A kung fu fighter in a disco

I would give more credit to Courtney Love and Tori Amos because they preceded her? and I can hear distinct, obvious echoes of both in today's teenpop-confessors, but not a great deal of Alanis. (unless you're referring to her as the first teenpop artist who went confessional, because of non-teenpop confessors like Courtney and Tori.)

Jagged Little Pill is still a pretty good album that I have no need for any more. Still not sure how someone who could write narratives as tight, focused and effective as 'You Oughta Know' ended up sinking into such psychobabble.

I think her voice was great when she had something to sink her teeth into - sadly post-JLP she never did.

Dumbest point of comparison I have ever seen which somehow got repeated A MILLION TIMES in the late 90s - that Fiona Apple was the "new Alanis Morissette". Despite not sounding ANYTHING like her!

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awesomewells.livejournal.com

Haha I think Alanis is probably VASTLY more influential in terms of Disneyfied teenpop than either Courtney or Tori.

I gave 0 for everything except for chart success and eccentricity, where she gets a 10 for clearly being AN MENTALIST.

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edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com

Courtney and Tori didn't have the same impact, though; JLP was hugely popular and presented as some sort of watershed ("GIRLS ARE NOW ALLOWED TO BE ANGRY"). And being twelve at the time, I bought it. JLP was also my introduction into the "authenticity" debate, what with her new self-penned stuff being privileged over her old pop stuff. (And being twelve at the time, I bought it.) I can't imagine I was alone in this experience, either, considering how many copies JLP sold, and how it was discussed, and how often young female musicians still cite her as an influence -- and also the sheer number of my peers who are still into the whole "seriously, Dave Coulier?" thing.

Fiona was exactly like Alanis, in that they were both angry and very serious ladies!

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koganbot

"You Learn" was one of Ashlee's favorite songs at age 10. And John Shanks was Alanis's producer before he was Ashlee's. (Of course, he was also Melissa's and Sheryl's and Michelle's and Hilary's too.) I do think for singing, Ashlee is more indebted to Courtney and Gwen.

By the way, what do you think of early dancepop Alanis? (I linked 'em downthread, if you haven't heard them. I like some of them pretty well, though the style wasn't all that distinctive; her voice was already distinctive, however; interestingly abrasive for a disco dance dolly.)

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koganbot

Also, Shakira briefly aped Alanis's style of dress.

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koganbot

Shakira 1998

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bengraham.livejournal.com

I loved 'Jagged Little Pill' at the time, but I honestly can't bear to listen to her awful screechy whine any more.

Extra marks on eccentricity for playing god in 'Dogma'.

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Her voice is a total sticking point for me - I lovedlovedLOVED Jagged Little Pill when I was an angsty teenager, but don't remember liking or disliking her vocal style at all or even paying much attention to it! I was way more interested in what she had to say for herself (ie learning the lyrics off the inlay of the tape) and the grungey guitar noise. It was only when 'Ironic' was a huuuuuuuge big hit single and the video was constantly all over the place that I started associating her twanging "ngyai-ee-yai" with that angled nodding horse-head motion she did, and I couldn't BEAR it. Urgh! My mental image is still of her whinnying, shaking her mane and galloping off in the nude like some sort of awful Lady Godiva/centaur cross.

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And as such I have just changed my vote on Visuals to 1.

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I can still remember how they all go! And I'm going to tell you!

All I Really Want (http://youtube.com/watch?v=BXCCv5ngyI0&feature=related) - man the lyrics are totally clumsy on this one but the melody is Amazing! I sang my heart out to this over and over again. It's pretty much the same song as Hand In My Pocket but a) faster b) better c) harder d) stronger. You should all listen to this if you can't remember it. Great start!

You Oughta Know (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tnbc64XQ1DI) - angry distortion & a killer chorus, plus SWEARS that were totally dubbed out on the radio, and I later found out she was talking about DOING OR4L S3CHS IN THE CINEMA!!! Obv awesome.

Perfect (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ymG3eQempnI) - v angsty but too limp to make that much of an impression on me. Lots of scary imagery. I fast forwarded this one a fair bit.

Hand In My Pocket (http://youtube.com/watch?v=nLXULfN77TQ) - and the other one's hailing a taxi cab! I loved this as I liked putting my hands in my pocket as well. SHUSH not like that. Slow and cheerful but still manages to be great.

Right Through You (http://youtube.com/watch?v=X6CJRJeI1SA) - This has pretty much the same verse as Hand In My Pocket but the chorus goes a bit hair metal - not a highlight but still listenable. Especially the "wine-dine-69" line. Sauce!

Forgiven (http://youtube.com/watch?v=n8fxl8EYfRA) - ok I had to look this one up. Ohhhhhhh yes that's right, it's about her Catholic guilt or something. This was pretty good actually, esp the chorus.

You Learn (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Mri54t7YpKc&feature=related) - "You live! You learn. You cry! You learn." You sing songs! You can fvck off. I didn't like the 'pop' production on this at the time - this song is to blame for Joan Osborne, Meredith Brooks AND Natalie Imbroogliwoolgia.

Head Over Feet (http://youtube.com/watch?v=my3yP-w3rtw&feature=related) - this is the one that goes 'you've already won me o-ver-er, in spite of me...' which I didn't like as it didn't quite make grammatical sense. Good chords to play along to if you're learning the guitar, though.

Mary Jane (http://youtube.com/watch?v=fvu-ZvzJjFw) - TOO SLOW.

Ironic - I didn't like this, even before it got overplayed on the radio. Partly because I didn't know what 'ironic' actually meant and Alanis didn't really do much to clear things up there. Also it was too happy. I wanted ANGST! I'm not linking to this one, you all know it.

Not The Doctor (http://youtube.com/watch?v=JadhExZb5Vk) - a bit raggedly maudlin, this one. The chorus is sh1t but I do like the way she says 'vicarious occasion'.

Wake Up (http://youtube.com/watch?v=e4HiK8lw7tQ) - Awesome epic closing track where she totally rocks out in a floaty mystical way. Sort of. Whatever, it's GREAT.

Hi dere everyone!

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"why are you so petrified of silence? here can you handle THIS"

also: you forgot the amazing acappella bonus track, 'Your House'. RAW. I loved 'Forgiven' at the time (Catholic guilt innit).

'Perfect' is the only one I don't remember; 'Ironic' and 'Mary Jane' are the only ones I remember disliking.

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Dude I had this on CASSETTE there was no bonus track!

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edgeofwhatever.livejournal.com

That line ftw.

"Perfect" is about scary stage parents and has, honestly, the most fucking terrifying bridge in the history of recorded music.

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chezghost.livejournal.com

very interesting that when ben and kat were younger they found alanis voice much more tolerable. some scientific explanation for this?!

i'm the opposite tho. couldn't stand her back then but almost every single from her subsequent albums won me over a bit!

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piratemoggy.livejournal.com

I'm not actually sure I even like 'Thank U,' however, it is a fairly brilliant song once you get past the transparent dangling carrots.

I am also quite partial to 'Hands Clean,' although there is no good reason for this. It's a shame her best stuff (undeniably Jagged Little Pill) doesn't actually kind of... last. There's always gunna be angsty teenagers etc. hearing it and thinking its amazing but for people who've at some point had that 'OMG WOW' reaction to it there's only a few years at most before they want to slice the CD in half.

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I couldn't get past "thank you India". Why? What's so special about India? WHY ALANIS WHY?

It didn't matter of course - sadly for Alanis by the time her second album came out I'd moved on from grunge to Britpop and paid her little or no attention other than "PUT IT AWAY WOMAN".

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Hang on though JLP was in '95 - surely this was the height of Britpop?

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Not for me - I was a bit of an enthusiastic latecomer to it all.

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Anyone thinking of giving Alanis a low mark for Eccentricity should bear the following in mind:

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sbp.livejournal.com

Yes but that's brilliant. Million times better than many videos I've seen.

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Boooooo!

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(to the video, not kat or sbp)

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yeah the video is just some unfunny "let's laugh at hip-hop" shit.

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jel-bugle.livejournal.com

I don't mind alanis.

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koganbot

I know how to spell Morissette.

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koganbot

P.S. It only took me about eight years to learn.

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Ahhhh I thought there should have been more results on google image search. I tried it with one S just in case!

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Alanis Morissette and Missy Elliott = the two artist names which I have most often seen misspelt, even on pages where the album cover loudly proclaiming MORISSETTE or ELLIOTT is RIGHT THERE.

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koganbot

I can make no sense of the people who voted 0 for legacy.

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Dude - 9 for hottness? Really? She has a terrifying face!

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koganbot

She's hotly terrifying.

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koganbot

You're all aware that "You Oughta Know" was her NINTH single, right?

1. "Too Hot"
2. "Walk Away"
3. "Feel Your Love"
4. "Plastic"
5. "An Emotion Away"
6. "No Apologies"
7. "Real World"
8. "(Change Is) Never A Waste Of Time" [can't find]

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ZOMG no 2 has Joey from Friends in it!

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She does pull some funky moves in 3 but the tight perm cancels it out. She does like wearing that leather jacket doesn't she?

6 is a classic example of the Tasmin Archer videotype (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuhDDx49TTw), good use of candles.

What the HELL is going on in 7? That's some terrifying badness right there.

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koganbot

For music, I think I like 4 and 1 and 2 (so I like the singles from her first album more than the singles from her second)(Jagged Little Pill was her third). 6 is fairly terrible.

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justfanoe.livejournal.com

The category I had tough time with was "Visuals". She has really memorable videos but I don't actually like them. BUT, I can remember all the videos at least so I gave her a 7.

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Interesting thing to me about Alanis is that her legacy is actually pretty strong, but not in a way that makes me identify "Alanis" as the actual legacy. I.e., the confessional pop wave c. 2002-present(ish) is hugely indebted to Alanis's popularity in the 90s, but I attribute it more to a kind of sound or sensibility rather than the artist herself.

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