Fiona Apple's music seems to have been mysteriously scrubbed from TikTok
Fans noticed the sudden removal of her music from the app
Much to the chagrin of Fiona Apple fans who want to create moody, poetic TikToks featuring her music, users across social media platforms have discovered that nearly her entire discography has been removed from the app. Music gatekeepers win this round.
As of right now, some of the only songs available for official use on the app include her covers of The Beatles’ “Across The Universe” and the Christmas tune “Frosty The Snowman.” Nothing from When The Pawn. No Tidal. No Extraordinary Machine.
Prior to the discography’s removal, snippets from songs such as “Paper Bag” and Fetch The Bolt Cutter’s “Under The Table” made their rounds on the app, frequently as a way for girls to express their frustrations with patriarchal dynamics and praise the resonance of Apple’s music.
However, some use her songs to lean into the aesthetic of the manic, sad girl, a label Apple herself has been boxed into for nearly her entire career. A rank of TikTok users have even gone as far as to use Apple’s music under the context of labeling themselves as “femcels” and “female manipulators” (i.e. the “Sullen Girl”), popularizing a gross and reductive read on the singer’s lyricism.
Some Apple fans have taken to social media to applaud the removal of her music from the app, presenting their own theories for the discography’s scrubbing. In one viral tweet, one social media user named Grace writes, “Fiona apple saw that people on tiktok were appropriating her music for their shallow, reductive aesthetics that do nothing but fetishize female pain and she said absolutely the fuck not and i love and respect her so much for that.”
Another user named Keira simply writes: “Fiona apple taking all her music off of tiktok is so iconic lol she hates y’all.”
What remains unclear is if this is an intentional scrubbing by Apple herself in response to the ways it’s been used on the app, or if it’s simply a tiff over licensing and copyright. However, TikTok and Sony Music Entertainment (Apple’s music is released through the Sony asset Epic Records), signed a deal in 2020 allowing the widespread use of its artists’ music on the app, making this an unlikely issue.
Sony Music did not immediately respond to The A.V. Club’s request for comment.