11. Alanis MorissetteJagged Little Pill
This was one of my first concerts. The first one was Green Day, the second one was Alanis. She had a long Middle Eastern carpet. The whole stage was the carpet. She was barefoot. I brought my dad. He was enamoured by the time he left. I was like “I knew you’d get it”.
For me, she was the beginning of femme rock, with anger and honesty, and all the things that became mainstream. The girls in mainstream rock were polished in this cutesy way, and she was none of those things. Large mouth, long hair, barefoot, honest, and mainstream. We ate it up like candy. She was so beautifully flawed, and for me at that time, Black, white, no matter what, we all ate it up. For every girl, she was saying all the things that needed to be said. And ‘Ironic’ is fucking poetry. ‘Ironic’ is genius. The melody on the hook, it’s so fucking good man. I don’t care if you if you don’t get that. It was ahead.
