HISTORY HIGHLIGHT

At the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1996, Alanis Morissette won album of the year for Jagged Little Pill and best female rock vocal and best song for “You Oughta Know“. The album, which was her international debut, topped the charts in ten countries, is one of the best-selling albums of all time, and made Morissette the first Canadian to achieve double diamond sales. She was also the youngest artist to ever win the Album of the Year, a record she held until 2010, when Taylor Swift won the prize for Fearless.

If you think of iconic ’90s albums, a few may come to mind. Perhaps you’re a rap fan and go for Biggie’s “Ready to Die” or Nas’s “Illmatic.” If you’re more of a heavy rocker, there’s Nirvana’s “Nevermind,” and if you’re into more alternative records then Radiohead’s “OK Computer” and Fiona Apple’s “Tidal” are probably on your list. However, much like records like “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” or Oasis‘s “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory,” one answer that you might hear coming from any avid consumer regardless of genre preference is Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill.” The pop-rock record is widely hailed as one of the best of the ’90s and, sometimes, ever. Among its many honors, it won Album of the Year at the 1996 Grammys.

Also nominated for Album of the Year were Michael Jackson’s “HIStory,” Pearl Jam’s “Vitalogy,” and Joan Osborne’s “Relish” — and since those last two were alternative-leaning, many thought that was a death sentence for Morissette. In their 1996 predictions piece for the Los Angeles Times, Paul Grein and Robert Hilburn wrote that she had “strong voter appeal, but it’s hard to see the top award going to such a volatile, edgy artist — especially with Pearl Jam’s siphoning off significant rock support. That leaves Carey as the likely victor.” This sentiment was echoed by other publications like Entertainment Weekly and the Orlando Sentinel.

Morissette had a few advantages up her sleeve though. First, many people saw her as a new, refreshing choice over Carey and Jackson’s more radio-ready sound. She was also helped by the underperformance of her supposedly vote-splitting competition. Despite big success with her lead single “One of Us,” Osborne missed Best Rock Album, so she was likely a committee pick for Album of the Year; Jackson also missed Best Pop Vocal Album. And Pearl Jam’s impact was overestimated, as they only managed to win one Grammy — and in a category where Alanis wasn’t competing; she beat them everywhere else.

When she won, many were stunned Carey had actually lost; to make matters worse, Carey didn’t win a single Grammy that night. Still, while many will argue Carey deserved to win to this day, “Jagged Little Pill” ultimately became the more iconic album out of the two, earning a spot on many all-time lists and even being mentioned in the top 70 of Rolling Stone’s GOAT Albums list in 2020, not to mention getting its own jukebox musical. And let’s be real, Carey continued to be the massive superstar she had always been and even won some more Grammys later on for “The Emancipation of Mimi” in the 2000s, so there are probably no hard feelings between the two ladies of the ’90s.