From rocking out with ‘Ironic’ to making records for pleasure: Why Alanis Morissette still matters 30 years later

In the second half of the 1990s, Alanis Morissette was the most popular female soloist in the world. It was all thanks to her album Jagged Little Pill (1995), a phenomenon that sold 33 million copies. Her later albums — more experimental ones, like Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie — couldn’t top those numbers (no artist could have), but they’ve helped her build a career. To date, she has sold 75 million records in total.

Morissette’s fame was so enormous in the late 1990s that, when the filmmaker Kevin Smith offered her a role in his movie Dogma (1999), she was cast as God.

Before becoming known, the singer had already released a couple of albums. Her debut, Alanis (1991), was only released in Canada. At the time, she was 16 and had an image (and disco-pop style) similar to that of other young stars of the era, such as Tiffany, or Debbie Gibson. She achieved some success in her home country, which gave her the opportunity to go on tour as the opening act for Vanilla Ice.

The following year, she released Now Is The Time, in which she gravitated a little more towards ballads. Her lyrics had more content. However, the decisive step came when she decided to move to Los Angeles. There, she met the composer and producer Glen Ballard, a man of the industry who had brought success to the female trio Wilson Phillips and had previously worked with Michael Jackson (he was one of the composers of his song Man In The Mirror).

Ballard fell in love with Morissette’s voice and decided to take her under his wing. Together, they managed to sign a contract with Maverick Records, the Warner sub-label that Madonna created in 1992. While the singer’s success led her to be hailed as “the undisputed queen of alt-rock angst,” as defined by Rolling Stone magazine, the truth is that the scene viewed her with suspicion. Like the band 4 Non Blondes a little earlier, the Canadian was seen as an example of the style popularly known as “bubblegrunge.” She was accused of borrowing from the esthetics of grunge — which was so in fashion at the time — to give a false authenticity to what would ultimately be a commercial product. But the truth is that, when she began to record Jagged Little Pill with Ballard, he decided to respect Morissette’s vision. The producer didn’t alter it at all.

“Both she and Sheryl Crow played a leading role in the 1990s,” says music journalist Toni Castarnado, who has published several books about female artists in the industry. “There weren’t that many women in an industry that still looked askance at the female figure in music. The impact was huge and well deserved… they could stand up for themselves. Those songs were heard everywhere: the music videos were on MTV or playing in bars all the time. It was part of the culture of an entire generation.”

“I [found Morissette] daring for her time. Later on, it was remarkable how she managed to read the situation. She knew that, no matter how hard she tried, there wouldn’t be another Jagged Little Pill. She didn’t try to be what she wasn’t; she didn’t start making hip-hop or recording jazz standards. She had a formula, and, with a few variations, she stuck with it to the end. Even to this day.”

Her recording career throughout the 21st century has had less impact. That being said, she also decided to bend less to the demands of the big music industry. In 2004, she released the album So-Called Chaos; in 2008, Flavors Of Entanglement (with which she ended her contract with Maverick Records); in 2012, Havoc And Bright Lights and, in 2020, Such Pretty Forks In The Road. In 2022, she put out her latest work to date: The Storm Before The Calm, which is a meditation album.

In recent years, Morissette has generated more news related to her personal life than due to her musical work. She’s the mother of three children with rapper Mario Souleye and is involved with initiatives related to spirituality and self-help. In 2015, she launched a podcast, Conversations with Alanis Morissette, where she spoke with different guests about various topics, such as psychology, art, design, health, well-being and relationships. A year later, she began writing a column at The Guardian titled Ask Alanis Morissette. On her Instagram account, she shows off her love for yoga, Buddhism, and nutrition.

Women under the influence

Since her 1990s boom, throughout these past three decades, Morissette has influenced a multitude of singers, including Meredith Brooks, Avril Lavigne and Pink. It can even be said that she anticipated Taylor Swift. Her influence seems to have further intensified in recent years. In 2020, for example, Halsey invited her to collaborate on her song Alanis’ Interlude and, more recently, she’s been closely tied to the young artist Olivia Rodrigo (the two women will headline the next edition of Madrid’s Mad Cool festival).

In 2021, Rodrigo and Morisette shared the cover of Rolling Stone and gave a joint interview to the magazine. That same year, on Zane Lowe’s podcast for Apple Music, Rodrigo also confessed how much influence Jagged Little Pill had on her work. “There’s this period of time all 16, 17, 18-year-old kids go through where they just feel so incredibly lost and just angsty for no reason and sad. This album to me is my interpretation of that period of my life that I was going through,” the artist declared.

“We used to play Jagged Little Pill on repeat when we were little girls,” say Marina and Teresa Iñesta, sisters and members of the Cantabrian group Repion. They’re 29 and 26 respectively. “What caught our attention from the start was her personality. There’s [nobody] like her. She has strength, passion and she plays a lot with the vocal arrangements in all her songs. And then, there are the lyrics: always [powerful]. She’s an artist who has never cared about saying what she thinks. She’s brave and seems like a wise woman, who knows what she’s doing.

“Of course, her way of being — and her lyrics — weren’t liked by everyone. They even made people uncomfortable. But today, luckily, there are more and more women who aren’t afraid to sing and do what they want on stage. Even though censorship still exists, bravery is applauded more.”

Music journalist Toni Castarnado shares the same arguments: “Yes, there’s that influence in terms of attitude, in how [she approached her] musical career… in the mark she left, in the impudence, that daring, in how [women should] choose their own [destiny]. Maybe, without the Alanis of then, there wouldn’t be the Olivia Rodrigo of today. She broke the mold of what was [considered to be] correct, as well as many other patterns. And then, there’s something that we forget: her songs and what they said… what they meant back then, as well as the idea that, 30 years later, they still have value. How else can we forget that iconic red wool hat in Ironic, or the disheveled hair in the You Oughta Know [music video]?”

“There’s interest in recovering things that worked very well in the 1990s,” Castarnado continues. “In fact, something that Alanis has done very well is to capitalize on Jagged Little Pill, with a version for the 25th anniversary, [or] another previous one re-recorded in an acoustic version. She’s continued making records, but without any desire to transcend too much. Or, at least, that’s the impression she gives. She wants to continue composing, when she probably no longer has that [financial] obligation. And, given the reaction to the news of her concerts [and the crowds] she can generate, it’s clear that there’s interest.”

No less important than her influence on younger artists is the respect she receives from her peers. Between 2021 and 2023, when the Canadian launched the 25th anniversary tour of her best-known album, her opening acts were Garbage and Liz Phair. Later on, Cat Power, Beth Orton, Aimee Mann and Feist joined in. A year later, she launched the Triple Moon Tour, sharing the stage with rock pioneer Joan Jett and young country singer-songwriter Morgan Wade.

At her upcoming world tour, which will begin on March 21 at the Lollapalooza Festival in Argentina, she won’t be using new material. Rather, she’ll perform a predictable repertoire of her greatest hits (although, in a recent interview with Variety magazine, she revealed that she had started composing).

Castarnado awaits her tour with as much curiosity as doubt. “Even though she’s been active and has continued to release albums, the question is how those songs that had their heyday 30 years ago hold up and whether — in the current context — they’re still valid,” the journalist concludes.

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