"Be yourself, let you come through"
About this Quote
“Be yourself, let you come through” lands like a backstage pep talk, but it carries the hard-earned grit of someone who’s made a career out of turning discomfort into sound. Coming from Jonathan Davis, the line isn’t self-help poster mush; it’s closer to an artistic survival strategy. Korn’s whole aesthetic has been about making the unpretty audible: anxiety, shame, rage, grief. In that context, “be yourself” doesn’t mean “be your best self.” It means stop sanding down the parts that get you judged and let them leak into the work.
The phrasing matters. “Let you come through” suggests there’s an authentic signal already there, but it’s trapped under noise: expectation, masculinity scripts, the industry’s pressure to package pain into a marketable brand. “Let” is the operative verb. It frames authenticity as permission, not discovery. You’re not inventing a persona; you’re removing the bouncers at the door.
There’s also a quiet challenge in the lack of specifics. Davis doesn’t define what “yourself” should look like, because in subcultural music scenes, identity isn’t a checklist; it’s a refusal. The intent is to make expression feel less like performance and more like confession with amplification. The cultural moment that made Korn resonate - late-90s alienation, suburban numbness, the mainstreaming of outsider emotion - turns this into a permission slip for listeners too: your mess isn’t disqualifying. It’s material.
The phrasing matters. “Let you come through” suggests there’s an authentic signal already there, but it’s trapped under noise: expectation, masculinity scripts, the industry’s pressure to package pain into a marketable brand. “Let” is the operative verb. It frames authenticity as permission, not discovery. You’re not inventing a persona; you’re removing the bouncers at the door.
There’s also a quiet challenge in the lack of specifics. Davis doesn’t define what “yourself” should look like, because in subcultural music scenes, identity isn’t a checklist; it’s a refusal. The intent is to make expression feel less like performance and more like confession with amplification. The cultural moment that made Korn resonate - late-90s alienation, suburban numbness, the mainstreaming of outsider emotion - turns this into a permission slip for listeners too: your mess isn’t disqualifying. It’s material.
Quote Details
| Topic | Confidence |
|---|
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