Alanis Morissette

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Alanis Morissette is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter, born in 1974 in Ottawa. She began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with two dance-pop albums, Alanis in 1991 and Now Is the Time in 1992. She then moved to Los Angeles and made Jagged Little Pill, which came out in 1995. That album caught on worldwide and grew into one of the best-selling albums ever. She won five Grammys with it, including Album of the Year, and was at that time the youngest winner in that category.

Music and breakthrough

With Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie from 1998 she chose a more experimental sound. That year her song Uninvited from the film City of Angels won two Grammys. From 2002 she produced herself, first Under Rug Swept, and later came So-Called Chaos, Flavors of Entanglement, Havoc and Bright Lights, Such Pretty Forks in the Road and The Storm Before the Calm, among others. Singles such as You Oughta Know, Hand in My Pocket, Ironic and Thank U were hits in large parts of the world. In 2019 Jagged Little Pill received a Broadway adaptation.

Influence

Her music is alternative rock with an emotional mezzo-soprano and a confessional way of writing. In the 1990s she became a symbol of feelings that women in pop music dared to express openly. She stands in pop history as one of the defining voices of the alternative rock of that time.

Listening

Discography

Studio albums

• 1991Alanis
• 1992Now Is the Time
• 1995Jagged Little Pill
• 1998Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
• 2001Under Rug Swept
• 2004So‐Called Chaos
• 2005Jagged Little Pill (acoustic)
• 2008Flavors of Entanglement
• 2012Havoc and Bright Lights
• 2019Jagged Little Pill (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (soundtrack)
• 2020Such Pretty Forks in the Road
• 2022The Storm Before the Calm

See also

• So‐Called Chaos
• Jagged Little Pill (acoustic)