Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple has defied categorization or any easy career path, almost running the pattern in reverse, opening her career as a highly touted alternative singer/songwriter, then transitioning into a cult artist. Apple certainly benefited from the open-door policy of modern rock in the mid-'90s, following the path of crossover alt-rock piano-based songwriters like Tori Amos, but Apple was hardly a copycat: she had a strong jazz undertow in her vocal phrasing and melodies, she had rich arrangements, and she had a poppier bent to her songs. All these things helped her 1996 debut, T...