#50 -- Alanis Morissette

Is all the music we hear in our lives meant for us?  Or--at least in the age of radio and early MTV--do we accidentally hear things that are not 'us'?  I'd affirm the former, especially if music makes a lasting, welcome impression. 

Alanis Morissette, for me, was the best thing on the FM dial in the late 1990s.  And there was a window in those days, when I used my own vehicle to deliver mail,  during which music would play while I worked--alas, no more.  

Morissette is arguably too raw for me.  The title of her smash album, Jagged Little Pill (among a handful with the tag "all-time, most albums sold") speaks to this; and her lyrics are explicit.  So why do I like her music?  All I can say: attractions aren't always rational.

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Each band or performer is graded on four things:
  1.  Innovation
  2.  Influence in my life--as a typical American
  3.  Integrity: the band's approach to music (just making a buck or honing a craft?)
  4.  Immortality--am I, a typical American--still eager to hear their music

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4/1/4/6 = 15 out of a perfect 50

In the early '00s I watched an entire concert of hers on MTV, I believe, and enjoyed every song, thinking her immensely talented.