In the summer of 1962, Joplin fled to the University of Texas at Austin, where she studied art. This first effort to break away from wasn't a success, however, and Joplin thus returned to Port Arthur for a time. She went on to attend Port Arthur College, where she took some secretarial courses, before moving to Los Angeles in the summer of 1961. At the end of her first semester at Lamar, Joplin left the school. There, she devoted more time to hanging out and drinking with friends than to her studies. By her senior year of high school, Joplin had developed a reputation as a ballsy, tough-talking girl who like to drink and be outrageous.Īfter graduating from high school, Joplin enrolled at Lamar State College of Technology in the neighboring town of Beaumont, Texas.
The group frequented local working-class bars in the nearby town of Vinton, Louisiana. Joplin was also inspired by legendary blues vocalists Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Odetta, an early leading figure in the folk music movement. Musically, Janis Joplin and her friends gravitated toward blues and jazz, admiring such artists as Lead Belly. Joplin eventually developed a group of guy friends who shared her interest in music and the Beat Generation, which rejected the standard norms and emphasized creative expression (Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were two of the Beat movement's leading figures). She was called a "pig" by some, while others said that she was sexually promiscuous. Joplin, who liked to stand out from the crowd, became the target of some teasing as well as a popular subject in the school's rumor mill. She eschewed the popular girls' fashions of the late 1950s, often choosing to wear men's shirts and tights, or short skirts. She got acne and gained some weight.Īt Thomas Jefferson High School, Joplin began to rebel. Joplin was a good student and fairly popular until around the age of 14 when some side effects of puberty started to kick in. Four years later, her brother, Michael, arrived. She was an only child until the age of six, when her sister, Laura, was born. For years, Joplin struggled to escape from this confining community, and spent even longer to trying to overcome her memories of her difficult years there.ĭeveloping a love for music at an early age, Joplin sang in her church choir as a child and showed some promise as a performer. She grew up in a small Texas town known for its connections to the oil industry with a skyline dotted with oil tanks and refineries. Breaking new ground for women in rock music, Joplin rose to fame in the late 1960s and became known for her powerful, blues-inspired vocals.
Joplin was born on January 19, 1943, in Port Arthur, Texas. The singer died of an accidental overdose on October 4, 1970, at age 27. The album received mixed reviews, but her second project, Pearl (1971), released after Joplin's death, was a huge success. Known for her powerful, blues-inspired vocals, Joplin released her first solo effort, I Got Dem Ol' Kozmic Blues Again Mama!, in 1969. However, friction between Joplin and the band prompted her to part ways with Big Brother soon after. Their 1968 album, Cheap Thrills, was a huge hit. Janis Joplin developed a love of music at an early age, but her career didn't take off until she joined the band Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1966.
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