Adamson-jagged Little Pill

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Daphne Adamson Professor Bruning CDM 3450 28 November, 2018 “You Oughta Know” About Feminism: an analysis of Jagged Little Pill in 2018 Alanis Morissette's 1995 album ​Jagged Little Pill​ defied contemporary pop culture in terms of its raw musical sound as well as its emotional lyrics, and shockingly, it was accepted into popular culture. Each song on ​Jagged Little Pill​ was written and recorded by Alanis Morissette and her producer Glen Ballard in his home studio (Pareles). After the demo was made, Alanis Morissette signed with Madonna’s record label Maverick (McAfee). In 1996, the New York Times​ hailed Alanis Morissette as a “self assured 21-year-old,” who is a “heroine to young girls across North America” for her song lyrics about being misused, angry, uncertain, and yet stronger from those experiences (Pareles). ​Jagged Little Pill​ had three songs hit number one on the Billboard alternative chart (McAfee).​ I​ ts success on the Billboard charts is reflected in the four Grammys Alanis Morissette won at the 38th Grammy Awards in 1995. Morissette won the Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, and “You Oughta Know” earned Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song (Grammy). By February of 1996, ​Jagged Little Pill​ sold five million copies (Pareles). On July 29, 1998,​ Jagged Little Pill​ went multi-platinum sixteen times (RIAA). As of 2015, Jagged Little Pill has sold over 33 million copies worldwide (McAfee). Despite ​Jagged Little Pill’​ s popularity, David Browne of Entertainment Weekly gave the album a mere C+ in August of 1995. Browne applauded the hit single “You Oughta Know” as

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“​spiteful and seething…jealous bile… worth hearing.” He described the song’s sound as a “throbbing-gristle beat that grabs your collar and rips it off.” Browne’s opinion on the song “You Oughta Know” is accurate; however, his opinion on the rest of the album fails to capture its essence and grossly underestimates the power of Morissette’s song lyrics. Browne writes, “The rest of Morissette’s… ​Jagged Little Pill​ is much harder to swallow. What sounds arresting on a single grows wearing over a full album” (Browne). However, despite the negativity portrayed by Browne, ​Jagged Little Pill g​ enerated a musical revolution. The lyrics of the hit single “You Oughta Know” can be evaluated with a feminist approach by examining the power dynamics in heterosexual relationships in terms of sexuality and gender, as well as the gendered roles and expectations. “You Oughta Know” is an excellent and complex example of feminist criticism. It notes and unpacks differences between men and women, the role of the patriarchy, and relational and gendered roles. It also reclaims the female voice while describing relationships in terms of power, sexuality, and gender. The song vividly illustrates the personality differences between the speaker and her former lover as well as their perceptions and expectations of each other from both personal and societal expectations. Morissette admirably reclaims her own unique ‘female voice’ in the song through both her angsty vocal tones and as well as her emotionally raw lyrics, which detail the struggle for power over the other, the sexual acts performed, and the gendered differences between the ex-lover and the speaker and the speaker and his new lover. The song begins with a declaration that abides by the feminine role of being the bigger person and accepting what has happened: “I want you to know, that I’m happy for you / I wish nothing but the best for you both.” This transitions to an in-depth analyzation of her

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ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend and hypothesizing that she is “An older version of me.” The next few lines focus on her own sexuality, specifically by implying what she has done to please him and questions whether this new girlfriend will do the same or even be adequate enough for him: “Is she perverted like me? / Would she go down on you in a theater? / Does she speak eloquently? / And would she have your baby? / I’m sure she’d make a really excellent mother.” Although these lines refer to the speaker’s sexual liberation and attempts to make sex less taboo, it adds a harsh and critical tone to the speaker’s past relationship as well as her view on the patriarchy. Morissette hints that the ex-boyfriend views her as a lesser woman because she lacks society’s expected motherly, feminine qualities, but Morissette is more interested in staying true to herself. The questions that Morissette asks project her insecurities about her age and her willingness to please her romantic partner, instead of blatantly criticizing the societal expectations that were not met that partially caused their breakup. The first half of the first chorus is pure rage about how she was not apparently good enough for her ex-boyfriend: “Cause the love that you gave that we made / Wasn’t able to make it enough for you / To be open wide, No.” The word “love” in this line refers to both spiritual connection as well as sexual chemistry, meaning that the ex-boyfriend did not put enough effort into the relationship and that the sexual aspect of their relationship was not up to par with his expectations. The phrase “to be open wide” is ambiguous—it could refer to sex, or it could refer to the couple being open about their feelings and emotions with each other. Each interpretation emphasizes the inadequate nature of this relationship and the lack of effort on his part to do anything about it.

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The second half of the first chorus emphasizes the gendered expectations and promises that were broken with this breakup: “And every time you speak her name / Does she know how you told me / you’d hold me until you died/ Till you died, but you’re still alive.” These lines emphasize the patriarchal role of men in romantic relationships in that they are supposed to love and protect their woman. Although this is an angry breakup song and the speaker is over the ex-boyfriend, these lines hint that the boyfriend was disingenuously in love with her and broke off the relationship when he was done with her. It seems as if the speaker is warning his new girlfriend of the ex-boyfriend’s tendency to break unrealistic promises. The second chorus is focused on the speaker reclaiming her power and expressing her feelings about the breakup: “And I’m here, to remind you / of the mess you left when you went away/ It’s not fair to deny me / Of the cross I bear that you did to me / You, you, you oughta know.” The speaker is asserting that she was hurt by this breakup and that she knows the terrible things that the ex-boyfriend is capable of. The image of bearing a cross signifies that the speaker relates to Jesus in his death, and the burden she carries from this breakup. Morissette acts as if she is the physical embodiment of bad breakups. The speaker’s presence in this song is to actively remind the ex-boyfriend of what he has done to her. This transitions into the speaker sharing her feelings and opinions to her ex-boyfriend: “You seem very well, things look peaceful / I’m not quite as well, I thought you should know.” The speaker is ironically being the bigger person by saying that he seems to be “very well” and “peaceful” but it seems as if she is pointing out the quiet before the storm or his ability to hide the fact that this new relationship will end abruptly in the near future, similar to how their relationship ended. The speaker is not afraid to verbalize her true feelings of not doing well to an

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ex that broke up with her, which is the opposite of what most people would admit to their ex after a breakup. The next lines progress the speaker’s rage by intersecting masculine passive-aggressiveness with the relational power struggle between the speaker and the ex-boyfriend: “Did you forget about me, Mr. Duplicity? / I hate to bug you in the middle of dinner / It was a slap in the face / How quickly I was replaced / And are you thinking of me when you f… her?.” The phrase “Mr. Duplicity” implies that the ex-boyfriend was passive-aggressive and manipulative and that his gender impacted his abusive tactics to get what he wanted. The post-relationship relational power struggle is about how she wants to be a subconscious force that makes him realize his evil nature and wants him to desire to be a better person. The speaker assures listeners that she is outraged by the breakup and questions if he has truly moved on. The following lines are a reflection of the speaker in the eyes of the ex-boyfriend and how she will not disappear: “Cause the joke that you laid in the bed / That was me and I’m not gonna fade / as soon as you close your eyes, and you know it.” The speaker refers to herself as the “joke” he slept with, but assures him that she will not disappear even though he is through with her. These lines allow her to reclaim who she is by referring to what she has done and insisting that she will rebuild herself from the breakup. The closing remarks of the song emphasizes her self-proclaimed sexual power and how she asserts her dominance in past and future relationships: “And everytime I scratch my nails down someone else’s back I hope you feel it / Well, can you feel it?.” These lines emphasize the nail marks she creates on her future lover’s backs as well as her desire to make her ex-lover jealous. The speaker’s final statement perpetuates a sense of feminine physical dominance by

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asserting when a woman inflicts nail marks onto her lovers back as a sign of pleasure, she is also marking her territory. There is a secretive nature to this feminine form of physical dominance because nobody else would know of the nail marks except for the two of them, which adds an underlying level of intimacy in the song. The intersection of power and gender in this song breaks some traditional stereotypes while maintaining others. Morissette craftily depicts a modern feminist woman who is upset with her recent breakup and is not afraid to speak up about her feelings and emotions, and yet accepts the blame for his decision to end their relationship. The song’s raw, angry, upset, cheated, jealous, and yet torn tone, adds complexity to both the speaker and her lyrics. This song is exceptional in its ability to describe what happened without intentionally offending or putting down the ex-boyfriend and even his new girlfriend. Within the entire song, Morissette only directly name calls the ex-boyfriend once by referring to him as “Mr. Duplicity,” which directly correlates to how she previously described his actions as being manipulative and passive agressive. The stereotypical roles that the song refer to are the speaker being a wild, younger woman and the ex-boyfriend being an older man, which make it seem as if they are both at fault for the ugliness of the breakup and that age does not make one wiser or that youth makes one more idiotic. Additionally, the dynamic role of the patriarchy in the song “You Oughta Know” by submitting to some those expectations, while resisting others. Morissette adamantly resists the patriarchy by opening up about her sexuality and by explicitly describing the act of sex. Yet Morissette submits to the patriarchy at the very beginning the song when she accepts the ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend and is at peace with him moving on. Although the entire song is

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about how she is emotionally awry because of the breakup, she passively lets him get away with what he did. Morissette never publicly named the ex-boyfriend that inspired this song. This makes it seem that if this song was never written, Morissette would not have done anything about the breakup, which passively submits to and yet resists the patriarchy in that she is trying to publicly shame him. The song is told exclusively from Morissette’s point of view, and yet there seems to be an underlying voice of reason that draws on feminist notions of equality between sexes and allowing oneself to truly feel their emotions. Although ​Jagged Little Pill​ turned 23 this year, it recently resurfaced back into culture as a new form—a musical. ​The musical builds upon its sense of female dignity and emotional agency from the original album, and enhances it by constructing it as having a broad-based narrative that encompasses multiple twenty-first century social issues, such as bisexuality, gender fluidity, opiate and porn addiction, race relations, and rape (Verini). ​A Variety article titled “Regional Theater Review: ‘Jagged Little Pill’”describes the premise of the musical as the following: Frankie, an African American adopted daughter of a white family, the Healys, of Greenport, Conn. She’s wrestling with the desire to write poetry while doubting her gift; experimenting with gender-exploring Jo while attracted to the town’s new boy; and developing a passion for progressive politics minus the means to get anything important done… [Her] parents’ road is rocky too. Mom Mary Jane secretly seeks relief from psychological stress and chronic pain first in prescription opiates, then in harder stuff sold by skateboarding dealers when pharmacies balk. Husband Steve works 60 hour weeks to provide for his brood

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and turns to Internet porn when MJ withdraws. Paragon son Nick is en route to a prestigious dream university, but it wouldn’t be “Jagged Little Pill” if something weren’t poised to crack his shell as well (Verini).

Later in the Variety’s review, it illustrates the only downfall of the musical is that it has too much going on, in which the audience’s “interest and empathy are unreasonably stretched” (Verini). Despite the fact that the the musical has an extremely complex story, its significance is that it is a cultural critique that encompasses issues that are present in the album to 2018. Morissette knew that she wanted to transform ​Jagged Little Pill​ into a musical. It took her eight years to settle on a writer because she wanted someone who was not reluctant to tackle the issues she sang about in 1995 (Miller). Diablo Cody wrote the book for the musical and in an interview with NPR, Cody describes her reaction to writing the musical as “interesting to make an album that feels this private and to turn it into this communal experience” (Inskeep). ​Jagged Little Pill The Musical p​ remiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts from May 5 to July 15, 2018. According to the musical’s website, every show sold out! The Regional Theater Review on ​Jagged Little Pill The Musical e​ nds with a testament to the original impact of the album and how it has transformed from that: “The years may have made Jagged Little Pill a little easier to swallow, but it remains good medicine” (Vernini). Although ​Jagged Little Pill​ turned 23 this year, its content, in terms of being a beacon of female expression and resisting the patriarchy, continues to flourish via the #Me Too social media movement. The Me Too movement brought forth a unified female voice against sexual assault that allowed women to share their experiences, find support, and spread awareness

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through social media. Additionally, Diablo Cody, the writer of the ​Jagged Little Pill The Musical,​ said in an interview with Vanity Fair that “Our show is more relevant now because people are learning to acknowledge that these sort of things have happened to them and they have the right to be outraged, and the right to feel pain and trauma and healing” (Miller). When Morissette was asked about her thoughts on the Time’s Up and the #Me Too movement, she responded: “I love that the conversation is being opened up with different contexts. It’s a really exciting time to be alive” (Miller). Morissette’s comment provokes the question of whether the multifaceted conversation she is initiating with ​Jagged Little Pill The Musical ​will emerge into mainstream culture, and if it will hit Broadway in the near future.

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Works Cited “Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know Lyrics.” ​Metro Lyrics,​ CBS Interactive Inc., www.metrolyrics.com/you-oughta-know-lyrics-alanis-morissette.html. “Alanis Morissette.” ​GRAMMY.com​, Recording Academy, 2018, www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/alanis-morissette. Inskeep, Steve, and Andera Shea. “Alanis Morissette's 'Jagged Little Pill' Is Now A Musical.” ​NPR,​ NPR, 21 May 2018, 5:00 AM, www.npr.org/2018/05/21/ 612941564/alanis-morissette-s-​jagged-little-pill-is-now-a-musical. “Jagged Little Pill | A New Musical | Official Site.” ​Jagged Little Pill,​ 2018, jaggedlittlepill.com/. McAfee, Melonyce. “Alanis Morissette's 'Jagged Little Pill' Turns 20.” ​CNN​, Turner Braodcasting System, Inc., 8 June 2015, 6:49 AM, www.cnn.com/2015/06/08/ entertainment/​feat-jagged-little-pill-alanis-morissette-20/index.html. Miller, Julie. “Alanis Morissette on Jagged Little Pill Being More Relevant Than Ever in #MeToo Era.” ​Vanity Fair,​ Condé Nast, 10 Oct. 2018, 9:12 PM, www.vanityfair .com/​style/2018/10/alanis-morissette-diablo-cody-jagged-little-pill-musical. Napikoski, Linda. “Feminist Literary Criticism.” ​ThoughtCo.​, Dotdash, 11 Nov. 2018, www.thoughtco.com/feminist-literary-criticism-3528960. Pareles, Jon. “AT LUNCH WITH: Alanis Morissette; Better to Sing The Teen-Age Life Than Live It.” ​The New York Times,​ The New York Times Company, 28 Feb. 1996, www.nytimes.com/1996/02/28/garden/at-lunch-with-alanis-morissette -better-to-sing-the-teen-age-life-than-live-it.html.

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“RIAA Gold & Platinum Alanis Morissette.” ​RIAA​, RIAA , 2018, ​www.riaa.com/ gold-platinum/​?tab_active=default-award&ar=ALANIS%2BMORISSETTE&ti= JAGGED%2BLITTLE%2BPILL. Verini, Bob. “Regional Theater Review: 'Jagged Little Pill'.” ​Variety,​ Variety Media, LLC, 25 May 2018, 7:28 AM, variety.com/2018/legit/reviews/jagged-little-pill -review-musical-alanis-morissette-1202822260/.