself. At the same time, the song also teaches the idea of being oneself and accepting even the flaws. The song examines the idea of who one is and what one should be. The speaker is this dark and depressing person, but he should be virtuous like the woman whom he is singing about. He is accepting his flaws, but he is learning what he should strive to be. Although this is a strange contradiction, I think it is important for the listener of this song to find a middle ground. It is important for the person to accept one’s flaws. However, a person should strive to “change the world” despite their flaws and make the greatest impact possible on the people they meet.

Significance to My Students

“Can’t Change Me” teaches students that they should learn to accept themselves despite their flaws. It is not only important for students to accept themselves, but to be aware of themselves as human beings. Therefore, “Can’t Change Me” teaches students how to become self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses. Although the speaker does not speak of his strengths, I think the lack of mention of any strengths should be able to help the listener question what is good about oneself. Furthermore, “Can’t Change Me” teaches people to know their flaws, but be comfortable with themselves despite these flaws. However, the speaker’s flaw of feeling constant depression is not minor, and should ideally be changed. As much as I think this song has a lesson about being self-aware and accepting, I think part of the lesson of the song comes from being cynical of the song’s lyrics. In other words, if students feel unhappy with a flaw they feel is not simply minor, they should probably try to change that flaw. The speaker of the song only accepts himself; he does not love himself.

Students should change themselves so they can love themselves. However, if the student has a minor flaw that does not necessary to change, he or she should learn to be proud of oneself despite that flaw and learn how to use that flaw for good. For example, a student that “worries too much” on a minor scale may have a minor flaw, but maybe “worrying too much” is an alarm in one’s head that helps one be successful. Therefore, teachers and peers should not be too worried about changing that flaw because as I said, that flaw can be used to help the student make an impact in the world. In this case, “worrying too much” serving as an alarm will help the student in college where he or she will go get their degree in an occupation in which one will make an impact on the world.