Alanis Morissette - You Learn

What this video is

Released during the peak commercial run of Jagged Little Pill — one of the best-selling albums of the 1990s — 'You Learn' arrived as alternative rock's conquest of mainstream pop radio was complete. The video's setting in New York's meatpacking district grounds Morissette's philosophical, self-empowerment lyric in a gritty but vibrant urban realism. The video's carefree, consequence-free wandering protagonist —…

Why it matters

A defining artifact of mid-90s alternative rock's MTV-era visual language, the video pairs Friedlander's kinetic, handheld street aesthetic with the era's emerging grammar of 'authentic' female rock artistry. It represents a transitional moment in music video production away from high-concept…

The director

Liz Friedlander (born December 9, 1970, New York City) is an American director and producer. She studied at the Drama Conservatory at Carnegie Mellon University, then photography at UC Santa Cruz, and graduated as valedictorian from the UCLA School of…