It’s funny that when you’re not feeling down you want to listen to some mood music. And, for me at least, Chris Cornell is a one of the masters at self-loathing music. So naturally I’ve been listening to a lot of his stuff lately.

However, I’m not feeling as bad now, so the music’s been getting a bit more upbeat. And, one song comes to mind, which would be Audioslave’s “Be Yourself”. Yes, I know that Audioslave isn’t a pure 90’s band, but we’ll let em’ slide since the band is made up of Cornell and Rage Against The Machine. I am also well aware at how played out the song is.

“Be Yourself” was the first single from Audioslave’s second album, Out of Exile in 2005. The song quickly shot up to the top of both the Modern Rock Tracks and Mainstream Rock Tracks charts. It was even used in the Scrubs episode “My Mirror Image”, man I love that show.

The song is rather simple, and since it came from Chris Cornell and the guys from RATM, I thought they were getting a bit too soft and poppy. But, the more I listen to “Be Yourself”, it makes sense to me now.

Sure, Cornell is saying “be yourself”, but it’s not that obvious. I think he means that only you have to answer for your mistakes and accomplishments in life. And, it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks about you, because at the end of the day there’s only one person you really have to answer to…which would be yourself. So, if you’re content with who you are, then that’s what really matters.

Enjoy the video.