The Life Of Janis Joplin And Amy Winehouse

Music has played a major role as an agent of socialization in each of my 4 decades. I know and hope that it will continue to do so. During each period music has affected my personality, shown my personality, affected my perceptions and helped me to cope with growing and changing as a person. My Looking Glass Self has compared the person in song and possibly the singer themselves to myself to gain perspective of who I was at each time. I am going to discuss each decade with the thought of how music was an agent of socialization in each.

Throughout the evolution of popular music in American culture, many factors have been instrumental in the inspiration musical artists. The wide range of sources reflects the variety and creativity of music in the modern day that musicians claim as their muses, ranging from religious beliefs to love interests. However, the primary driving force behind the creative minds in music in the United States has undeniably been the drug subculture that was the largest at the given time period. Without the use of recreational drugs by artists, popular music would have taken an entirely different and unimaginable evolutionary path, resulting in a completely different musical world. Music is what is taken from drug culture to be incorporated and sold

This reference shows how music lays a foundation of teenage values beyond school or parental teaching. A musical artist can influence a young mind by the chosen lyrics with greater effectiveness than formal education. Music can control or enhance moods. A good mood can get better or a bad mood can be worked through with the choice of music. A bad mood can also be enhanced by lyrics about suicide or violent behavior. Teens can also use music to gain information about the adult world, to withdraw from social contact, facilitate friendships and social settings, or to help them create a personal identity. (O'Toole, 1997)

Holiday’s career is cited to include significant complexity in regards to the standard social and cultural perspectives. The complexity of her life provides vital lessons on talent proliferation. Through Holiday, it is deducible that success in music depends on a variety of personal characteristics including self-determination, attitude, and one’s commitment to the career. Holiday made it in music owing to the love for music despite the limitations of her background ( Greene 18) . However, the misery of career affirms that social engagements posit potential impacts that can easily destruct the continuity of a singer’s determination in music ( Greene 19) . For instance, poor choice of social engagements facilitated the emergence of crucial miseries such as drug addiction and sexual abuse that fuelled her death. The unusual characteristics of her options are therefore cited as feasible lessons to the musicians in the present

Writer, Crystal Wilkinson, in her article, “Dig If You Will The Picture,” recounts her younger painful days and how she utilized music during that time to cope. Wilkinson’s argument is that music, specifically Prince’s, had the ability to pull her through all the terrible things she encountered in life and helped her gain back the control that was stolen from her. She conveys her argument by using a descriptive style that shows in her word choice and tone, imagery, and structure of the article.

Popular music is often one of the best lenses we have through which to view our own cultural orientation. Many of the artistic and experimental shifts in popular music have mirrored changes in our own society. For instance, the emergence of Elvis Presley as a public figure would signal the start of a sexual revolution and the growth in visibility of a rebellious youth culture. Similarly, the folk and psychedelic music of the 1960s was closely entangled with the Civil Rights, anti-war and social protest movements. In this regard, we can view popular music as an artifact through which to better understand the time and place in which it is produced. In light of this, the state of popular music today may suggest troubling things about our society.

In 1995, an actress by the name of Lana Turner was found dead in her Los Angeles mansion. It was not a surprise since she was publically diagnosed with throat cancer only a few years beforehand and was known to be a lifelong smoker. Yet, her death at the age of seventy-four seemed to capture national attention. Even though a majority of the population knew of Lana Turner, not many people knew who Lana Turner was as a person. After reading the poem, appropriately titled "Poem ["Lana Turner has collapsed!"]" by Frank O'Hara, I asked myself just what makes us obsess over celebrities as much as we do.

Both the songs I chose and the book allude to the fact that people are living in a drug-induced state. The book describes a society where people are content to function in the role they are given due to the soma that they take. The songs also describe drugs allowing people to function in their lives. While we may see the personality changes caused by drugs as wrong or even criminal in our society, in the book it was not only condoned by the government but enforced. In parts of the songs or in the book it may not come out and say things exactly but you know they have the same

John R. Cash (Johnny) was born in1932 to a poor family in Kingsland, Arkansas. Born the fourth of seven children, Cash began working beside his siblings and parents on cotton fields at the age of five (Johnny Cash Columbia). This is where his musical influences began. His mother, Carrie Rivers Cash, would sing hymns and other inspirational music to her children while they would toil long, hot days farming cotton. Growing up in The Depression, times were tough, and the Cash family had to work to survive. Cash

Born on January 19, 1943, Janis Joplin would begin her short, but memorable life in Port Arthur, Texas. As most do, Janis developed a love for music when she was the youngest she could remember. Her career really didn't take off until she joined the band, "Big Brother and the Holding Company" in 1966. ("Janis Joplin") Only two years after joining the band, she would get into an altercation after their album together released, and then leave the band to pursue more. In her life she would have went to a few places for education. She started out at Lamar State College but found herself in the end at University of Texas. ("Janis Joplin |

Now a days, we are used to shocking lyrics and eye catching looks. It seems that every artist now is fighting to be so different that everyone is drawn to them. It was not always like this. In the late nineties and early two-thousands, most artists tried to fit in with the other blonde, processed pop stars that the industry was spitting out. When there was an artist who was not always happy and did sing about PG rated topics, they were blamed for what was wrong with the world, especially teenagers. In his article ‘I’d Sell You Suicide: Pop Music and Moral Panic in the Age of Marilyn Manson”, Robert Wright delves into and debunks claims that rock music, especially that of Marilyn Manson, is a main cause for teenage suicide.

This two articles that I picked was Jimi and Janis. Janis Joplin or Jimi Hendrix?

Each year, new books declare rock and roll to be an active force in the moral collapse of American culture. To many, rock and roll has come to be seen as a social menace (Pattison 175-77).

Even though Amy was a drug addict and alcohol abuser, She still managed to release platinum-selling albums. Originating from the little known town of Southgate in north London, her inspiring music helped rise the popularity for female musicians in the industry.

One famous quote was, “Janis simply said, “I’m going home. I’m going home.” Meant that Janis knew that she would not fit in and that there was something out there for her. Janis Joplin was born in Port Arthur which became a booming town due to it being an oil refinery. Throughout the Story Scars of Sweet Paradise The Life and Times of Janis Joplin, Alice Echols emphasizes where she was moving towards in her book. Whereas mentioned within the book it seemed that her relatives/ close friends grew weary of authors coming to them and interviewing about Janis Joplin. But in the end Echols agreed that she would not hide or remove anything to truly show how much pain Janis Joplin was in. Janis did not start off as the singer we know her today. Her childhood, teen-age years, as well as her adult life is what I will be discussing is what I will discuss because in the end they were a cause and effect that led her to become a victim of the 60’s.