New Book Explores How ‘Jagged Little Pill’ Changed Everything

Imagine it’s the summer of ’95 and you’re going about your morning, minding your own business, thinking it’s going to be a day like any other—and you turn on the radio and “You Oughta Know” comes on. The song’s from the point of view of a young woman you likely may not know anything about, unapologetically addressing a lover who did her dirty. She’s loud, she’s intense, she doesn’t hold back. She even asks: “And are you thinking of me when you fuck her?”

It’s gonna be a damn good day.

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No big deal, you might say, 30 years later. But when Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill (its first single, “You Oughta Know”) was released it was a full-blown explosion—a benevolent and much-needed disruptor—one that would change the landscape for artists who came after her. Especially women. 

“I lived through it,” says author Selena Fragassi of ’90s-era women in rock and witnessing Jagged Little Pill’s impact in real time. “I think when you’re a teenager, it is that era of music that sticks with you beyond any others.” 

It’s this impact Selena meticulously explores in her new book, Alanis: Thirty Years of Jagged Little Pill. The book is the deepest dive into one of the most influential albums in modern rock, combining intimate interviews with early collaborators, including Morisette’s first manager Scott Welch and uber-publicist Mitch Schneider, full analysis of every track, and rare photos. (I wrote the foreword to the book, FYI.)

As Selena says, this was a time when “confessional and raw” female musicians were finally beginning—just starting—to get their due. (“Liz Phair, PJ Harvey, Tori Amos, all came before her. Mad respect for them.”) Still, nobody could have predicted the eruption caused by a 21-year-old Alanis when she released her third studio album, the first two classified as “dance-pop,” her ’91 debut, Alanis, earning her a Juno award for Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year.

They were onto something.

Four years on from Alanis, she’d release the album that changed the game, for her and so many women artists to follow; Jagged Little Pill won five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Rock Album, eventually becoming one of the best-selling albums of all time.

“Of course, Alanis was not the first, but she really gate-crashed for a lot of people who came after her, the Fiona Apples, and even today, Olivia Rodrigos and Taylor Swifts,” says Selena. “It was the first time that we felt we could have feelings, and we had someone who was helping us tap into those and express those. We could be raw, we could be angry, we could be emotional. We didn’t have to shove it down.” 

I heavily echo Selena’s sentiment about why this album means so much to her, throughout the years. “Every time I listen to this album at every different era in my life, it means something different,” she says. “Talk about a classic album, then, because it stays with you for a lifetime.” 

What role did radio play in the success of Jagged Little Pill?

I think radio was a huge part of it. I go into that in the book, of course, with KROQ really taking a chance on this artist. I think it was a time when women were really coming into their own in the rock sphere. There were a lot of factors that were all combining at the same time that really needed to be looked at in terms of even the rawness of grunge.

Nirvana coming out in ’91 with Nevermind, and how that opened up the conversation on being really honest and unpolished, which was so different from Alanis’s pop past. I think I try to put in context of what was happening in that era that influenced and also contributed to her success.

Her then-manager, Scott Welch, talked about the fact that part of the issue they had—because they tried taking it to different radio and labels—and they were getting closed doors because…“We already have Jewel. We already have PJ Harvey, we don’t need another one. It’s oversaturated.”

She loves those [first] albums, but the thing is, MCA didn’t want to distribute them here, because they were like, “We have Paula Abdul. We have Janet Jackson. We don’t have space for another pop star.” I feel like Alanis had to fight this idea that it’s overcrowded because God forbid we have more than one woman.

The fact that we’re still dealing with this, but Alanis dealt with it a lot in her day. I think that there were people willing to take chances on her—and the fact that Madonna’s a woman who signed her [on Maverick]—is really important because it was a fight that women had to have back then.

Many incredible female artists were releasing confessional, powerful albums before Jagged Little Pill. What sets this one apart?

Alanis was the first that became commercial in that genre. She had Flea and Dave Navarro on “You Oughta Know.” She was played on alternative rock [radio]. I think she was one of the first to breach the gap of also bringing men in to listen. This was music for them, too. I don’t know if men would necessarily listen to Tori Amos back in the day. Alanis was all over alternative radio more so than they were. I think it’s interesting that she was, to me, one of the women in the era who really brought in both genders.

I always say this: Truly great artists play the long game. They often are  misunderstood or underappreciated at first.

Yes. You look at Sinéad O’Connor, a great example of like, now we’re appreciating Sinéad O’Connor? What about when she was alive? 

I think women more than men get that rap because they are often misunderstood. Maybe people don’t want to take the time to hear us out. The thing with Alanis, too, that really was a big part of her success and her longevity, is she always stayed true to herself. You can take the pop star past out of her, which still was influential. Even on Jagged Little Pill, she was insistent that they were keeping the raw takes. That album is really like a demo.

She’s like, “I’m not redoing this because my power and honesty and rawness are in those first takes. I’m not going to saturate it down.” She actually was the one who insisted that “You Oughta Know” be the first single. Her label, Maverick, did not agree with her. Glen [Ballard, songwriter-producer] did not agree with her, but she was like, “No, I want to hit people hard, bring them in, get their attention, and then release maybe some of the softer songs.”

I’ve written about Sinéad quite a bit. I really campaigned for her while she was alive. It’s important to recognize great artists while they’re still here.

Oh, my gosh, yes. If you look at the coverage of Alanis in the ’90s, it’s infuriating how she was written about or branded. I think it’s so important that more women are a part of all the various nooks and crannies of this industry at this point.

What did you unearth? What were the first things that came to the fore and made you say to yourself, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I learned this about her?’

The family took a trip to L.A., and she had to go see where [Olivia Newton-John’s character] Sandy lived. I love it that she is an unabashed ’80s music fan as well. I think what’s really interesting is to see the shift in her from being this really happy-go-lucky teen pop star. CBC, the news network in Canada, did a docuseries on her. She was just like this bubbly kid. She was on Nickelodeon, and this huge shift to who she became in the Jagged Little Pill era. I remember I was watching an interview with MTV, and some producer interrupted her to say, ‘You have a hair out of place,’ and the look she gave him, and she was like, ‘I don’t really care.’

She became such a commander as time went on. I think the evolution of her story and what she had to deal with, with being controlled by her team when she was a teen pop star, the eating disorders, how they tried to control her image, to these very inappropriate relationships she had with adult men. How it changed her views on religion, on everything. When she started writing Jagged Little Pill, I think it literally is magic what happened. The fact that she met Glen. She still had some support from MCA Records, who linked them up, but they started working together on International Women’s Day, March 8th, 1994, which I find really cosmic.

The fact that they were able to write their first song in literally an hour, they were writing a song a day. They were so stream of consciousness. The fact that when she came to L.A., she actually was robbed right around the time that she started working on the material for Jagged Little Pill. She had her backpack. In there, her diary and journal with all the lyrics to that point of Jagged Little Pill, and she was just praying they didn’t take that because she’d have to start it over. There’s all these little symbolic moments. They didn’t steal it, thank God. I think it also made her grow up very fast and realized the world, especially in America, was not as kind as Canada.

I will say I went through track by track on this album and really tried to get at the heart of what the real meanings were behind these songs. I think there are some that are interesting. In particular, I had a whole new appreciation for the “Right Through You” song because she really put the men in suits to task who were picking her apart and who were saying no the entire time she was trying to get someone to take this album seriously.

That was one of the very last songs she wrote for the album.

Yes, there’s so many things. Just the KROQ thing that happened. Everything just felt very kinetic and made in the stars. It was just really interesting to see how this all came to be that no label wanted to sign her until Madonna found her. 

What do you think would’ve happened if her pop album had done really well?

That’s a really good question. I don’t know. Could she have remade herself? You think today, right, like a Sabrina Carpenter. She reinvented herself. I think there’s space for that now. I think people allow for that now. It’s so different. I don’t know if that could have happened for her. I don’t think she could have done that about-face. If people had known her for her pop music here, I don’t know that she could have done Jagged Little Pill here.

When that album came to Canada, Canada Radio was like, “What the hell is this? This sounds nothing like the Alanis we know, we don’t know where to put it on radio,” because it was so interesting. Was it alternative? People didn’t know what to do with it. In Canada, there was actually backlash to the album, unlike here because no one knew who she was.

It feels like if this was a morality play the theme would be: “Be true to yourself.” This would not have been that album without Alanis’ true voice. I’m sure if she stood in front of somebody and said, “Make me into a radio star,” they wouldn’t have chosen this for her.

Not only be true to yourself, but keep going. At the time that she started working on Jagged Little Pill, she was dropped by MCA Canada. She was considered a has-been at 20 years old. She had no money. She was couch surfing in L.A. She was eating macaroni and cheese. She could have given up. She could have just been like, “I tried it. I was a kid star. I had my time,” but she was just so forthright in her perspective in wanting to make this album.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.