Tori Amos

Tori Amos was one of several female singer/songwriters who combined the stark lyrical attack of alternative rock with a distinctly '70s musical approach. Her music falls between the orchestrated meditations of Kate Bush and the stripped-down poetics of Joni Mitchell. In addition to reviving the singer/songwriter traditions of the '70s, Amos revived the piano as a rock & roll instrument. With her 1992 album Little Earthquakes, Amos built a dedicated following that continued to expand with subsequent albums. The daughter of a Methodist preacher, Amos began writing her own songs as a child and studied at Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory. After becoming infatuated by rock & roll, particularly the music of Led Zeppelin, she began performing in local bars and later moved to Los Angeles. Signed to Atlantic in 1987, Amos debuted with an uninspired pop-metal album called Y Kant Tori Read. By 1990, Amos had adopted a new approach, singing spare, haunting semiconfessional piano ballads. Little Earthquakes, Amos' first album as a singer/songwriter, was released in late 1991 and sold well in both the U.S. and the U.K. Her second album, Under the Pink, was a bigger hit and launched the minor hit singles "God" and "Cornflake Girl." Two years later she released Boys for Pele, her most ambitious and difficult record to date. From the Choirgirl Hotel followed in 1998.