{"id":436,"date":"2022-12-06T20:40:29","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T20:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/?page_id=436"},"modified":"2022-12-07T20:13:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T20:13:43","slug":"i-dont-want-to-be-by-gavin-degraw","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/fall-2022\/labels\/i-dont-want-to-be-by-gavin-degraw\/","title":{"rendered":"“I Don’t Want to Be” by Gavin DeGraw"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The song \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to Be\u201d by Gavin DeGraw is an upbeat song also featured as the opening theme song to the popular teen series One Tree Hill.<\/em> It tells the story of a young teen going through an identity crisis. The song opens with \u201cI want to be anything other than a prison guard\u2019s son,\u201d \u201ca specialist\u2019s son,\u201d or \u201cthe birth of two souls in one.\u201d These are the labels the singer receives at birth based off his parents\u2019 occupations. He is proud being labeled as the son of his mother and father, and he is content knowing others see him as a prison guard and specialist\u2019s son. The verse ends with \u201cpart of where I\u2019m going is knowing where I\u2019m coming from.\u201d He is stating here that his future is dependent on knowing how, where, and by whom he was raised. These all create labels for him and allow him a greater understanding of who he is and who he is supposed to be. He also labels those around him as liars and imposters and asks, \u201cam I the only one who\u2019s learned?\u201d He is trying to say that he is careful with who he trusts as he has learned from the lies of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The writer uses pathos when singing about how he is affected by these labels. This song answers the question \u201cWhat Is Identity?\u201d by demonstrating the aspect of self-perception and how labels can change a person\u2019s identity negatively and\/or positively. The most repeated line in the song is \u201cI don\u2019t want to be anything other than me.\u201d He is tired of trying to fit everyone else\u2019s idea of who he should be and the labels that others have attached to him. The singer solely believes one\u2019s identity is what they want it to be and nothing else should matter to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mocca. \u201cGavin Degraw – I Don\u2019t Wanna Be (Lyrics).\u201d\u00a0YouTube<\/em>, 25 Sept. 2010,\u00a0www.youtube.com\/watch?v=q4DvQZbdeE0&feature=youtu.be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=q4DvQZbdeE0&feature=youtu.be<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The song \u201cI Don\u2019t Want to Be\u201d by Gavin DeGraw is an upbeat song also featured as the opening theme song to the popular teen series One Tree Hill. It tells the story of a young teen going through an identity crisis. The song opens with \u201cI want to be anything other than a prison… Continue reading “I Don’t Want to Be” by Gavin DeGraw<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":372,"featured_media":0,"parent":386,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_sb_is_suggestion_mode":false,"_sb_show_suggestion_boards":false,"_sb_show_comment_boards":false,"_sb_suggestion_history":"","_sb_update_block_changes":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-436","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/372"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/436\/revisions\/621"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iris.siue.edu\/identity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}