BACK TO NRO
Alanis Isnt Angry Anymore
Conservatives dont care a bit about Alanis Morissette. They should. By Tom Hoopes, editor, National Catholic Register
March 20, 2002 9:40 a.m. agged Little Pill was her first album (first, after two throwaway Debbie Gibsonesque false starts), and Alanis wasn't just angry, she made femme-rage imitators all the rage. But their anger couldn't touch Alanis's. Her anger was the kind that makes people's blood boil. Anti-Alanis sites sprang up on the Internet. Writers traded witty putdowns of her shrieking singing style and penchant for mispronouncing words. The Washington Post recently wondered why Alanis gets so many people so upset. The writer concluded she was the "Hillary Clinton of pop," which is a nice turn of phrase, but not quite to the point. Conservatives don't care a bit about Alanis (they should). Alanis made liberal hedonists upset because she was angry about all the right things. She was angry that a man once told her he would love her until he died, "but" — as she fantasizes about pointing out to him while he's on a date with someone new — "You're still alive, and I'm here, to remind you of the mess you left when you went away." That song — the song with vulgar sexual references and the Really Bad Word in it — was "You Oughta Know," and it is an unparalleled critique of the sexual revolution and how it has left people like Alanis (who was born in 1974) emotionally crippled. | |
|
