Don't Tell Me (3:22)

“Don’t Tell Me” is the first single of Avril Lavigne’s second studio album, Under My Skin, in 2004. The song was written by Avril Lavigne with instruments by Evan Taubenfeld, who featured in the music video for this song, and was produced by Butch Walker. The b-side, “Take Me Away”, also made it onto the album as the opener. The song starts with an acoustic pop rock intro, and then gets an alternative rock sound in the chorus.

The music video portrays Lavigne’s character’s telling her boyfriend to leave after he tried to pressure her into going farther sexually than she wanted to. She kicks him out of her apartment, and after he leaves, she throws and breaks a glass cup full of water against the wall and punches a mirror. She then continues to follow him as she sings lines such as “Did you think that I was gonna give it up to you, this time?” and “Don’t try to tell me what to do.” She follows him down the hall, out the apartment, and onto the streets. During the bridge, she appears in many places at once, and so it is obvious she is on her boyfriend’s mind.

The video was nominated at the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards in the category of Best Pop Video.

The song appears on Totally Hits 2004 Vol.2.

It is also the first music video where Lavigne exposes excessive amount of skin, making it her first contradiction (she had said that she will not wear ‘skanky’ clothes that seems like selling out, whereas she wants to ‘sell music.’)