How P!nk's Can't Take Me Home Kicked Off A Career Of Triumphant Authenticity

By J'na Jefferson


Can’t Take Me Home, P!Nk’s double-platinum debut album, introduced the world to the music phenom’s versatile singing chops and notable songwriting skills. The Pennsylvania-born then-20-year-old place on Earth Alecia Moore was billed because the tough-talking, partying antithesis of bubblegum pop princesses like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, and her rebellious personality resulted in the album’s unmistakable attitude. Spunky, effortless vocals set her apart from her contemporaries, also, which is especially evident by the Mariah Carey-esque ballad “Let Me Let You Know.” P!Nk also worked with R&B-minded musicians like Kandi Burruss, Robin Thicke, and Babyface group in attempt to hone a sound in that vein.


The project — released April 4, 2000 — fit into the landscape of late-‘90s and early ‘00s R&B, eras where Destiny's Child, Brandy and Monica, and P!Nk's then-labelmate Toni Braxton had scored major hits. The LP came equipped with the “not a girl, not but a woman” content that drove early-aughts pop (“Don’t tell me you appreciate me, cause all you thinkin’ ‘bout is fuckin’ me,” she sings on the title track), and also progressive lyrics involving same-sex relationships (“Girl, boy, boy, girl, girl, girl, boy, boy / Whichever, you must do what you do,” she spits on “Do What You Do”). Can’t Take Me Home spawned the best 10 singles “Most Girls” and “There You Go,” which featured era-appropriate urban slang (“Sometimes it beez like that”) and references to “bling-bling” and Hennessy. The project as a whole appeared to be a breath of air in a global of cookie-cutter pop manufacturing.


But a year-and-some-change later, P!Nk’s sophomore effort Missundaztood found her trading in record scratches for guitar licks, as she pivoted sharply to a heavy pop-rock sound. She worked with 4 Non Blondes’ Linda Perry for the project, who called their group effort “honest.” The album was heralded as her artsy breakthrough, and laid the groundwork for much of her work since then. Songs like “Get the Party Started,” “Family Portrait,” “Just Like a Pill,” and “Don’t Let Me Get Me” (where she claims record executive L.A. Reid instructed her to change her entire image to be a success) hit the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart.


Throughout Missundaztood’s rollout, Spin put her on the cover in May 2002 with the headline “Rock’s Nasty Girl,” and she noted in interviews that Can’t Take Me Home was “very much marketing.” She hasn't performed an individual song from her debut album on the road since 2013’s The Truth About Love tour, where she sang a medley of “There You Go,” “Most Girls,” and “You Make Me Sick”; before then, the last time she performed something from Can’t Take Me Residence was 2006. Yet as she's shown in the decades since, P!Nk's shift was far less a calculated marketing approach and more a way to let all of herself (and her influences) shine through.


Yet she’s leaned towards pop-rock and adult contemporary stylings since her debut, P!Nk’s artsy milieu is deeply rooted in hip-hop, soul, and R&B. She sang in an all-Black gospel choir and performed backup for Pennsylvania-based hip-hop sort Schools of Thought as a teen. Plus, her R&B girl sort, Choice, was discovered and signed to LaFace in 1995 (L.A. Reid urged P!Nk to go solo, and the categorize disbanded in 1998). But she’s been open about her versatile upbringing, noting that she fronted a punk-rock sort growing up and is a fan of artists like Janis Joplin and Billy Joel, who was the opening musician she saw in concert. Around the time of her debut, though, P!Nk did appear to play into — and somewhat delight in — confusion connected with her look and sound. Throughout a 2000 interview, P!Nk noted that there was a “bet” going on that her mother was lying about who her biological father was.


“[People] completely think I’m mixed!” She chuckles. “I’m like, whichever! Like, I’m a mutt. We all are. We all came from the same place: God… People need to realize you don’t have to be anything to be anything. It comes from your experiences, it comes from where you’ve been,” punctuating her point with “We’re all pink on the inside.” This didn’t stop outlets from pointing out that she is, case in point, a white woman performing R&B, which — while not unheard of, thanks to acts like Teena Marie, Bobby Caldwell, and Taylor Dayne years ago — was still somewhat surprising. Rolling Stone’s review on Can’t Take Me Home starts with “Pink is twenty-year-old Alecia Moore's hair dye of choice and, for that matter, her skin color.”


As a successful white occupant of a historically Black space, these symptoms and comments placed the singer in a precarious position. While all musicians should be given the creative license to do what they’d like, it’s key to recognize that white artists are granted the freedom to genre-hop with far more ease than their contemporaries of color. But, in P!Nk’s situation, wasn’t she being pigeonholed to one specific genre? In 2014, P!Nk’s Missundaztood collaborator Perry discussed helping her break out of her R&B comfort focus sort in attempt to be the fully-realized artist knew she may become. “She fully abandoned what she was told she was supposed to be, and just became Alecia Moore,” she said.


P!Nk mentioned as much immediately after Missundaztood gave her some of her biggest hits. “It wasn’t a choice with my marketing mind thinking, ‘Well, I’m going to completely switch directions,’” she said in a 2003 interview immediately following the success of her sophomore album. “It was like, ‘I have to do this, guys… [if] I don’t get it out, I will self-destruct.”


During the early and mid-aughts, artists like Justin Timberlake, Robin Thicke, and the late Amy Winehouse impressed crowds with their hip-hop, R&B, and soul-inspired flair. And within today’s musical landscape, pop music is heavily influenced by urban stylings. Nevertheless, there really is definitely a trickiness that comes with white pop artists making use of hip-hop-inspired energy for their music. Miley Cyrus’s pivot from the hip-hop flavored LP Bangerz to the country-pop album Younger Right now was punctuated by chastising comments connected with hip-hop, and Post Malone — whose discography is heavily hip-hop influenced — has also come under fire for disrespectful thoughts about the genre.


While some artists (and their labels) actively attempt to push an image, it’s crucial to note that — nevertheless she joked around with the mixed-race conversations — P!Nk never actually attempted to prove she wasn’t who she mentioned she was. She was more concerned about pointing out that she was a girl who could do it all. Ultimately, she was the one who defied her label by pivoting her sound in a task to be true to herself, and that authenticity has been continually triumphant while in her decades-long musical reign.


It’s not likely that P!Nk will dive back inside the R&B pool 20 years soon after her debut, although it’s essential that she keeps it up and continues to point out that her beginning splash was made in part to the genre that began everything for her. While her feet are firmly placed in the adult-contemporary realm and she’s built a reputation as quite the daring live performer, in the 20 years since her debut album, P!Nk has recognized her R&B roots with gratitude and respect, which doesn’t habitually happen once white artists part ways with a urban genre. But, in her case, her experiences with traditionally Black music weren’t passing elaborate — they were how she got here.


“I am a R&B singer, I also am a gospel singer. I’m punk-rock singer. And pop singer. As well as a soul singer. All of that is me,” she told Variety in 2019 ahead of her Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony. “I was a little bit girl that loved Debbie Gibson. Mary J. Blige was the opening cassette I paid for. I fancied 2 Live Crew. I fancied Green Day. I loved Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera. I admired everything and I think my music reflects that... In the event you hope to blur lines, make people uncomfortable and question what they believe in just by looking at you, then you’ve got to take risks — you’ve got to be bold and go all out.”