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Why Alanis Morissette Matters
The first critical biography of iconic musician Alanis Morissette, creator of Jagged Little Pill.
The 1990s hardly saw a bigger hit than Jagged Little Pill. Alanis Morissette’s defining album won Grammys, dominated the Billboard charts, and sold more than 30 million copies worldwide. It left a deep mark on the psyches of countless listeners. Three decades later, Megan Volpert checks in with Morissette, probing her rich and varied post-JLP career and bearing feminist witness to the existential anger that ties her recent work to enduring classics like “You Oughta Know,” “One Hand in My Pocket,” and “Ironic.”
Why Alanis Morissette Matters builds a bridge from Jagged Little Pill to the fascinating life and subtle intellect of its creator, exploring how the artist’s philosophical interests and personal journey are reflected in each track. Morissette’s struggles with censorship, mental health challenges, and Catholicism; her queer allyship, spiritual skepticism, zealous fandom, and philanthropic passions—all are carefully observed by a critic whose own life was touched by Jagged Little Pill. In the album’s wake, Morissette has evolved as an artist and global citizen. With sensitivity and a profound love for the music, Volpert guides readers through the case for Morissette’s enduring cultural relevance and creative impact.
I love this book! As insightful, provocative, and tenderly biting as its subject matter. Alanis forever.
Megan Volpert has written a lively and affectionate ode to the 'raging sage' who so galvanized her during a fitful adolescence. Volpert listens to Morissette’s groundbreaking Jagged Little Pill through a clutch of filters, from Greek philosophy and lit theory to parodies, covers, and tribute bands; from the album’s Broadway adaptation to Morissette’s own personal writing about spirituality, sensitivity, and healing. Volpert is a lifer fan and a smart critic, 'trust-falling backward' into her own past to argue that 'Alanis matters because she continues to help millions of people get through life for a while.'
Ardent Morissette fans will savor this.
Megan Volpert is the author or editor of over a dozen books on popular culture, including two Lambda Literary Award finalists and an American Library Association honoree. She is the author of Straight Into Darkness: Tom Petty as Rock Mystic and she won Georgia Author of the Year for Boss Broad. She teaches at Kennesaw State and Reinhardt Universities.
- Introduction
- 1. The Silence That Petrifies
- 2. To Remind You
- 3. For Your Own Damn Good
- 4. Chicken Shit
- 5. All the Information
- 6. Believe in Something
- 7. When the Smoke Clears
- 8. Best Friend with Benefits
- 9. Losing Weight Again
- 10. Yeah, I Really Do Think
- 11. If the Wound Is Not Mine
- 12. No Amount of My Insistence
- 13. Without Permission
- Works Consulted
- Acknowledgments
