‘Jagged’ Charts Alanis Morissette’s Growing Pains And Artistic Breakthrough

Few songs evoke the 1990s better than Alanis Morissette’s “Hand In My Pocket.” Released at the decade’s halfway point, it’s mix of treated drum loops and grungey guitars encapsulate the era’s various musical motifs and the lyrical juxtaposition of self-deprecation and resigned optimism embody every cliche about the Gen X mindset. The song appears on Jagged Little Pill, Morissette’s third album, but her U.S. debut which would go on to sell 33 million copies worldwide. The creation of the album and its impact are the subject of Jagged, the second installment of HBO’s Music Box documentary series, and was directed by Alison Klayman.

Born in Ottawa, Canada, in 1974, Alanis Morissette’s path to success has more in common with the singer-songwriters of today than those that came before. She grew up in a loving home that encouraged her artistic pursuits, got her start in children’s television, put out a couple albums before finding her true voice, and generated buzz outside the traditional music press. Like many female artists and musical pioneers, she had to fight tooth and nail for opportunity, independence and respect. It left scars. Though seemingly happy and healthy in middle age, there’s a slight melancholy as she recounts her start in the entertainment business and the landmark album she wrote as a teenager.

Morissette was just 14 when she signed with MCA Canada. Her first two albums sounded more like the dance pop of Janet Jackson than the alternative rock of her breakthrough. As her career took off, her parents trusted others to keep an eye on her, not the best idea for an attractive young teenager navigating the music business. She began dating when she was 15, often older men. Industry pressures over her weight and appearance lead to an eating disorder. As she started to flex her creative muscles, she butted heads with management and was eventually dropped.

Looking for a new start, Morissette relocated to Los Angeles and began writing songs with hit producer and songwriter Glen Ballard. “She was 19 years old, not knowing exactly what she wanted to do but she knew damn well what she did not want to do,” Ballard says. Ballard encouraged her to write about herself and for herself.  Over the course of a year they would demo Jagged Little Pill. After numerous rejections, she signed with Madonna’s Maverick Records.

Jagged Little Pill hadn’t been out for a month when “You Oughta Know” broke on radio. It hooked listeners with risqué lyrics but what resonated was the emotional outrage in Morissette’s vocals. To tour behind the album, she assembled a hard rocking backing band which included future Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who appears in the film. Despite their boss’ tales of female empowerment, Hawkins says the boys in the band partied as hard as Guns N’ Roses and tried to “fuck as many chicks as we possibly could.” Their behavior angered Morissette but she felt powerless to change it and didn’t see the point in replacing them with “five other men that are gonna do the exact same thing and won’t sound as great?'”

Six hit singles were released off the album. As sales went through the roof and the concert venues got bigger and bigger, Morissette suffered a critical backlash. Some pointed to her and Ballard’s past pop history and claimed she was a manufactured pop star. Others belittled her songwriting, accused her of overwrought female hostility and asked why she didn’t make more of an effort to dress better. Despite the inroads of 25 years of artists in her wake, these are problems countless female artists still face to this day.

Anger was, of course, only one of many emotions explored across Jagged Little Pill‘s 12 songs, though Morissette had good reason to be angry. Towards the film’s end, she alludes to sexual impropriety she suffered at the earliest stages of her career. Without going into detail, she looks back at the relationships she found herself in at the age of 15 and thinks, “They’re all pedophiles. It’s all statutory rape.” She says she told people about it at the time but it “fell on deaf ears.”

It is commonly assumed these revelations are what prompted Morissette to pull her support for the film following its release this past September. “This was not the story I agreed to tell,” Morissette said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times, adding, “I was lulled into a false sense of security and their salacious agenda became apparent immediately upon my seeing the first cut of the film.” Morissette says she was interviewed for the film “during a very vulnerable time,” while suffering from postpartum depression under quarantine. Viewing it objectively, the film hardly makes Morissette’s abuse the prevailing narrative, however, its third act reveal does seem cynically engineered for dramatic effect.

Jagged Little Pill remains one of the best selling albums of all-time and Morissette’s single-mindedness would serve as a role model for subsequent generations of female artists, from Taylor Swift to Olivia Rodrigo. As a film, Jagged skillfully provides a thorough examination of her personal and artistic evolution. “A lot of people would say, ‘Wow, you’re so brave, you’re so empowered, you’re so strong,'” Morissette says at the film’s start, adding, “I can’t write all these songs without obviously having been disempowered. I mean, half these songs are about attempting to become empowered.”

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter: @BHSmithNYC.

Watch Jagged on HBO Max