World HOt toPPIX

After making a bunch of pop-friendly songs that ended up with her being dropped, Alanis Morissette was pushed to create something with a little more bite.

Alanis Morissette in concert - livepict.com After making a bunch of pop-friendly songs that ended up with her being dropped, Alanis Morissette was pushed to create something with a little more bite.

Alanis Morissette was so impressive with her debut pop album that she was simply known as "Alanis", as per the album name. But, as she too soon found out, such success without much of a foundation of character or connecting with the 90's Generation X had her flailing with her second album, Now Is The Time. North America had had enough of that genre and were moving towards the grunge movement heralded by the likes of Nirvana and Alice in Chains because although loved by kids, pop music was derided by the teenagers and young adults of that decade. It was time for something new, and perhaps a lot harder than the norm.

Morissette hit back by writing with one Glen Bollard and through the label Maverick Records, released Jagged Little Pill in 1995, her first truly international release. The first single, 'You Oughta Know', was shortly picked up by influential radio stations, then eventually went onto MTV's video playlist. This song is one of a jilted lover's perspective of what happens after a break up, involves a catchy riff throughout and scathing, sexually-explicit lyrics that captured the outright rage of a woman scorned. It was hard, it was real, it sang about how life is messy and didn't care who heard it, delving into young adult angst and drawing it out of their messy bedroom screaming.

The album was hugely successful just on the basis of that one song, but the opening track to the album, 'All I Really Want' is a little more cleverer and less provoking. It brings the listener in, letting them hear the style of song, the lyrics, the wordplay, the on-the-brink sound of singing and the trademark exasperated sounding "ahh" at the end of a sentence. It told them that this was a female singer that wasn't in the same mold as others out there, before it beats them around the head with 'You Oughta Know'.

'Perfect' is the sound of parents that push their children too far, making them go beyond expectations, trying to make them into something more. It talks about the resentment of the young and lingering memories of what had happened in order to get them "somewhere", and the distance between some parents to their children. The '90s were full of so-called supermoms who put their children through enough trials and tribulations while still holding a full-time job and if music could kill, these parents' heads would be on a platter. Along with 'You Learn', 'Hand in My Pocket' is much lighter in tone and gives the listener a break from all the anger and is a good whimsical look at life in general, so it's no wonder the latter is still popular on today's radio.

Building on 'You Oughta Know', 'Right Through You' can be taken in a couple of different ways, such as with a relationship that's just on the dating stage, or in a business element where the proposing element is a woman. Either way, it's another sarcastic piece on perception. 'Forgiven' has elements of Morissette's upbringing by Catholic parents, and gives her view that everyone had their own reasons to be there, and rallies against the strict teachings of Catholics.

Surprisingly on this record, there is a positive song about relationships, and that comes in the form of 'Head Over Feet'. Unfortunately, it can be seen as one of the weaker tracks because of that loss of venom, but it's good to hear a little bit of redemption, but the positive spin keeps going on to 'Mary Jane', at least in the last half of the track, anyway. 'Not the Doctor' and 'Wake Up' finish off the album neatly, not forgetting 'Ironic', the most grammatically challenged but also the most successful song on the record. It combines a good pop beat with rock overtones quite nicely, and Morissette's triumphant singing in the chorus just makes it fun, along with the video it has.

Jagged Little Pill was Alanis Morissette's all-or-nothing shot and happily for her, it came off. It's an album that shakes with anger, but its success told of how many others felt the same way in a hurting generation.

James Clapham - After winning his Creative Writing Diploma, James Clapham moved to Slovakia. He currently works as an English teacher there, and is ...