'Criminal'
In her 1997 music video for “Criminal,” an emaciated Fiona Apple, surrounded by what appear to be tranquilized models, undresses as she croons lyrics like “I’ve been a bad, bad girl.” Apple’s appearance, described by the New Yorker as being similar to that of an “underfed Calvin Klein model,” spurred accusations that the video promoted “heroin chic” and had “overtones of child porn.” Taking a fiercely uncompromising stance against her critics, Apple said, as she accepted her MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist later that year, “Everybody out there that’s watching … this world is bullshit, and you shouldn’t model your life about what you think that we think is cool.”
