This is a REALLY long sort of essay-type thing I wrote on Blogger. The article I refer to is the one Missy Blue mentioned, the one on imagesjournal.com about voyuerism. If you go to Fiona Apple's page on Wikipedia.org, the link to it is there, I think, titled something like "Voyuerism for the 90's" or something like that, if you're curious.
Something nice about this sort of song is that while the artist may have been thinking one thing while writing it, you can think something entirely different while listening, and not be entirely off. The problem with this is that people then begin to waste their time, arguing about what the song "really means," or what the songwriter meant it to say. There is no right answer to the question "what does this song mean?" in many, many cases. In the case of "Criminal," the song may seem to be terribly simple, but I think that the connotations and tone used in the video as compared to the words are simply too contradictory to accidentally send a deeper message, which only leaves room for interpretation and observation.
When I first watched the "Criminal" video, I didn't notice anything. In fact, I watched it a few times before I even started to try piecing together a backstory for Fiona's character in the video. It wasn't until I stumbled across an article that I really started to analyze this deeper. It analyzed the video in addition to the words rather than the song alone. In short, the writer stated that Fiona's attitudes in the video were very contradictory, that she was addressing us, the viewers, through the entire thing.
Those two theories, after I'd analyzed them a bit, began to imply two different possible stories behind the video, the first being that Fiona is actually looking back at this event and narrating to us--explaining her addressing us--and the contradictory attitudes are to show us the difference between her feelings during and after the event--enjoying herself at the time, feeling guilty afterwards--while the lyrics are presenting her feelings afterwards throughout. With this storyline, it can be assumed that she's connected with someone outside the party, this someone being the the person Fiona refers to as "the one I've sinned against" and the "delicate man."
The second of the two, however, is the more interesting and overlooked possibility--that of irony and sarcasm, which almost reverses the order in which her feelings about the event took place.
When Fiona sings the opening line to the bridge, which is the most emotional and revealing part of the song, she's sitting in the back of the car, looking absolutely terrified. "Let me know the way, before there's hell to pay." Next we see her over the television, this time unafraid and shameless as she sings "give me room to lay the law and let me go." She's back in the car for "I've got to make a play" and on TV again at "to make my lover stay." We see a strong mix of these two sides of Fiona's character when she sings "so what would an angel say? the devil wants to know." This part of the video along with the images of a hurt and innocent Fiona at the end of the video really break away from the normally assumed interpretation.
I read one listener's opinion at songmeanings.net that said she believed this to be about gender roles; a man can go and do as he wants, and he's considered a stud. When a girl does what she wants, she's a slut. That would mean that this is merely Fiona telling us what society expects her to be saying. This is interesting, but if that's so true, why does Fiona look so goddamn scared? Why does she look so hurt if she's doing all these things of her own free will? I did read other posts, however, in which writers seemed to share my idea of interpretation.
Fiona's the victim, not the attacker--the prey, not the predator, the innocent, not the criminal. But that's not what everyone else is saying to her. She's the victim of abuse, but the abuser and everyone else just hits her upside the head and calls her a slut. She's been blamed so often that she's almost beginning to believe that it really is her fault. The times in the video when she seems promiscuous are representing what she thinks she did--come on to the abuser--the times when she looks guilty represent how she feels about supposedly doing the abuser wrong, the times when she looks sad and scared show how she's feeling about all this, and those few, revealing times when she's looking hurt and innocent tell the truth. The expression on her face when she says "I've done wrong, and I wanna suffer for my sins," melodramatic and nearly mocking in nature, supports this theory. All the shots of her seemingly enjoying herself are overdramatatized, too.
No, maybe Fiona Apple wasn't trying to send this message. Maybe it started out as a song that was merely about a girl doing someone wrong and regretting it; I'm not Fiona, so I wouldn't know. But I, for one, believe in unintentional symbolism. The subconscious, especially that of a writer, is capable of such things. It is the subconscious, after all, is the thing that makes you, as an adult, anxious in situations similar to one that you, as a two-year-old, were once in that scared thet shit out of you, an event you may not even remember at all. Fiona was a rape victim, so I imagine that her subconscious could've been writing a symbolic version of "Criminal" about abuse and guilt while Fiona herself was writing a song she believed to be about something entirely different. We can't be sure.
Of course, it's just my opinion, and you can say that it's "just a freaking song about a girl doing shit and feeling sorry after, for God's sake!" if you want. But honestly--isn't she having just a little too much fun in the video to be taken seriously? Think about it, take it with a grain of salt if you must. You believe what you want, and I'll believe what I want.
This is a REALLY long sort of essay-type thing I wrote on Blogger. The article I refer to is the one Missy Blue mentioned, the one on imagesjournal.com about voyuerism. If you go to Fiona Apple's page on Wikipedia.org, the link to it is there, I think, titled something like "Voyuerism for the 90's" or something like that, if you're curious.
Something nice about this sort of song is that while the artist may have been thinking one thing while writing it, you can think something entirely different while listening, and not be entirely off. The problem with this is that people then begin to waste their time, arguing about what the song "really means," or what the songwriter meant it to say. There is no right answer to the question "what does this song mean?" in many, many cases. In the case of "Criminal," the song may seem to be terribly simple, but I think that the connotations and tone used in the video as compared to the words are simply too contradictory to accidentally send a deeper message, which only leaves room for interpretation and observation.
When I first watched the "Criminal" video, I didn't notice anything. In fact, I watched it a few times before I even started to try piecing together a backstory for Fiona's character in the video. It wasn't until I stumbled across an article that I really started to analyze this deeper. It analyzed the video in addition to the words rather than the song alone. In short, the writer stated that Fiona's attitudes in the video were very contradictory, that she was addressing us, the viewers, through the entire thing.
Those two theories, after I'd analyzed them a bit, began to imply two different possible stories behind the video, the first being that Fiona is actually looking back at this event and narrating to us--explaining her addressing us--and the contradictory attitudes are to show us the difference between her feelings during and after the event--enjoying herself at the time, feeling guilty afterwards--while the lyrics are presenting her feelings afterwards throughout. With this storyline, it can be assumed that she's connected with someone outside the party, this someone being the the person Fiona refers to as "the one I've sinned against" and the "delicate man."
The second of the two, however, is the more interesting and overlooked possibility--that of irony and sarcasm, which almost reverses the order in which her feelings about the event took place.
When Fiona sings the opening line to the bridge, which is the most emotional and revealing part of the song, she's sitting in the back of the car, looking absolutely terrified. "Let me know the way, before there's hell to pay." Next we see her over the television, this time unafraid and shameless as she sings "give me room to lay the law and let me go." She's back in the car for "I've got to make a play" and on TV again at "to make my lover stay." We see a strong mix of these two sides of Fiona's character when she sings "so what would an angel say? the devil wants to know." This part of the video along with the images of a hurt and innocent Fiona at the end of the video really break away from the normally assumed interpretation.
I read one listener's opinion at songmeanings.net that said she believed this to be about gender roles; a man can go and do as he wants, and he's considered a stud. When a girl does what she wants, she's a slut. That would mean that this is merely Fiona telling us what society expects her to be saying. This is interesting, but if that's so true, why does Fiona look so goddamn scared? Why does she look so hurt if she's doing all these things of her own free will? I did read other posts, however, in which writers seemed to share my idea of interpretation.
Fiona's the victim, not the attacker--the prey, not the predator, the innocent, not the criminal. But that's not what everyone else is saying to her. She's the victim of abuse, but the abuser and everyone else just hits her upside the head and calls her a slut. She's been blamed so often that she's almost beginning to believe that it really is her fault. The times in the video when she seems promiscuous are representing what she thinks she did--come on to the abuser--the times when she looks guilty represent how she feels about supposedly doing the abuser wrong, the times when she looks sad and scared show how she's feeling about all this, and those few, revealing times when she's looking hurt and innocent tell the truth. The expression on her face when she says "I've done wrong, and I wanna suffer for my sins," melodramatic and nearly mocking in nature, supports this theory. All the shots of her seemingly enjoying herself are overdramatatized, too.
No, maybe Fiona Apple wasn't trying to send this message. Maybe it started out as a song that was merely about a girl doing someone wrong and regretting it; I'm not Fiona, so I wouldn't know. But I, for one, believe in unintentional symbolism. The subconscious, especially that of a writer, is capable of such things. It is the subconscious, after all, is the thing that makes you, as an adult, anxious in situations similar to one that you, as a two-year-old, were once in that scared thet shit out of you, an event you may not even remember at all. Fiona was a rape victim, so I imagine that her subconscious could've been writing a symbolic version of "Criminal" about abuse and guilt while Fiona herself was writing a song she believed to be about something entirely different. We can't be sure.
Of course, it's just my opinion, and you can say that it's "just a freaking song about a girl doing shit and feeling sorry after, for God's sake!" if you want. But honestly--isn't she having just a little too much fun in the video to be taken seriously? Think about it, take it with a grain of salt if you must. You believe what you want, and I'll believe what I want.