A post about Tori Amos, if you're not interested, move on
I bought the CD pack of all the videos Tori Amos has made. After watching most of the CDs (there are two) I realized why she never became a mainstream-alternative - she just doesn't pass the screen.
My story with Tori began on a trip to Taba in Sinai, where I got a bad stomach ache and was forced to stay in the room and not going to the pool. I had only a few CDs with me on that trip, and with them "Little Earthquakes". I listened to it once, and twice, and the weirdness of the music eased each time, I read the words, I got the songs and at the end of that day and that trip I was hooked. She was, and still is, the only artist I bought a CD of without knowing one or more of the songs on it from before - a thing I did with every CD after "Little Earthquakes".
As years rolled by, I became a real addict, owning almost all her CD's (budget reasons for the "Almost") and knowing almost all her songs. I love her, she's an amazing song-writer, composer and singer. But. I almost never hear her songs on the radio or see her videos on T.V. I never realized why. We have so many mainstream-alternative music nowadays, and her songs are so much better than a lot of things out there today as well as before 15 years (when she released "Little Earthquakes"). I may be a bit biased, but still - I have a few friends I got into loving her as well, and they also like mainstream music (excluding efiluq here from loving Tori). Lilach, Liat Helena and hagar_972 all know Tori because of me, because I love her and I played her music in the car, and I talk about her. I just never knew why she hadn't became some sort of consensus. I think I know now. It's sad for me to know that she's not known by a lot of people ("Huh? who is Tori Amos" is a reply I get a lot, even though she has a very tight fan base, and a lot of people love her as much as I do, some a whole lot more) just because her videos are what they are. I guess that because MTV started about at the same time she started releasing singles and videos, and because her videos (at least for LE) are very... Well, bad is the word I'll use, לא מושקעים,and in a lot lower level than the actual songs, she didn't survive MTV, and people forgot her.
Again, I'm making a generalization here, because some people haven't forgotten about her, but most have. Until this day, people remember her as "Crucify", "Cornflake Girl" and the bad, dance version of "Professional Widow". She's so much more than that. She doesn't photograph well for T.V., her videos are weird, directed in a manner I don't understand and don't like, and the amount of good that came out of making these videos is small in the good sense, at least the way I see it. I'd rather listen to her than watch her on T.V.
I don't know if she did it on purpose, or just didn't care and wanted to keep her music as a thing that doesn't need T.V. (and she managed that - her music is best as what it is - music. No make-up, no directing, no tiny sweemsuits under a waterfall). The later videos are directed better, look better, but she still isn't good on screen, and I guess no one can teach you that. She is still my favorite singer (you just have to look at my LJ to know it - the headline is from "Sleeps with butterflies", the music saying is from "Sweet the Sting" and the mood saying is from "Barons of Suburbia"), and her music is one of a kind, but now I know why people don't know her. I'm sorry for it, because I love her.
I'll always be "Ears with feet".
My story with Tori began on a trip to Taba in Sinai, where I got a bad stomach ache and was forced to stay in the room and not going to the pool. I had only a few CDs with me on that trip, and with them "Little Earthquakes". I listened to it once, and twice, and the weirdness of the music eased each time, I read the words, I got the songs and at the end of that day and that trip I was hooked. She was, and still is, the only artist I bought a CD of without knowing one or more of the songs on it from before - a thing I did with every CD after "Little Earthquakes".
As years rolled by, I became a real addict, owning almost all her CD's (budget reasons for the "Almost") and knowing almost all her songs. I love her, she's an amazing song-writer, composer and singer. But. I almost never hear her songs on the radio or see her videos on T.V. I never realized why. We have so many mainstream-alternative music nowadays, and her songs are so much better than a lot of things out there today as well as before 15 years (when she released "Little Earthquakes"). I may be a bit biased, but still - I have a few friends I got into loving her as well, and they also like mainstream music (excluding efiluq here from loving Tori). Lilach, Liat Helena and hagar_972 all know Tori because of me, because I love her and I played her music in the car, and I talk about her. I just never knew why she hadn't became some sort of consensus. I think I know now. It's sad for me to know that she's not known by a lot of people ("Huh? who is Tori Amos" is a reply I get a lot, even though she has a very tight fan base, and a lot of people love her as much as I do, some a whole lot more) just because her videos are what they are. I guess that because MTV started about at the same time she started releasing singles and videos, and because her videos (at least for LE) are very... Well, bad is the word I'll use, לא מושקעים,and in a lot lower level than the actual songs, she didn't survive MTV, and people forgot her.
Again, I'm making a generalization here, because some people haven't forgotten about her, but most have. Until this day, people remember her as "Crucify", "Cornflake Girl" and the bad, dance version of "Professional Widow". She's so much more than that. She doesn't photograph well for T.V., her videos are weird, directed in a manner I don't understand and don't like, and the amount of good that came out of making these videos is small in the good sense, at least the way I see it. I'd rather listen to her than watch her on T.V.
I don't know if she did it on purpose, or just didn't care and wanted to keep her music as a thing that doesn't need T.V. (and she managed that - her music is best as what it is - music. No make-up, no directing, no tiny sweemsuits under a waterfall). The later videos are directed better, look better, but she still isn't good on screen, and I guess no one can teach you that. She is still my favorite singer (you just have to look at my LJ to know it - the headline is from "Sleeps with butterflies", the music saying is from "Sweet the Sting" and the mood saying is from "Barons of Suburbia"), and her music is one of a kind, but now I know why people don't know her. I'm sorry for it, because I love her.
I'll always be "Ears with feet".