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Janis Joplin
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Janis Joplin was an American singer, born in 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas. At high school she felt like an outsider. Through friends she heard records by blues singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey, and that gave her the idea of singing herself. She sang blues and folk in Austin and in 1963 hitchhiked to San Francisco. There she got involved with drugs, after which she returned to Texas to get clean.
Music and breakthrough
In 1966 the promoter Chet Helms brought her back to San Francisco, as singer of the psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. The breakthrough came in June 1967 with their performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. The album Cheap Thrills (1968), with Piece of My Heart, Summertime and a live version of Ball and Chain, made her a star. She then went solo, with the Kozmic Blues Band and later the Full Tilt Boogie Band, and in 1969 she appeared at Woodstock. In October 1970 she died at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose. Three months later Pearl appeared, with Me and Bobby McGee and the a cappella Mercedes Benz, her last recording.
Influence
Joplin had a powerful, raw voice that screamed, cracked and pleaded. She brought the blues of her role models to the rock of the hippie era and showed that a woman could play the lead role there. In 1995 she was inducted as the first female solo artist into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the first year that this was possible.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1967Big Brother & The Holding Company
- 1969I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama!
- 1971Pearl
- 2022The Legendary Typewriter Tape 6/25/64 Jorma's House
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 10: Women in Pop MusicNL Reader
- Magazine: Van Bessie tot EllaNL Magazine
Mentioned in other articles
- Blues rock Genre
Janis Joplin also sang blues with loud, screaming rock guitars.