Fiona Apple

Where They’re From: New York City, NY

Who They Are: With one foot in the alternative rock world and the other in the 90s singer-songwriter scene, Fiona Apple caused a seismic ripple with the release of her debut album Tidal. The record ruminated on desire, mental health, mysoginy and womanhood, themes that recured throughout her creative output over the subsequent decades. Apple comes from a place of putting art and creativity ahead of commercial concerns — for instance, the unabridged title of her 1999 album When The Pawn is a 90-word poem. But sometimes, those words overlap, like in 2020 when her album Fetch The Bolt Cutters resonated with the rage of listeners locked inside during a global pandemic, outraged at social injustice around the world, and deeply needing to scream to moving music that kept them coming back.

Years Active: 1994-present

Essential Albums: Tidal (1996), Extraordinary Machine (2005), Fetch The Bolt Cutters (2020)