Janis Joplin: Blues and Rock Heroine
Looking back on the dazzling and male-dominant world of music in the Sixties and Seventies, there stood a petite woman who was especially eye-catching. Janis Joplin, the female icon of the Sixties’ counterculture, conquered millions of audiences with her confidence, sexiness, straightforwardness, hoarse voice, and electrifying on-stage performance. To this day, no one can ever compare with her. She is thus known as the greatest white female rock and blues singer. Not only has her flabbergasting singing style innovated the music in the Sixties and Seventies, Janis Joplin herself is also character with most controversial and interesting characteristics.
Musical Contributions
Janis Joplin distinguishes from the others greatly because of her untraditional singing and performing style. Just like many other singers, Janis Joplin began her career by performing in bars and clubs (Jialan). The unsupportive environment and hardship of life once almost made her lose faith in her singing career, but the strong appeal of blues music never allowed her to give up. She was most inspired by Bessie Smith and Odetta, and gradually discovered a singing method that complimented her voice the most (“Life: biography”).
“During her Austin days, Janis wasn't comfortable singing in public. She was shy and without any particular style. She sang the blues like Bessie Smith and also imitated Jean Richie and Rosie Maddox. There was something special about Bessie Smith, though. Janis identified with her to the point of feeling that she was Smith reincarnated. Janis once said that she became a singer because Grant Lyons loaned her his Bessie Smith and Leadbelly records. She learned to sing the blues by listening to Bess...
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...other than to completely express herself, which is also the enchanting characteristic of her era. On a trip back to Port Arthur, Texas, her hometown, when asked what she thought about Port Arthur after so many years of separation, “getting loose,” said Joplin in a gratified tone, “getting together, getting down, having a good time” (Janis: The Way She Was). She was in San Francisco at the heart of the hippie movement, and she sang at Woodstock which was later regarded as one of the most important event in the entire movement. Her free, bold, and easy style that had never appeared in any other female artist before made people back in that time crazy for her and still crazy for her today. Joplin was upheld as the hippie queen because the unconventional charms, courage, strength found in her singing were exactly the qualities many people lacked but were dying to have.
She first started writing, when she came back home after the death of her father. She wrote about the Jackson social scene for the Memphis, Tennessee newspaper. She also was a publicity agent for the Works Progress Administration in rural Mississ...
..., she found her identity. It did not come easy for Janie. It took her years to find out who she really was.
...ng to this day, she is one of few who could compete with the men of hip-hop, but she never pretended to be anything but a woman. She not only sang about female empowerment, but she wrote about being a woman from the insecurities that we as women sometimes feel to the nirvana of being in love. Sensuality and femininity were always as important to her which was her strength, and message to get out to women especially those of color.
Nina Simone used music to challenge, provoke, incite, and inform the masses during the period that we know as the Civil Rights Era. In the songs” Four Women”, “Young Gifted and Black”, and Mississippi God Damn”, Nina Simone musically maps a personal "intersectionality" as it relates to being a black American female artist. Kimberly Crenshaw defines "intersectionality" as an inability for black women to separate race, class and gender. Nina Simone’s music directly addresses this paradigm. While she is celebrated as a prolific artist her political and social activism is understated despite her front- line presence in the movement. According to Ruth Feldstein “Nina Simone recast black activism in the 1960’s.” Feldstein goes on to say that “Simone was known to have supported the struggle for black freedom in the United States much earlier, and in a more outspoken manner around the world than had many other African American entertainers.”
Aretha Franklin is a well known pop, R&B, and gospel singer. She has been nicknamed “The Queen of Soul” and is an internationally known artist and a symbol of pride in the African American community. Her popularity soared in 1967 when she released an album containing songs “I Never Loved a Man”, “Respect”, and “Baby I Love You.” Throughout her career she has achieved fifteen Grammy Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Legend Awards, and many Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. In 1987 she became the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Time magazine chose her as one of the most influential artists and entertainers of the 20th century. She sang at Dr. Martin Luther King’s funeral and at former President Bill Clinton’s inaugural party. Although she has all these accomplishments and awards there are other reasons that have driven Franklin to fame and landed her on the front cover of Time magazine on June 28, 1968. The reasons I believe allowed Aretha Franklin to become so successful are the following: Her family’s involvement with religion, the inspiring people that surrounded her, and the pain she suffered.
One strong characteristic that Janie did not seem to show as much, is pride. Janie showed pride in some chapters, which I enjoyed because it was her turn to put herself first. The realization of questions that was once thought about, could be answered in the years she continued to find herself. Janie also had sympathy. Sympathy became a detail in chapter three, where the reader stated “She knew now that marriage did not make love. Janie’s first dream was dead, so she became a woman”(Hurston 25). That quote showed so much because she never married Tea Cake, but she married the man that she no longer loved. Janie had sympathy and having that trait helped her become a
...itely assumed is that Janis is a legend, who will never be forgotten. Just like the old blues singers whom she idolized, Janis will remain firmly etched into the memory of all those who were there during her time at Rock's Pantheon. This memory has also been passed down to a whole new generation, who are at last appreciating records by an artist who could sing without state-of-the-art technology. Today, Janis' albums have gone gold, platinum and triple platinum. Her Greatest Hits Album still tops the charts on the American Billboard, and numerous compilation albums have been released since her death, including the box-set "Janis". She has been the subject of a feature documentary "Janis" (1973), more recently VH1s "Legends", and a film of her life is currently under discussion. Three decades on and still, few other women could've earned the nickname "Pearl" so well.
Ella Fitzgerald also known as “The first lady of song” and was the first American jazz and song vocalist who inspired the world (LLC 2017). Even though Ella was a great singer, it took her a long time to become successful, and overcome the roadblocks in her life . Her life was greatly impacted by many people in her life.
...he end. In my opinion, money allows her to move up the social status from a prostitute to a famous singer. On the other hand, I think money is also initiates her motivation or curiosity to become a drug abuser. Overall, I think Billie Holiday is a very talented person. I learned that her opportunity of success coming from her preparation from practicing her voice and vocal. It is clear that someone who is trying to improve one’s life has a better chance to success in life than to those who do not try would merely gain anything in return. The lesson is those who do not try would merely gain anything in return.
Scott Joplin was know as the kings of ragtime. I will explain also explain how he grew up and what type of music he played. I will also write about why I believe he deserves the title that he has been bestowed upon him.
McPherson, Ian. “The Salt of the Earth: 1955-1960 R&B-Derived Rock & Roll.” Time Is On Our
The movie Lady Day: The Many Faces Of Billie Holiday paints an interesting, and thought provoking portrait of one of jazz and blues most charismatic, and influential artists. The incomparable talent of Billie Holiday, both truth and legend are immortalized in this one-hour documentary film. The film follows Holiday, also referred to as “Lady Day” or “Lady”, through the many triumphs and trials of her career, and does it’s very best to separate the facts from fiction. Her autobiography Lady Sings The Blues is used as a rough guide of how she desired her life story to be viewed by her public. Those who knew her, worked with her, and loved her paint a different picture than this popular, and mostly fictional autobiography.
Known as the “Empress Of Blues”, Bessie Smith was said to have revolutionized the vocal end of Blues Music. She showed a lot of pride as an independent African-American woman. Her style in performance and lyrics often reflected her lifestyle. Bessie Smith was one of the first female jazz artists, and she paved the way for many musicians who followed.
Currently in my CD player is a live recording of Jill Scott at a concert. Most of her songs have to do with life & love. Take for example the song “Gettin’ in the Way.” This song is about a woman trying to steal her man. She tells her to step back because the woman is “getting in the way of what I am feeling.” The sequence of events in this song is interesting. In the commentary she explains that this song is about principle. First she says to the woman to nicely step back. Then she says it in a harsher tone: “I know you don’t understand, but sister girl, you gotta get off my man.” Finally, she says “I am about to go off in your face: You better chill!” Clearly the conflict in the song is clear and can be easily related to the listeners’ lives.
Holiday's deprived history proves she had learned how to survive extreme poverty, race prejudice and the injustice of black ghetto life by the time she was a young teen. swing: Since Holiday had very little schooling and no formal musical training, her extraordinary creative gifts were intuitive in the first place. She developed her singing in New York speakeasies and Harlem nightclubs such as Pods' and Jerry's Log Cabin, the Yeah ...