Jagged Little Pill Is Actually Very Bad

Submission 5,247

Part of a series on Baby Shark. [View Related Entries]

About

Jagged Little Pill Is Actually Bad refers to backlash against a Jezebel^[2] Article claiming that Alanis Morrisette's 1995 album Jagged Little Pill is no better than the children's nursery rhyme Baby Shark.

Origin

On March 25th, 2019, @Jezebel^[1] tweeted a link to an article "Jagged Little Pill is actually very bad" (shown below). The tweet gained only 470 likes in a day and over 2,500 scathing replies.

The Jezebel article written by Senior Staff Writer, Tracy Clark-Flory, contained her feelings on buying Morrisette's Jagged Little Pill on vinyl off Amazon. Clark-Flory describes her music taste as, "What the cool kids were listening to back in middle school, or contemporary Top 40 […] exactly the kind of person who buys records via Amazon Prime. (This Venn diagram overlaps completely.)" She then reccounts her feelings toward the album she loved as a tween as "grating and corny." The article reaches it's peak critical stance when she writes, "Jagged Little Pill was “Baby Shark” for mid-’90s angsty tween girls. It spoke in the simplest language, literally and musically, to that particular psychological stage of development at that particular cultural moment."

Precursor

On May 16th, 2007, Alanis Morissette uploaded the official music video for "You Oughta Know" to YouTube. The video has gained over 41 million views and 179,000 likes in 12 years (shown below).

Jagged Little Pill has been praised by many writers as an early feminist anthem album and The New York Times reported on the upcoming Jagged Little Pill musical on Broadway.^[3]^[4]

Spread

On March 26th, 2019, Twitter user @nekr0mantix^[6] replied to Jezebel's tweet saying "What you mean to say is: 'This album no longer speaks to me, personally. However, it is significant to a lot of other people (especially women) and I won’t dismiss its cultural effect, or Alanis’ talent'" (shown below, left). The reply gained 160 retweets and 2,651 likes in a day. That same day, @LeslieStreeter^[7] replied to Jezebel's tweet saying, "'Jagged Little Pill' was released the year I turned 24, my first year on my own as an adult. It’s power and rawness scared me, challenged me, galvanized me. It’s ok not to feel the same about it. But you don’t have to dismiss it because you outgrew it." (shown below, right). The reply accumulated 200 retweets and 3,270 likes in a day.

On March 26th, Amanda Deibert published an article to Medium^[5][ replying to Clark-Flory's article. The article critics many aspects of the Jezebel article. Deibert calls Clark-Flory to ask herself some questions:

"Ask yourself why it was okay for you to mock and belittle an album you loved as a girl. Ask why your husband, who I am sure is actually a great guy, felt okay teasing you about wanting to own an album that won Grammys for album of the year AND best rock album and topped Billboard charts giving voice to female emotions. Ask why it’s STILL so difficult for women to get as much respect for their creative endeavors, ESPECIALLY when they dare to express actual emotions like ANGER."