The 1990s saw an explosion of women singer-songwriters throughout the decade. While the emo boys were brooding in the grunge movement, the girls were standing up and making their voices heard. Alternative artists like Tori Amos & Bjork found mainstream success, and rockers like Melissa Etheridge & Liz Phair crafted songs with bold and aggressive lyrics. Even Lisa Loeb found an audience with those horn-rimmed glasses and her confessional style. But it was Alanis Morissette who came roaring out of the gate with her groundbreaking 1995 smash LP “Jagged Little Pill.” The album’s first single, “You Oughta Know,” was a sonic shot across the bow with its mix of alternative rock, pop hooks, and profane, rage-filled lyrics that offered no apologies. And immediately, the term “Angry White Female” was introduced into the lexicon.
While I love “You Oughta Know,” I think that Morissette’s best music video is for the album’s third single, “Ironic.” The mid-tempo tune became the album’s most radio-friendly hit and caused a mild controversy with its use of the word irony. Yes, many of the song’s lyrical wordplay is hardly appropriately “ironic.” But as English teachers fretted, Morissette paired the famous song with a spare, clever music video that became an influential piece of pop art.
“Ironic” was helmed by French photographer and director Stephane Sednaoui and showed Morissette driving down a drab, snowy road with other versions of Alanis sitting alongside her in the car. Wearing color-coded sweaters and sporting distinct personalities, the four Morissette “sisters” sing along to the (ahem) ironic song. Suddenly, the car runs out of gas, and Alanis steps out of the vehicle only to reveal that she is alone, and the sweater sisterhood were aspects of her personality. It’s a visually simple concept that would be copied in commercials and other videos and endlessly mocked and spoofed on social media. It’s also the video that perfectly encapsulates Morissette’s quirky personality.
Alanis Morissette would have an interesting and unique music video legacy. As a former child actress, she was already comfortable in front of the camera, having starred in the Canadian sketch comedy “You Can’t Do That On Television.” She would even dabble in some acting in the late ’90s, making cameos in Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” (as God, no less) and on HBO’s “Sex & The City.” She would be one of the last great music video artists before MTV abandoned the format in the early 2000s.
Check out the video below and let me know your thoughts in the comment section.