MUSKINGUM COLLEGE SEMINAR IN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH (SPCO 495: SPRING 1999) * Corresponding author. Tel.: 1-740-610-0424 Current E-mail address: s-tilton@onu.edu https://www.academia.edu/16928134/Ears_with_feet_A_uses_and_gratification_study_of_the_Tori_Amos_online_fan_community Muskingum College Seminar in Communication Research Ears with feet: A uses and gratification study of the Tori Amos online fan community. Shane Tilton a * a Muskingum College, 163 Stormont Street, New Concord, OH 43762, USA A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Submitted 19 April 1999 Presented 26 April 1999 Reformatted 20 October 2015 Keywords: Online Communities, Authenticity, Fan Cultures, Uses And Gratifications, Abraham Maslow, Usenet, Tori Amos A B S T R A C T Tori Amos is a musician that appears on MTV whose music has “raw melodies, filled with rage and religious irreverence. [She has] found an audience in the alternative music scene pretty quickly” (Alber, 1996). Her fans called, “ears with feet” (Whitehead, 1997), are part of overall emotional package defined as a Tori Amos performance. These performances go beyond the concerts to her videos and every song on every one of her albums. These emotional connections also go beyond her concerts as well. Usenet, which is an Internet newsgroup connected to one topic, subject, issue or concern (Berners-Lee & Frystyk, 1997), represents one arena that Tori Amos’ fans can come together to discuss their love of Tori Amos’ music. An informal survey (Anderson & Gansneder, 1995) that was structured in the format for electronic mail (e-mail) was submitted to the Tori Amos’ Usenet group (rec.music.tori-amos) three times between February and March 1999. This survey was created for the purpose of determining what uses Tori Amos’ fans have for her performances and how these performances gratify Tori Amos fans. Two major areas were addressed in the research. The first being Amos' fans experiences when listening to her performance represented the emotional connection that the fans felt between themselves and Tori. The second area that was briefly explored in the research is the feeling of community among the members of the rec.music.tori-amos (RMTA) Usenet group. This paper will conclude by looking at fans on Usenet groups as a community and address the communication and interactions that occur between members of these groups. © 1999 Shane Tilton. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction “I remember the first time I saw her in concert. She was commanding this piano to play notes that seemed ethereal. She had this presence on stage that I've never seen before. It was different that other performances and Tori moved me in a way that made me a lifelong fan.” The artist that Pam 1 is referring to is Tori Amos, a musician whose ability to connect with her audience has been described as “part of the singer/songwriter vanguard now turning pain into platinum. She went public with her trauma as a rape victim in "Me and a Gun", a cut from her "Little Earthquakes" album” (Hirshey, 1997). The purpose of this work is to look at Tori Amos fans. Specifically, this paper will address how the fan use her music on a daily basis, how Amos' performances gratify those fans, & how her fans connect with one another through the Internet news groups. 1 First names presented in this work are pseudonyms used to protect the 1.1. Tori Amos For the purposes of this work, it would be virtually impossible to give a full biography of Tori Amos and her work. There have been several articles about Tori Amos' development into the artist she is today. Francesca Lia Block (1996) in Spin Magazine used the literary approach by describing a conversation she had with Amos. "Her words weave a kind of spell, so that even while you're thinking this is an out-there girl, you're following her down every thickly wooded forest path, among the roses and the briars, past the carnival mirage in the distance." Amos has crafted herself as a spiritual individual that uses the rituals and figures of various religions together in a manner that is both sacred and profane. These last two points were addressed by Gene Sandbloom (1992) in the Network Forty Magazine. "Growing up in the Bible Belt of North Carolina, the daughter of a Methodist minister and a strict mother of Cherokee Indian heritage, you can imagine her contrasting worlds. Whether unconscious revenge or years of suppressed will jumping out of the box, Amos’ opinions hit hardest when she speaks of the church. “God and religion are two