Janis Joplin (January 19, 1943 - October 4, 1970) was an American singer, songwriter and music arranger. Her screaming, soulful voice is in many ways considered a personification of the Flower Power Era (along with
Jimi Hendrix ,
Eric Burdon ,
Grace Slick and many others). She came to symbolize energy of the Psychedelic, Haight Ashbury, love beads, love ins, free love, flower children, black light posters and incense, expansion of consciousness, spiritualism soaked in the unusual drug idealism of the late 1960's. It was a time of bright hope and optimism and the shedding of many social-psychological-sexual traditions that went sour.
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Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas. As a teenager, Joplin was a social outcast in her school, during which time she befriended other so-called outcasts, one of which had albums by African-American artists such as Bessie Smith , Odetta , and Memphis Minnie , all of whom Joplin later credited for inspiring her to become a singer-songwriter herself. Janis debuted with a singing style not heard before on the playlists of white American radio stations. Her singing was more like that of Aretha Franklin and other blues/gospel singers than the typical white girl songstress. Upon discovering that Bessie Smith had been buried in an unmarked grave, Janis provided a headstone in August 1970, just two months before she herself passed away.
She died from a heroin overdose on 4 October 1970, She is a member of the "27 club," a group composed of musicians who all died at the age of 27, along with other artists including Jimi Hendrix , Jim Morrison , Kurt Cobain and Brian Jones .
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