Janis Joplin was the premier female rock musician of the 1960s. Right up until her untimely death in 1970 at the age of 27, the young singer and songwriter was incredibly popular for songs such as Summertime,To Love Somebody, Cry Baby, Kozmic Blues,Down on Me,Piece of My Heart, and Ball n’ Chain. She also recorded Me and Bobby McGee, her most popular song of all time and the only one to reach the top of the charts. Many of these songs, including Me and Bobby McGee, were actually covers. But it was Janis who brought them to the forefront of 1960s popularity. Joplin had a number of musical influences, such as blues, jazz, soul and country.

She was also highly influenced by the psychedelic rock and acid rock movements that were sweeping the rock music scene throughout the 1960s. She became a major influence herself, inspiring female recording artists such as Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac as well as Florence Welch, lead singer of Florence and the Machine. One of the most notable artists influenced by Janis Joplin is Pink, who has been compared to Joplin on multiple occasions. While she was known for her music, in particular her deep, raspy, and incredibly bluesy voice, Janis Joplin was also known incredibly well for her free spirit.

Those who saw her live performances, particularly her first large-scale performance at the Monterey Pop Festival and her famed appearance at Woodstock, have described her stage presence as unrestrained, electric, and even out of control. She believed in intellectualism and freedom of expression, and was attracted to other art forms such as dance and painting. Even her music was eclectic and unrestrained; aside from singing, she was able to play percussion, piano, guitar, harmonica and autoharp. She did not shy away from her love for whiskey (Southern Comfort, in particular), and she wore pretty much whatever she felt like wearing.

Many may have associated Janis Joplin with a lack of fear or restraint, but she was able to bring forth her more vulnerable emotions in her music. Her number one single, Me and Bobby McGee, demonstrated this perhaps better than just about any other song she sang. While she may have had a fierce and almost startling personality, her performance of a song about lost love and loneliness reminded listeners that she was still a young woman with the same needs and emotions as any other girl of her age. Janis Joplin was lost to the world at an unfortunately young age, and many have since wondered where her career might have taken her if she had lived on.

From her tenure as lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company to her career as a solo musician, Joplin was one of the most talented musicians of the 1960s, male or female. The year after her death, the posthumous album Pearl was released, named for the affectionate nickname Janis was given by her friends and showcasing her vocal range as well as her instrumental abilities. Between her remarkable talent and her wildly unrestrained yet vulnerable personality, Janis Joplin made a lasting mark on the music world that will not be soon forgotten.