The Runaways: Janis and Taylor

In English 61, I'm writing my sixties research paper on Janis Joplin.  You can consider her a rock 'n' roll pioneer.  She was one of the first women performers to take center stage in the decade of the sixties.  You can say she paved the way for women rockers to follow - one of them, of course, being Taylor Swift.  Here, I compare their musical beginnings.

As soon as they possibly could, both Janis and Taylor left home to pursue their musical dreams on the big stage.  Janis ran away from home and fled to San Francisco.  Taylor took her family with her south to Nashville, Tennessee to become a star. In 1965, Janis found home in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.  This area was known as a mecca for young hippies.  Young people  dressed in bright colors, beads and feathers were coming in from all over the world, and they listened to loud, crazy psychedelic rock.  Janis jammed with the Grateful Dead, Country Joe and the Fish and the Jefferson Airplane.  Her rough and  raucous voice pushed the music to the edge.  “They loved to see her get crazy,” said Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish. “It was part of her image: the wild woman, the blues mama” (Angel 42).  At 14 years of age, Taylor had the talent to earn a songwriting contract with Sony/ATV Records. She was the youngest songwriter they had ever  hired. For Taylor, it was the double life:  during the day, she attended high school like any normal teenager, but at night she was writing songs with professionals two and three times her age. She was right there in the middle of it, that same place – Nashville, Tennessee – that had skyrocketed the careers of music’s biggest stars: Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, and Dolly Parton. Taylor was especially inspired by the young women that had come through town like Lee Ann Rimes and Shania Twain. Most of all, Taylor explained she loved these stars for  “We don’t care what you think” quirkiness (Spencer 16). While most teens spend their high school years finding themselves, both Janis and Taylor were clearly driven by their music.  As soon as they reached a certain age, there would be no waiting and hoping like the rest of us do.  The time for them to move was “now.”

                                    Works Cited 

Angel, Ann.  Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing. New York: Amulet Books,  2010. Print. 

Spencer, Liv.  Taylor Swift: Everyday is a Fairytale.  Ontario: EECW Press, 2010. Print.