Musical Performance of The Blues

Janis Joplin escaped her hometown, full of rejection and isolation, and found solace in traditionally black music—blues, folk, and jazz. Her racial transgressions were limited to the musical components, as she didn’t herself socialize with the black population of her town.  She later went on to compare her own middle-class white expectations and her rejection of those norms to the black struggle of inequality and oppression.

She later found a place in the San Francisco blues scene with a variety of blues bands, each teaching her and guiding her development as a blues artist. Her natural rebellion was cradled by blues music; it was empowering and liberating to be part of an organic form of expression. She found herself rejecting the societal norms along with the subculture of the time—forgoing a bra, makeup, and hair styles to embrace a freedom of her own gender role, especially coming from a small Texas town.

Despite not having a polished appearance, Joplin was open with her sexuality and her activities, and exuded female sexuality in her live performances. Janis was bisexual as well yet held back about that personal aspect in the media and her music to cater to the male-driven industry and misogynistic norms.

Her lyrics expressed her experience as an oppressed woman; much alike how black blues artists expressed racial oppression.  She had a very powerful demeanor about her yet her lyrics also set her up as a tortured female, subject to emotional dependency on men, which was a mindset and a lifestyle that many females during that time were trying to reject, and encourage freedom from men.

“Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”

One of my favorite Joplin lyrics, in hindsight, can be loosely interpreted to her life and perspective on blues, race, and gender.