History Music / ToriAmos

* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: Tori places accent on wrong syllables in most of her songs to the point where it can sound like a different language. She had a more-or-less normal singing voice at the start of her career, but she started to change it over the years that it became almost unrecognizable. Compare this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmETxWM0h0 early performance]] to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hexAjcDPzuM this recent one.]]

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: While Tori's classified as an alt-rock musician, she's dipped in a variety of genres, from classical to soul to electronica. The song that most epitomizes this trope would be "Professional Widow", which combines elements of blues, industrial, medieval, classical, and rock. In other words, imagine an alternative rock song with a harpsichord instead of an electric guitar. The song goes from harpsichord rock to bluesy piano ballad once during the song.

* AdultFear: "'97 Bonnie & Clyde": Your ex murders you, hides you in the trunk and makes your baby complicit in getting rid of the body all the while admitting they'll go to jail, prison, and hell. The original song was based on Eminem's tumultuous relationship with his wife.

* AdultFear: "'97 Bonnie & Clyde": Your ex murders you, hides you in the trunk and makes your baby complicit in getting rid of the body all the while admitting they'll go to jail, prison, and hell. Even worse, the original song was based on Eminem's tumultuous relationship with his wife.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: While Amos is a complete nutcase, she also has extraordinary musical talent; it has been suggested that her knowledge of music is on a genius level.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Most of her music falls into levels 1 - 3, but some songs can fall into levels 4 or 5 (like "She's Your Cocaine", "iieee", and "Teenage Hustling"; most concert versions of "Sugar", too). The above-linked version of "Cruel" might rate a 6, but that's as high as she gets.
* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Lyrically, her songs are quite often in the 7-9 range.

* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: Tori does this with most of her songs to the point where it can sound like a different language. She had a more-or-less normal singing voice at the start of her career, but she started to change it over the years to the point that it became unrecognizable ([[Administrivia/TropesAreTools not that that's bad]]). Compare this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmETxWM0h0 early performance]] to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hexAjcDPzuM this recent one.]]
* ActionGirl: The cover of ''Y Kant Tori Read''.
* ADateWithRosiePalms: "Icicle".
* AddictionDisplacement: Invoked on "Spark":
-->''She's addicted to nicotine patches''

* {{Anthology}}/JukeboxMusical: The graphic novel ''Comic Book Tattoo'' is a collection of short stories based on her music. As one can imagine, some of the stories are... stranger than others.

* AudienceParticipationSong: "Big Wheel".

* AuthorAvatar:
** Scarlet from ''Scarlet's Walk''.
** A DecompositeCharacter variation with the dolls of ''American Doll Posse'' who all represent an aspect of Amos, with a hint of SelfParody. Isabel is Amos's political side; Clyde is her "sad girl at the piano" persona; Pip is Tori the screaming banshee; and Santa is her sexy side. The doll named Tori is a more general caricature, but also emphasises Tori the Earth Mother.
* BaroquePop: Much of her early work qualifies. Given that she studied in a conservatory, it isn't too surprising.
* BerserkButton: It's wise to not insult Tori in any way in front of an Ear With Feet.
** For something personally related to T, if you call her an airy-fairy new age hippie waif, she will cut off your penis.
* BreakupBreakout: Tori went from the lead singer of a bargain-bin band (Y Kant Tori Read) to one of the most popular female singer-songwriters to exist.
* BrokenBird: "Me and a Gun". The fact she throws in some really ''bitter'' snark into it just makes it more so.
** Her first five albums are ultra-personal and therefore this trope.

* {{Camp}}: ''American Doll Posse''.
* ChekhovsGunman: While this trope definitely applies to Amos, was it her appearance on local access television in 1980 as the brunette Myra Ellen Amos performing her original song "Baltimore" for a Orioles theme song contest (which she won)? Her appearance in a 1985 commercial for Kellogg's Just Right breakfast cereal? Her appearance as a defendant in an episode of Trial by Jury? Or her commercially unsuccessful 1980s pop band, Y Kant Tori Read?
* ChildProdigy: Amos is the youngest person ever admitted into the Peabody Conservatory of Music, being admitted at age 5. [[ItWillNeverCatchOn She was eventually kicked out]].
** Her parents claim that beginning at age 2, she would completely on her own walk up to the family piano and begin playing it, and that is was difficult to separate her from it.

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Amos possesses a level of weirdness only rivaled by the likes of Music/LadyGaga and Music/{{Buckethead}}.
** ‎"That was 'Toodles, Mr. Jim.' Mr. Jim died, two weeksh ago. And he taught me how to pick cherriesh, and I punched his daughter in the nose because she was mean. Mr. Jim was good."
* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Delirium from ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' is sometimes based on her.

* TheCoverChangesTheGender: ''Strange Little Girls''.
* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: ''Strange Little Girls'', again, especially with Music/{{Eminem}}'s "'97 Bonnie & Clyde", sung from the murdered wife's point of view as she mimics the words of her murderer.
* DarkerAndEdgier - Many of the songs on ''Strange Little Girls'' are darker and more troubling than the originals. Notable examples include "Raining Blood" and "'97 Bonnie and Clyde", [[HorrifyingTheHorror which freaked out the original performers]].
* ADateWithRosiePalms: "Icicle". Which, for Christians and people with vaginas both (for utterly unrelated reasons), is NightmareFuel as well. You see, the date is with the icicle, and it is a substitutionary device for Jesus'... uh... [[UnusualEuphemism icicle]].
** If you want an... er... less religious interpretation, the song would just be about a girl's church-bred guilt about sex and frigidity [[FauxSymbolism melting like an icicle]] so she finally feels free to please herself.
** The Icicle is a metaphor for her cold fingers... you know what the "hiding place" would be then, right?

* DoNotCallMePaul: Don't call her Myra Ellen if you want to be her friend.
** To put this in perspective, [[https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152354520814091&set=vb.5919119090&type=2&theater even her father]] calls her "Tori Ellen" now.
* {{Doorstopper}}: ''Comic Book Tattoo''.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Y Kant Tori Read''. Amos pretended for years that it had never happened, though more recently she has "made peace with it."

* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: Loved by lesbians too.
* FadingIntoTheNextSong: "Josephine" → "Riot Poof" (on ''To Venus and Back'') and "Give" → "Welcome to England" (on ''Abnormally Attracted to Sin'').
* FieryRedhead: The EPITOME of this trope!
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: ''Boys for Pele'' includes the lyrics "slag shit", "starfucker just like my daddy", and "peace, love, and a hard cock" in just ''one'' song. And there's no [[https://www.riaa.com/resources-learning/pal-standards/ Parental Advisory]] sticker.

* HappilyMarried: Tori Amos has commented on her happy marriage with her sound engineer Mark Hawley lots of times.

* InheritedIlliteracyTitle: Y Kant Tori Read and "Caught a Lite Sneeze".
** Note the inherent pun: Tori NeverLearnedToRead Sheet Music, and the band was named for that illiteracy (with a side of MyspeldRokband).
* {{Instrumentals}}: "Over It" and "All the Girls Hate Her". Also, "Seven Sisters" from ''Night of Hunters'', her first instrumental on seventeen years and the first one that's not a b-side.
* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: "Fat Slut".
* IntercourseWithYou: "Icicle" (it's about masturbation, though), "Raspberry Swirl": There's a lot of theories on what this song's about, from orgasms to [[spoiler:having sex with a woman on her period]] to cunnilingus, and to being about how women are there for their girlfriends when men are not (whether that's sexual or not is up to you), "Leather", and probably a lot more songs if you're able to decipher them.

* LighterAndSofter: Some of her fans (or ex-fans) claim that this has happened after Tori became a mother. Although it wasn't until ''Midwinter Graces'' that she had released an album with more-or-less upbeat lyrics (in this case, they were solstice-themed).
** Then there is also the opinion that ''Unrepentant Geraldines'' is this compared to her pre-2000 stuff. It is much in the same vein as her early works musically, but much less angry and/or tragic in substance.

* LoudnessWar: Her early and recent work both gloriously avert this trope (for example, ''Little Earthquakes'' and ''Unrepentant Geraldines'' are both [=DR11=]), but some of her late '90s and early '00s work play the trope straight (for example, ''From the Choirgirl Hotel'' is [=DR6=]).

* MohsScaleOfLyricalHardness: Lyrically, though, her songs are quite often in the 7-9 range.

* NeverHeardThatOneBefore: The joke that Tori really ''is'' a cornflake girl (since she appeared in a Kellog's Just Right commercial pre-fame).

** And then ''Unrepentant Geraldines'' and ''Native Invader'' gave us inversions of this trope.
* NonAppearingTitle: "Professional Widow", among others.
* NotChristianRock: Subverted. She tends to write songs with religious references in them, but since it's Tori Amos, nobody ever thinks that her music is Christian in any way.
* OddFriendship: A friend of Tori's (and one of her biggest fans) is professional wrestler Wrestling/MickFoley.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Tori looked like she was in her 20s when she was really in her 30s. Then, she looked like she was in her 30s, when she was in her 40s. In 2007, she looked completely different (most suspect she got plastic surgery) and sorta inverted this trope.
* OneWomanWail: Most notably on ''Boys for Pele''.
* OneWomanSong: "Mary", "Talula", "Ophelia", "Marianne", and "Josephine".

* PlatonicLifePartners: With Creator/NeilGaiman. She had a similar friendship with Trent Reznor but admits they grew apart.
* PreachersKid: Amos' father is a Methodist minister.

*** DJ Armand Van Helden remixed the song into a far more upbeat and danceable number with his Star Trunk Funkin' Mix - which ended up as a number 1 in the UK!

* ReligionRantSong: "God" (Type 1), "Crucify" (type 2), "Icicle" (type 2/3 with side of TakeThat by way of ADateWithRosiePalms).

** Also, a shoutout to Music/NineInchNails in "Precious Things": "With their nine inch nails and little fascist panties..."
*** Again in "Caught a Lite Sneeze": "Make my own pretty hate machine."
*** Trent Reznor himself provided backup vocals on "Past the Mission."

** Actually, if you pay attention, Tori Amos makes fun of Trent a lot.

* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch / PrecisionFStrike: In "The Waitress", Tori shouts "I believe in peace, bitch!".
** Also, Pip's improvs in "Cruel" and "Teenage Hustling"

* UncommonTime: Occasionally, most notably in "Datura".

* {{Mondegreen}}: Due to a combination of Tori's unorthodox singing and unusual lyrics, it's very easy to mishear Tori's music. Sometimes, what you hear makes more sense than what it actually is.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* TechnicianVersusPerfomer: Tori herself has admitted she's "not a technician" despite her skill on the piano. Her inability to read sheet music got her kicked out of Peabody, but she went on to develop a very original and personal style of music.

* SurrealMusicVideo: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnHWaMMBCmM "Caught a Lite Sneeze"]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxlIDwnPu7U "A Sorta Fairytale"]], especially the former. "Caught a Lite Sneeze" manages to be more surreal than all of Music/{{Bjork}}'s music videos combined!

* TechnicianVsPerfomer: Tori herself has admitted she's "not a technician" despite her skill on the piano. Her inability to read sheet music got her kicked out of Peabody, but she went on to develop a very original and personal style of music.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: There are NEVER Explicit Lyrics labels on her albums. This includes ''Boys for Pele'', where she sings "slag shit", "starfucker just like my daddy", and "peace, love, and a hard cock" in just ''one'' song. Sadly, for a live DVD she put out a couple of years back, she was forced to bleep all of the cursing from "Professional Widow" so as to get Wal-Mart to carry the DVD.
*** And yet, they didn't censor "Precious Things", Tori flipping the audience off during "Father Lucifer", or a bonus interview, so the fact that only "Professional Widow" was censored doesn't make sense.

* LyricsVideoMismatch: "Glory of the '80s', a NostalgiaFilter song about Amos remembering her twenties carries a video consisting of a shuriken freeing a trapped Amos from a cage while she turns into a baby, crow and a fox.

** Same deal for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRgYEYAh53Q&feature=channel "Glory of the 80s"]] which is up there with "No Scrubs" by TLC for having absolutely nothing to do with the song.

Before she started her solo career, she was in a band called Y Kant Tori Read. Their debut album flopped, and they broke up shortly after. Having to fulfill her contract with Atlantic, Tori made her first, and what most people consider her best, album called ''Music/LittleEarthquakes''. ''Little Earthquakes'' is considered one of the best albums by a female solo artist. ''Under the Pink'' is also praised, but she fell off of critics' radars in the 21st century.

-->--'''Tori''', on "Father Lucifer" (''{{VH1}} Storytellers'')

As a person, she is funny, talented, open-minded, kind, and very eccentric. She is known for having an obsession with fairies, and shocking people by breast-feeding a pig and saying things like "I have a 12-inch cock." She's known for having a very devoted fanbase and for being a queer icon.

* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle: Tori does this with most of her songs to the point where it can sound like a different language. She had a more-or-less normal singing voice at the start of her career, but she started to change it over the years to the point that it became unrecognizable ([[TropesAreNotBad not that that's bad]]). Compare this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWmETxWM0h0 early performance]] to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hexAjcDPzuM this recent one.]]

* VisualInnuendo: Watch any random live performance of hers, and there's a chance she'll look like she's about to get it on with the microphone. Many YouTube commenters also wish to be reincarnated as her piano bench.