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Hips, Lips and Genderbenders: MTV's History Of Sex
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MTV in the U.S. began broadcasting a show called "Hips, Lips and Genderbenders: MTV's History Of Sex" on January 13, 2001, and repeated it many times after that. They counted down the top 40 acts that have had an impact on the history of sex in music. Each act was discussed for a few minutes, along with video clips from the artist and interviews with various journalists about the artist. Tori was #19 on this show. Tori was not interviewed and most of the footage they showed was from videos or had been shown previously. The footage included snippets from the videos for Bliss, Crucify, Silent All These Years, God, Caught A Lite Sneeze, Raspberry Swirl, and Talula. They also showed a press conference and PSA Tori did for RAINN a couple years ago, and footage of her greeting fans. Almost all the footage was old or previously seen, except for a quick glance of Tori singing Me and a Gun live. That was one of the songs from the taping of the MTV Unplugged concert that was not shown when the Tori episode of MTV Unplugged was broadcast in 1996! Click here to read more about MTV Unplugged. I took screen shots from this brief but rare footage of Tori singing Me and a Gun at the Unplugged Taping, and you can see those photos below.     I was glad to see Tori acknowledged for her contributions. Danny.Weddup tells me that this program was shown in the UK on Sunday, February 25, 2001. I assume it was shown on their MTV channel. Thanks to the 42 people who emailed me about this program, including Helen and Becky Wall who were first, and to Benwho wrote a nice summary of the program, and to Debbie who wrote a transcript for the show. Here is Ben's Summary: On Saturday, January 13, a program called "Hips, Lips,and Gender Benders:
MTV's History of Sex" premiered on MTV. It's a retrospective on 40 events
or issues in the marriage of sex and music/musicians. Tori was at #19,
under the heading "Tori Amos: Me & A Gun: personal tales of the dark side
of sex".
Narrarated by MTV newsman Kurt Loder, it talked about how "few artists
have addressed sexual issues as frankly as Tori Amos" and that she has a
devoted following because of painful tales including one of her own rape,
and they showed a clip of her performing "Me & A Gun" from the "Live In
New York" video. He said she formed RAINN in response to tales of abuse
she got from her fans, and they explained RAINN and ran the PSA. MTV
newsman Chris Connelly spoke about how when a bad thing happens to a
person at a young age, they feel their history is taken from them, and
when someone like Tori Amos articulates that they take it back. Kurt
Loder then oddly focused on the questionable summation that Tori "took on
teen pregnancy in her typically frank way", as they ran the few-second
clip of the "Silent All These Years" video where Tori says "boy, you'd
best pray that I bleed real soon". And then that she "confonted God on
behalf of the woman of the world", followed by a "God" video clip. He
finished by saying that Tori "helped open the door for other musicians to
explore the dark terrain of sexual abuse and violence", showing clips from
Fiona Apple's "Criminal" video and a video by a silver-haired young
African-American woman who I don't recognize, "but no one addresses these
issues as compellingly as Tori Amos herself."
The program is two horus long, and the Tori segment nearly 2 minutes. Here is a transcript of the program from Debbie: Tori Amos- Me and a Gun
Personal Tales of the Dark Side of Sex
The segment was confusing in that it showed tons of Tori clips and songs but
they didn't necessarily match up.
The segment opened with the winter video and raspberry swirl in the background
"Few artists have addressed sexual issues as frankly as Tori Amos, a north
Carolina ministers daughter, Amos won a devoted following with true life tales
that included the painful story of her own rape."
(clips from the bliss video with raspberry swirl still playing in the
background)
Then they showed Tori singing part of me and a Gun live. It looked like
sometime during the dew drop tour..
"me and a gun struck a powerful chord with Amos' fans who began approaching her
with tales of there own sexual abuse"
(clips of meet and greets and caught a lite sneeze in the background)
"Amos responded in 1994 by starting an organization called RAINN, the rape abuse
incest national network, provides free confidential phone counseling for victims
of sexual assault
(clips of RAINN press conference, CALS still playing)
Then the RAINN Service Announcement came on, with Tori saying;
"In the time it takes you to brush your teeth, one women in America will be
forcibly raped. unlock the silence"
Chris Connelly of MTV News: "I think when bad things happen to you when you're a
young person, your history gets taken away from you. When people like Tori Amos
articulate that history it gives them there lives back."
(Spark in the background)
Clip from the Crucify video
("why do we crucify ourselves")
clip from CALS video
"Tori Amos also took on the topic of teen pregnancy in a typically straight
forward way"
clip from SATY video
("boy you best pray that I bleed real soon")
"She also confronted God on behalf of all the women of the world"
clip from God video
(god continues to play for the rest of the segment)
"And she helped open the door for other musicians to explore the dark terrain of
sexual abuse and violence"
(clips of Fiona Apple and Eve)
"But no one addresses those issues more compellingly than Tori Amos herself."
The end of god, "ah ha" with quick clips from the raspberry swirl, bliss,
crucify, SATY and talula video.
i think that is the most Tori videos i have ever seen on MTV, too bad they were
all mixed up... i'm glad though that MTV addressed the issue of sexual abuse (they also showed Aerosmith interviews and the "Janey's Got a Gun" video) and included a fairly
long segment on Tori...
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