Ironic

2009-09-15T21:22:38Z

80.235.145.247: /* Charts */

{{Single infobox
| Name = Ironic
| Cover = Ironic single cover.jpg|400 px.
| Artist = [[Alanis Morissette]]
| from Album = [[Jagged Little Pill]]
| Released = February 27, 1997 ([[North America]]) 8 April 1996 ([[Europe]])
| Format = [[CD single]]
| Recorded =
| Genre = [[Post-grunge]], [[pop rock]]
| Length = 3:44
| Label = [[Maverick Records|Maverick]]
| Writer = [[Alanis Morissette]], [[Glen Ballard]]
| Producer = Glen Ballard
| Misc = {{Extra album cover 2
| Upper caption = Alternate cover
| Type = [[Single]]
| Cover = ironic.jpg
| Lower caption = "Ironic" limited special-edition maxi-single
}}
{{Extra chronology 2
| Artist = Alanis Morissette North America singles
| Type = single
| Last single = "[[All I Really Want]]" (1995)
| This single = "'''Ironic'''" (1996)
| Next single = "[[You Learn]]" (1996)
}}
{{Extra chronology 2
| Artist = Alanis Morissette European singles
| Type = single
| Last single = "You Learn" (1996)
| This single = "'''Ironic'''" (1996)
| Next single = "[[Head over Feet]]" (1996)
}}
{{Audiosample
| Upper caption = Audio sample
| Name = "Ironic"
| Audio file = Ironic.ogg
}}
}}

"'''Ironic'''" is a song written by [[Alanis Morissette]] and [[Glen Ballard]] and produced by Ballard for Morissette's third album ''[[Jagged Little Pill]]'' (1995). It was released as the album's fourth [[single (music)|single]] in 1996 (see [[1996 in music]]).

==Style and theme==
Musically, the song is a glossy take on a basic [[grunge music]] format with delicate, sparsely-instrumented verses alternating with loud, aggressive chorus sections. Lyrically, it comprises a series of vignettes describing unfortunate but decidedly non-ironic situations followed with the question "Isn't it ironic?"

== Track listing ==
# "Ironic" (3:49)
# "You Oughta Know" (Acoustic/Live from the Grammy Awards) (3:48)
# "Mary Jane" [Live] (5:52)
# "All I Really Want" [Live] (5:22)

== Limited special-edition maxi-single track listing ==
# "Ironic" [Album Version] (3:48)
# "Forgiven" [Live] (6:09)
# "Not the Doctor" [Live] (6:05)
# "Wake Up" [Live] (5:05)

== Success ==
"Ironic" became Morissette's second number-one hit on the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Modern Rock Tracks]] chart in the [[U.S.]], where it stayed for three weeks. The song was also more popular than previous singles on more [[adult contemporary|adult]]-oriented radio stations and charts. The song also became Morissette's highest-charting hit on the ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' [[Hot 100]] chart, where it peaked at number four. It is one of only two songs by Morissette to crack the top-ten on that chart, the other being "[[You Learn]]", backed with a live version of "[[You Oughta Know]]", which reached number six. Both songs were also from ''Jagged Little Pill''. In other countries, "Ironic" did not meet as much commercial success, however it was a moderate Top 20 hit in the [[UK]], where it peaked just outside the top-ten, at #11. It is still considered to be one of Morissette's biggest hits, and also received great critical acclaim at the time of its release. The song is still popular today, mainly based around the debates surrounding the lyrics of the song, and whether the examples mentioned in the song actually qualify as being ironic (see below).

== Linguistic usage disputes ==
{{Wiktionary|ironic}}
The song's usage of the word "[[wiktionary:ironic|ironic]]" attracted attention<ref>[http://fgk.hanau.net/articles/ironic.html It Is Ironic, Isn't It?]</ref><ref>[http://www.geocities.com/eirig/ Irony and Ignorance]</ref><ref>[http://www.squelched.com/detail.jsp?num=329 "Morissette Single Reaches New Levels of Meta-Irony"], ''Heuristic Squelch'' humour article, November 2002</ref> for what some feel is an improper application of the term.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/61/61/I0236100.html ''Bartleby'' definition of ''irony'']</ref><ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/61/43/I0234300.html ''Bartleby'' definition of and usage note for ''ironic'']</ref> Two situations that Morissette describes in the song are arguably examples of [[Irony#Irony of fate .28cosmic irony.29|cosmic irony]]: events that, as the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' puts it, appear "as if in mockery of the fitness or rightness of things", such as "a death row pardon/two minutes too late".

Morissette has also confirmed that she is a self-dubbed "[[malapropism]] queen" and alleges that the song was lighthearted and not taken too seriously at the time it was written:<ref>[http://www.msopr.com/mso/morissette.html MSOPR]</ref>
{{cquote|For me the great debate on whether what I was saying in ‘Ironic’ was ironic wasn’t a traumatic debate. I’d always embraced the fact that every once in a while I’d be the malapropism queen. And when Glen and I were writing it, we definitely were not doggedly making sure that everything was technically ironic. It’s a testament to the fact that we didn’t think it was going to be put under the microscope by 30 million people. For me the sweetest moment came in New York when a woman came up to me in a record store and said, ‘So all those things in the “Ironic” aren’t ironic.’ And then she said, ‘And that’s the irony.’ I said, ‘Yup.’ To me it’s a real snapshot of a nineteen-year-old’s definition and version of how life worked at the time. All that ‘Ironic’ touches on spawned all my future inquiries into and current understandings of the mysteries of life.}}</blockquote>

The comedian [[Ed Byrne]] has performed a skit in which he jokingly attacks the song for its lack of ironies: "The only ironic thing about that song is it's called ironic and it's written by a woman who doesn't know what irony is. That's quite ironic." Byrne goes through the song, working out how to change the various unfortunate incidents, mentioned in the song, into ironies.<ref>{{YouTube|nT1TVSTkAXg|Ed Byrne slates Alanis Morissette}}</ref>
Popular [[satire|satirists]] Berger and Wyse also parodied the song in their cartoon strip ''The Pitchers''. In an episode where superhero ''Irony Man'' (a [[pun]] on [[Iron Man]]) likens his superpowers to lyrics from Morrisette's song, causing his cohorts to rename him "''The Man from Alanis''" (a pun on [[The Man from Atlantis]]).<ref>[http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Film/Pix/pictures/2008/04/30/pitchers.jpg The Pitchers: Superscript and Typo], ''[[The Guardian]]'' film supplement, May 2, 2008</ref>

==Alternate versions==
In 2004 Morissette amended a lyric as a show of her support for [[same-sex marriage]]:<ref>Vineyard, Jennifer. [http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1488180/06042004/morissette_alanis.jhtml "Alanis Isn't Angry Anymore — She's In Love"]. [[MTV News]]. June 4, 2004. Retrieved August 23, 2006.</ref>

:"It's meeting the man of my dreams
:And then meeting his beautiful husband"

She first sang the line at the fifteenth annual [[GLAAD Media Awards]] in March 2004.<ref>Keck, William. [http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2004-03-28-glaad-awards_x.htm "Politics in play at gay awards"]. ''[[USA Today]]''. March 28, 2004. Retrieved August 23, 2006.</ref> She recorded an acoustic version of the song with the amended lyric for an exclusive [[iTunes Music Store]] release. Another acoustic version was recorded for the album ''[[Jagged Little Pill Acoustic]]'' (2005), and another for the ''[[Cities 97 Sampler]] Volume 16'' (2004). The song was also performed in a duo with [[Avril Lavigne]], at the [[House of Blues]], in 2005.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ilaTP9oGWs&feature=related]</ref>

==Music video==
The single's [[music video|video]] was released in January 1996 and received heavy rotation on [[MTV]] and VH1 in the US. It was directed by [[Stéphane Sednaoui]] and features Morissette driving a black [[Lincoln Continental Mark V]] through a winter landscape. She also plays her passengers: one in a green sweater riding in the back seat; one in a yellow sweater with braided hair, also in the back seat; and one in a red sweater in the front passenger seat. At the end of the video, the car stalls and Morissette, as the driver, exits but her passengers are nowhere to be seen. However, a man then appears and asks them a question about the driver. (Not all versions contain the last scene.)

The video was nominated for six [[MTV Video Music Awards]] in 1996 and it won three: "[[MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video|Best Female Video]]", "[[MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist|Best New Artist]]", and "[[MTV Video Music Award for Best Editing|Best Editing]]". It was nominated for two 1997 [[Grammy Award]] in the "[[Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video|Best Music Video - Short Form]]" category but it lost to [[The Beatles]]' "[[Free as a Bird]]" and to [[Eric Clapton]]'s "[[Change the World]]" for "[[Record of the Year]]." "Ironic" was one of few videos released with multi-colored [[Closed Captioning]], a rare practice in North America.{{Citation needed|date=September 2008}} The verses appear in light blue and the chorus appear in green. The musical notes that usually accompany song lyrics or background music appear in purple.

In late 1996 a parody version of the video was released featuring a young girl, Allison Rheaume, who mimics Morissette's actions and wardrobe while [[lip sync]]ing to the original song. At the end, a man (presumably her father) notices her in the car sitting in the driveway and tells her to stop fooling around. This version of the video, directed by David Rheaume,<ref>{{cite web|title=Alanis Morissette [Imitator<nowiki>]</nowiki> - Ironic|url=http://watch.muchmusic.com/artists-a-z/a/alanis-morissette--imitator/clip82798|publisher=[[MuchMusic]]|accessdate=2009-08-27}}</ref> received mild airplay as a novelty on VH1 and was, for a time, the only video for "Ironic" available for viewing in Yahoo!'s [[LAUNCHcast]] music video library. It was included on the Morissette CD/DVD ''[[Alanis Morissette: The Collection|The Collection]]'' (2005). Also, [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] produced a parody version of the video, for [[Canada|Canada's]] [[MuchMusic]], in which he takes the place of the fourth version of Morissette in the front passenger seat.

In the [[1996 in literature|1996 novel]] ''[[Naive. Super]]'' by [[Norway|Norwegian]] author [[Erlend Loe]], the protagonist watches the video for "Ironic" on television and dreams about "meeting an Alanis-girl and living in a house together with her."

==Charts==
{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
{| class="wikitable"
!align="left"|Chart (1996)<ref>"Ironic", in Swiss, French, Dutch, Belgian (Flanders and Wallonia), Swedish, Norwegian, Australian and New Zealander Singles Chart [http://lescharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Alanis+Morissette&titel=Ironic&cat=s Lescharts.com] (Retrieved January 28, 2008)</ref>
!align="left"|Peak position
|-
|align="left"|Australian Singles Chart
|align="center"|3
|-
|align="left"|Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart
|align="center"|6
|-
|align="left"|Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart
|align="center"|9
|-
|align="left"|Canada Singles Chart
|align="center"|1
|-
|align="left"|Dutch Singles Chart
|align="center"|6
|-
|align="left"|French Singles Chart
|align="center"|16
|-
|align="left"|German Singles Chart
|align="center"|8
|-
|align="left"|New Zealand Singles Chart
|align="center"|3
|-
|align="left"|Norwegian Singles Chart
|align="center"|4
|-
|align="left"|Swedish Singles Chart
|align="center"|24
|}
{{col-2}}
{| class="wikitable"
!align="left"|Chart (1996)
!align="left"|Peak position
|-
|align="left"|Swiss Singles Chart
|align="center"|9
|-
|align="left"|[[UK Singles Chart]]
|align="center"|1
|-
|align="left"|U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100
|align="center"|4
|-
|align="left"|U.S. ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks
|align="center"|1
|-
|align="left"|U.S. ''Billboard'' [[Mainstream Rock Tracks]]
|align="center"|18
|-
|align="left"|U.S. ''Billboard'' [[Adult Contemporary (Billboard chart)|Adult Contemporary]]
|align="center"|28
|-
|align="left"|U.S. ''Billboard'' Top 40 Mainstream
|align="center"|1
|-
|align="left"|U.S. ''Billboard'' [[Adult Top 40]]
|align="center"|5
|-
|align="left"|U.S. ''Billboard'' [[Rhythmic Top 40]]
|align="center"|11
|-
|align="left"|U.S. ''Billboard'' Top 40 Adult Recurrents
|align="center"|1
|-
|}
{{col-end}}

==References==
{{Citation style|section|date=September 2009}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{cite web| url=http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.vnuArtistId=121494&model.vnuAlbumId=722607| title=Alanis Morissette - Artist Chart History| publisher=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''| accessdate=2006-08-23}}
*{{cite web| url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:oad8vwmta9lk~T51| title=Alanis Morissette - Billboard Singles| publisher=[[Allmusic]]| accessdate=2006-08-23}}
*{{cite web| url=http://www.mariah-charts.com/chartdata/PAlanisMorissette.htm| title=Alanis Morissette| publisher=Mariah-charts.com| accessdate=2008-08-23}}

{{start box}}
{{succession box
| before = "[[Wonderwall]]" by [[Oasis (band)|Oasis]]
| title = [[Modern Rock Tracks|''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks]] [[List of number-one modern rock hits (United States)|number-one single]]
| years = March 16, 1996 - March 30, 1996
| after = "[[Champagne Supernova]]" by Oasis
}}
{{end box}}

{{Alanis Morissette}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ironic (Song)}}
[[Category:1996 singles]]
[[Category:Alanis Morissette songs]]
[[Category:ARC Weekly Top 40 number-one singles]]
[[Category:Billboard Hot Alternative Tracks number-one singles]]
[[Category:Billboard Pop Songs number-one singles]]
[[Category:MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video]]
[[Category:Music videos directed by Stéphane Sednaoui]]
[[Category:Post-grunge songs]]
[[Category:Songs written by Glen Ballard]]
[[Category:Songs written by Alanis Morisette]]

[[es:Ironic]]
[[it:Ironic]]
[[he:Ironic]]
[[pt:Ironic]]
[[sv:Ironic]]

Wikipedia - Benutzerbeiträge [de]

Ironic