And she’s still speaking in the way she wants to speak, and she’s finding new ways of saying what she wants to say. And the reason that you and I are talking about Fiona Apple is because she’s still speaking. jenna worthamīecause she took that moment in 1997, in front of the whole world, and she found a way to not retreat from it, but to amplify the fury she felt about how she was treated during that period, where she is made famous almost kind of against her will, and held up as being an icon of something that she didn’t want to be iconic for being. Two years later, my entire world gets blown up when she puts out this album called “When the Pawn.” This album to me was the moment where I was officially in love with this person. Well, what it did for me was make me really curious about what this person was going to do musically, right? I was curious about how the person who has this enormous backlash against her for speaking what is honestly the truth - I’m really curious about what that person does next. But it made me really respect her because I was like yes, I will go with myself. It’s just always hilarious to me when it’s a woman or a person of color. jenna worthamĪs if, like, those aren’t things that men always are. Inscrutable, stubborn, difficult to work with. And it really created the impression that she was reclusive and totally a mystery from then on out. And she essentially was banished, and she retreated. Yes, they called her crazy, and she was seen as entitled and bratty. People were really confused by her speech. So what I want to say is, everybody out there that’s watching, everybody that’s watching this world, this world is bull - Īnd you shouldn’t model your life - wait a second - you shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool, and what we’re wearing, and what we’re saying and everything. And I’m going to use this opportunity the way that I want to use it. See, Maya Angelou said that we as human beings at our best can only create opportunities. ‘Cause everybody that I should be thanking, I’m really sorry, but I have to use this time. I didn’t prepare a speech, and I’m sorry, but I’m glad that I didn’t because I’m not going to do this like everybody else does it. And Fiona Apple goes up to accept her Moonman trophy. The video goes on to win Best Female Video at the 1997 Video Music Awards. This is basically skinny white people rolling around on the floor and being the subject of many a fashion campaign. It is immediately deemed part of what we - if anybody who was around in the late 90s remembers as being “heroin chic.” And the fear of heroin chic, and the controversy of so-called heroin chic, Kate Moss being the epitome of that. I struggled with the popularity of that video because it also meant the popularity of the aesthetic of that video, which was rail thin, really strung out-looking, waify white girls. And the sad thing is I wanted to be in that druggie den with her. I mean, god yes, who can forget it? That image of Fiona Apple with the two braids, crouched and hidden in the closet was just emblazoned across my young mind. And do you remember that part? jenna wortham She is very thin and taking off her clothes at some point, and she’s in lingerie. īasically, in the video, Fiona Apple is writhing around on the floor. And I definitely remember when “Criminal” just kept playing. So my little chunky butt would sit down in front of the TV, with a bag of cheetos, and I would watch these music videos. Now where were you when you first saw that video? jenna wortham The first single off of her first album title is called “Shadow Boxer.” And I’m like, I had just started listening to Nina Simone at this point, and I’m like, Oh ma’am, please, this is not - jenna wortham She was a teenager, and she shows up, and she’s singing these bluesy torch songs. It started for me like it did for everybody else, my relationship with this woman, in 1996 when she was a pretty popular recording artist out of nowhere. You know what this week’s episode is about. This is “Still Processing.” I’m Jenna Wortham. Transcript Fiona Ex Machina Fiona Apple blows our minds, again.
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