Janis Joplin

Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American blues-influenced rock singer and occasional songwriter with a distinctive voice. Joplin released four albums as the frontwoman for several bands from 1967 to a posthumous release in 1971.

Aftermath

Joplin is now remembered best for her powerful, distinctive voice — her rasping, overtone-rich sound was significantly divergent from the soft folk and jazz-influenced styles that were common among white artists at the time — as well as for her lyrical themes of pain and loss.

Related Topics:
Overtone - Folk - Jazz

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Not everyone was enamored of Joplin, however. Although she was crowned posthumously "Queen of the Blues," neither her yowlish, screaming singing style nor her title was ever widely appreciated or accepted by black audiences. Her designation as blues royalty also has raised vehement objections about "cultural appropriation". Joplin's fan base was and remains overwhelmingly white. Music critic Sam Graham writes of the harsh appraisal of Joplin by Peter Townsend of The Who, who said of her that she was "just an ugly, hard-drinking, screaming woman" with a band that was "just about the worst f***ing band I'd heard."http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000E6FOM/104-6279496-8352735?v=glance

Related Topics:
Black - Cultural appropriation - White - Peter Townsend - The Who

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Many comparisons can be drawn with her close contemporary Jimi Hendrix, who was similarly catapulted to fame by his appearance at Monterey, had a brief, successful career, and who also died from drug-related causes within weeks of Joplin, also at the age of 27. But unlike Hendrix, whose fame continued to grow after his death, Joplin did not enjoy a significant revival of public interest until the late 1990s. In part this was due to the fact that she made a relatively small number of recordings during her career, and because she was not a prolific songwriter. By comparison, although Hendrix released only three official LPs in his lifetime, he was both a prolific songwriter and a tireless studio worker, laying down many albums' worth of material, that has continued to be released in the decades since his death.

Related Topics:
Jimi Hendrix - 1990s

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She is also compared with another contemporary (and onetime lover) Jim Morrison, who also had a brief, successful career marked by alcoholism and drug abuse, and died of an overdose at 27.

Related Topics:
Jim Morrison - Alcoholism

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Joplin's contributions to the rock idiom were long overlooked, but her importance is now becoming more widely appreciated, thanks in part to the recent release of the long-unreleased documentary film Festival Express, which captured her at her very best. Janis's scorching vocal style, her flamboyant dress sense, her outspokenness and sense of humour, her liberated stance and her strident, hard-living "one of the boys" image all combined to create an entirely new kind of female persona in rock.

Related Topics:
Documentary film - Festival Express

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It can be argued that, prior to Joplin, there was a tendency for solo, white female pop performers to be pigeonholed in to a few broadly defined roles — the gentle, guitar-strumming 'folkie' (e.g. Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell), the virginal 'pop goddess' (Doris Day, Rosemary Clooney) or the cool, elegantly dressed chanteuse (Dusty Springfield). As one of the first white women to front a rock band, Joplin followed the precedent set by her white, male counterparts in mimicking the image, repertoire and performance style of African American blues and rhythm and blues artists, both male and female. In so doing, Joplin was pivotal in redefining what was possible for white, female singers in popular music.

Related Topics:
Judy Collins - Joni Mitchell - Doris Day - Rosemary Clooney - Dusty Springfield

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Alongside Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane she pioneered an entirely new range of expression for white women in the previously male-dominated world of post-Beatles rock. It is also notable that, in a very short time, she transcended the role of "chick singer" fronting an all-male band, to being an internationally famous solo star in her own right.

Related Topics:
Grace Slick - Jefferson Airplane - Beatles

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In terms of her visual image, Joplin is also notable as one of the few female performers of her day to regularly wear pants (or slacks), rather than skirts or dresses. Another trademark was her flamboyant hair styles, often including coloured streaks and accessories such as scarves, beads and feathers, a style strikingly at odds with the 'regulation' perms or wigs sported by most female singers of the day. It is especially remarkable that she is probably the only major female pop-rock star of the period who never wore makeup — something that was very striking at a time when the wearing of makeup was de rigeur for female performers.

Related Topics:
Slacks - Pop-rock

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The movie The Rose, with Bette Midler in the lead role, was loosely based on Joplin's life. As of 2005, two biopics of Joplin's life are being planned, one called Piece of My Heart starring Renée Zellweger, the other starring pop star Pink.

Related Topics:
The Rose - Bette Midler - 2005 - Biopic - Renée Zellweger - Pink

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