Do We Prefer To See Depression Rather Than Happiness?
Jun 15th, 2008 by zania
One of my favourite albums of the 1990s was Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette. I liked the album, especially the single You Oughta Know, because I could identify with the lyrics and the anger behind the words. You could tell that Alanis was a woman in emtional pain and trying to bring that pain out and shed it by writing about it.
I later learned that this was indeed the case. Morissette had struggled with Anorexia and Bulimia and while writing the album, she had been plagued with anxiety and panic attacks.
Did writing and performing Jagged Little Pill help Alanis overcome her anxiety and depression?
Well, if you are of the opinion that fame and fortune can create happiness, then I guess the answer would be yes… The album became one of the best sellers of all time and, in 1995, it catapulted Alanis Morissette into a world of constant media attention, awards ceremonies and a highly successful eighteen month world tour.
The problem was, that at the end of the tour Alanis was physically and mentally exhausted.
So Alanis took a break to recover and find herself. She began to practice yoga and, at the end of the tour, she travelled to India with family and friends.
When she returned, much recovered and in control of her life again, Alanis began work on her new album, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie. It was innovative and well crafted… and completely different from Jagged Little Pill.
The album did reasonably well. It received critical acclaim and won some awards. But sales were nowhere as high as anticipated. It seems that many of the fans of the angst-ridden Jagged Little Pill had little time for a newer, mellower Morissette. They wanted angry statements, bitter soul-searching and irony . Instead they were offered songs by a woman who appeared to have found herself… whilst they had not.
Alanis Morissette had, for a while at least, sorted out her anxieties and stress, whilst many of her audience were still trying to find a way to cope with theirs. Were they happy for her? It appears they were not. They abandoned Alanis in favour of other ‘angry’ female perforrners, like Meredith Brooks and the already successful and continually angst ridden Courtney Love.
The moral of this story? None really, just an observation:
When you have overcome adversity and have a happy tale to tell, do not expect everyone to be happy for you. Some may even reject you for this. They simply prefer to see your pain, not only because they can identify with it better, but because it ’spreads the load’ and makes them feel more ‘normal’ themselves.
[...] They abandoned Alanis in favour of other ‘angry’ female perforrners, like Meredith Brooks and the already successful and continually angst ridden Courtney Love. The moral of this story? None really, just an observation: … Source: Do We Prefer To See Depression Rather Than Happiness? [...]
[...] Do We Prefer To See Depression Rather Than Happiness? One of my favourite albums of the 1990s was Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette. I liked the album, especially the single You Oughta Know, because I could identify with the lyrics and the anger behind the words. … [...]