Writing and Development
Duff explained of the album's title, "I'm older and more mature now than I was when I made my last record, but I don't think I know it all. Having dignity is something you work on your whole life, in how you treat people and how you treat yourself. I hope I always strive to have it." She continued, "It's not something that you can be given or that you can just get or that you're born with. It's something that you have to work on." She stated that with Dignity, her increased songwriting output was a breakthrough for her. "That hadn't really been part of my process on previous records, except here and there. It was important this time," she said. She co-wrote all of the album's songs, with the exception of "Outside of You", written by Pink, Chantal Kreviazuk and Raine Maida. In an interview, Maida stated that the song was written for a Pink album but did not make the final cut. When Duff expressed interest in the song, she recorded it. Duff explained of her writing process:
has all of me in it. I never did my records like that before. I got to choose the music, but this time around it was, like, I'd sit down and think: 'What happened to me yesterday? What happened to me today?' and just write. It was very therapeutic, in a way. And easy – I was shocked at how easy it was to be honest about yourself and things that affect you. It is a dance record, but I wanted it to be serious. I wanted to talk about serious things, but do it in a not-so-serious way, with music that makes you want to get up and dance.
Much of Dignity was written in Duff's own home, as she felt "comfortable and free" there. She said that she knew from the beginning that she wanted to write the album with the assistance of songwriter and producer Kara DioGuardi, due to their previous work history on songs such as "Come Clean" and "Fly". Another reason that Duff wished to work with her was that she found her lyrics were complemented by DioGuardi's melodies. She added, "I helped with the melodies, but that's not my strongest suit. Coming up with the lyrics was mainly . I'd tell her this is how I want it to go, and she would help with the lyrics, too, sometimes. She'd say, 'This doesn't really fit,' and if I was adamant, we'd make it work."
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