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Love, JanisOur Study Guides are designed with you and your classroom in mind, with instruction andinformation that can be implemented in your curriculum. Feel free to copy the study guidefor other teachers and for students. Some information and activities you may wish to coverbefore your workshops and the performance, some are more appropriate for discussionafterwards. Feel free to implement any article, activity, writing portfolio exercise or post-show discussion question as you see fit.

Before the Performance:Using the articles in the study guide, students will be more engaged in the performance.Our study guide for Love, Janis addresses specific Core Content relating to the informa-tion below. The following information can be found in this guide:• How the politics and culture of the 1960s affected the

music and life of Janis Joplin.• A timeline of Janis’ life and career• Historical information on the beat generation,

hippies and music festivals

After the Performance:With the play as a reference point, our questions, activities, and writing portfolio exercisescan be incorporated into your classroom discussions and can enable students to developtheir higher-level thinking skills. Our study guide for Love, Janis also addresses specificCore Content, for example (more core content found in the guide):AH-M 1.2.32AH-H 1.2.32AH-M 3.1.311AH-M 3.2.32

If you have questions or suggestions for improvements in our study guides, please contactDanielle Minnis, Education Director, at 502-584-1265 or DMinnis@ActorsTheatre.org.

Study Guide compiled by Melanie Anne Henry and Raven J. Railey unless otherwise noted.

1. LITERARY WRITINGChoose a musical artist that lived in the same time period as Janis Joplin (preferably don’t use Janis herself ).Identify an important event in their life — it can be culturally or personally significant. Then write a monologuefrom the musical artist’s point of view. What do you think that person would say about that particular event? Youcould use music and/or your research to give context and insight that contrasts with the personal story you imag-ine them saying. (See the additional reading list to find research ideas).

2. TRANSACTIVE WRITINGPick an artist working today and select one of their CDs to review. Write a music review of the CD from thepoint of view of a music critic. In the review, talk about to whom the artist is speaking (who is their audience)and what the artist is saying. For example, is the artist writing about their life or their view of the world? Thentry and decipher the message you feel this artist is sending to their listeners. Make sure you present the messageclearly and are confident in what s/he is saying. Maybe when all of the reviews are written they can be compiledinto a booklet.

3. PERSONAL WRITINGJanis Joplin dealt with many problems in his short life. Think of a problem or obstacle you once faced and writean essay describing how you overcame, or failed to overcome the problem and what the experience taught you.

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Note for teachers: All Writing Portfolio prompts have been designed to correspond with Kentucky

Department of Education Core Content for Writing Assessment.

JanisLove,

June 1966 – Janis moves to SanFrancisco and begins singing withBig Brother and the HoldingCompany.

October 1966 – California makes LSDillegal.

January 1967 – 20,000 attend first Be-In at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco,where Big Brother performs with theGrateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane andothers. The Be-In focused on key ideasof the 1960s counter-culture: personalpower, peaceful protest, ecologicalawareness and consciousness expansion.

April 1967 – More than 400,000 march from Central Park to UN for Anti-Vietnam War protestin New York.

June 1967 – The Monterey International Pop Festival catapults Janis into thenational spotlight.

Summer 1967 – Summer of Love in San Francisco: the hippie movement is at its height. Raceriots break out in Chicago, Brooklyn, Newark,Cleveland, Baltimore and Detroit.

October 1967 – 35,000 march on the Pentagon inWashington, D.C., to protest the Vietnam War.

April 1968 – Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated inMemphis. The musical Hair brings the hippie move-ment to the stage when it opens on Broadway.

June 1968 – Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated.

August1968 – Big Brother and the Holding Company releases its first album,Cheap Thrills.

November 1968 – Richard Nixon is elected president. Under his leadership, the U.S. will slowlybegin to withdraw troops from Vietnam.

December 1968 – Janis plays her last gig with Big Brother at the Family DogBenefit in San Francisco. Later that month, she appears with her new band, to benamed the Kozmic Blues Band, in Memphis.

July 1969 – Humans first walk on the Moon.

August 1969 – 500,000 attend WoodstockMusic and Art Fair in Bethel, N.Y. Sam Andrewgives last performance with Kozmic Blues.

October 1969 – Beat writer Jack Kerouac dies. SupremeCourt orders desegregation nationwide. Millions takepart in the March on Washington, the largest antiwarrally in U.S. history.

1970 – The Beatles break up.

January 1970 – Kozmic Blues disbands.

February 1970 – Janis flies to Brazil for Carnivale, a huge festival in Rio deJaneiro, and to “get off drugs and dry out.”

April 1970 – Janis forms the Full-Tilt Boogie Band.

May 1970 – Four students are killed when NationalGuardsmen and students clash in Anti-Vietnamprotests at Kent State University in Ohio.

August 1970 – Janis attends her high schoolreunion in Port Arthur.

September 1970 – Janis and Full-Tilt Boogiebegin recording tracks for Pearl. Jimi Hendrixdies from an overdose of sleeping pills.

October 4, 1970 – Janis dies from a heroinoverdose in her room at the LandmarkMotor Hotel in West Hollywood.

1971 – Janis’ last album, Pearl, is released.

June 1971 – The New York Times and the Washington Post publish the Pentagon Papers, theDefense Department’s secret history of the Vietnam War.

July 1971 – Jim Morrison, lead singer of The Doors, dies in Paris.

January 1973 – The Paris Peace Accords are signed, officially ending U.S. involvement in theVietnam War.

August 1974 – The Watergate scandel shows the White House was involved in a number ofcrimes and illegal cover-ups and Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to resign.

— Raven J. Railey with Julie Felise Dubiner

Play Synopsis /Character DiscussionWhen Janis Joplin left Texas for San Francisco in June 1966, the 23-year-oldsinger had nothing but dreams and the voice that would make her a musical leg-end in just a few years. She didn’t even have bus fare to get back home if herhopes went bust.

Love, Janis starts with her arrival in the California hippie mecca. It traces herdrug- and alcohol-soaked career as a blues and rock singer until her death—theresult of a heroin overdose—in October 1970.

The story of Janis’ life during these four years is told primarily through her ownwords: the letters she wrote to her conservative parents home in Port Arthur,Texas, and the interviews she gave to countless magazines, newspapers, televisionand radio stations. These conversations and letters are woven together with herfamous music, performed with a band assembled by musical director SamAndrew, who played guitar with the real Janis Joplin during most of her career.

The fact that the story is told in her own words sets it apart form most otherbiographies. Another thing that makes it different is that Janis is played by notone, but two different actresses at the same time. Randal Myler, who wrote anddirected the play, describes Love, Janis as a one-woman show performed by twoactresses. The “Janis” character reads the letters, while the “Janis Joplin” charac-ter sings with the band. The idea came to Myler when he was reading the lettersJanis’ sister, Laura Joplin, had saved. He realized there were two different sidesto the singer’s personality: the daring, on-stage side of her that her fans knew andthe quiet, “little-girl-lost,” off-stage side that was reserved for family and closefriends.

In the show, those two sides often come together in conversations with theInterviewer, whom the audience never sees. There were several reasons, Mylersaid, for keeping the Interviewer offstage so the audience only ever hears his voice.First, although Joplin had brief relationships with men, she remained singlethroughout her life – choosing to focus on her music and performing rather thantake a husband. “There’s no place in Janis’ life for a male on stage,” Myler said.More importantly, the Interviewer does not represent any individual person, buta combination of all the interviewers Joplin interacted with during her life—the“faceless press,” says Myler. “They can be anybody. They can be press in Texas.They can be press in New York or San Francisco. They’re not important enoughto be on stage with her.”

POST-SHOW DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1) Janis Joplin was a real person whose trials and tribulationsare performed on stage. What techniques does the authoruse to make her life interesting? Can you think of other exam-ples where artists have adapted someone’s life for the stageor for film? How do they compare and contrast to Love,Janis? What do you think about taking somebody’s life andmaking a art out of it?

2) As soon as Janis Joplin’s career began, she was widelyaccepted in society’s counterculture as a musical artist and asa person. Do you think that Janis Joplin emotionally over-came the rejection she endured in her Texas hometown? Ifso, what qualities and habits do you think she took fromTexas that could help her succeed in San Francisco? How doyou think she used her past life to thrive in the music world?

3) Many people have been known to use drugs and alcoholto forget or overcome difficulties in their lives; artists also usethem to induce creativity. Why do you think Janis Joplinturned to drinking and drugs so soon into her career? Did thenewness and mystery of drugs in the 1960s appeal more toher, or do you think she used them to cope with fame? Whatin the play or in the actor’s performance supports your point.What other contributions do you think Janis Joplin wouldhave made to society had she not died so young?

4) Many think that Janis Joplin just couldn’t handle the pres-sures of life as a celebrity. What pressures can you find inthe play that she under? How did she try to deal with them?What do you think she could have done differently to dealwith the expectation that comes with being a rock star? Howdo you think you would deal with millions of people lovingyou and your art?

5) Before Janis Joplin, “female rock stars were always meantto be pretty, playa tambourine, wear a long skirt and standin back,” said Love, Janis director and writer Randal Myler.Her refusal to follow this stereotype changed the way manypeople looked at women singers and made them questiontheir assumptions of what is feminine. Can you think of otherfemale singers since her time who have challenged expecta-tions of women’s roles in music or other areas of the arts?

Protesting the Vietnam Conflict

Janis with Big Brother and the Holding Company

Woodstock

BEATS AND HIPPIES“The so-called Beat Generation was a whole bunch of people, of all different nationalities,who came to the conclusion that society sucked.”

— Amiri Baraka, writer/poet

As a teenager in a small Texas town during the 1950s, Janis Joplin got plenty of messages—from her fam-ily, her schoolmates, magazines and television—that she was supposed to conform to the ideals of main-stream American culture. But she didn’t.

She didn’t fit the model of feminine beauty or proper behavior for a middle-class girl. She disagreed withthe owner of the toy shop where she worked who made her mark the prices up one day just to mark themback to the original price the next day and call it a “sale.” Instead of bobby sox and loafers, she sportedblack or purple leotards and flaunted her skirts hemmed above the knee when fashion called for them tofall just below.

So it only made sense that this young nonconformist would identify with Beat Generation writers like JackKerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Gregory Corso. Centered inartist colonies in New York, San Francisco and Venice, California from the late 1940s through the early’60s, the beats made challenging society’s rules a way of life and a form of high art.

They gave rise to a counter-culture that rejected the middle-class American values they’d grown up with,including racial segregation, capitalist enterprise and military authority. They experimented with sex anddrugs. They embraced eastern religions such as Zen Buddhism and promoted ecological consciousness.They glorified personal freedom, poverty and criminal behavior. There was no purpose to modern socie-ty, they believed, so they dropped out of it. They didn’t try to change mainstream culture, but withdrewfrom it to travel the country and live with others who shared their disdain for convention—those who were“hip.”

Artistically, the beats prized the free-flowing creativity associated with improvisational jazz. When writinghis now classic novel, On the Road, it’s said Kerouac was high on speed and typing on a continuous scrollof telegraph paper to avoid breaking the chain of thought at the end of the sheet. He believed “the firstthought is best thought.”

To these writers, the term “beat” originally meant being “tired” or “beaten down.” Later, Kerouac added“upbeat” and “beatific” (joyful or blessed) to the meaning. The word also emphasized the importance theyplaced on rhythm and jazz. Intended as a insult, a San Francisco columnist first expanded the term to“beatnik”—a reference to the Russian satellite Sputnik—suggesting the beats were both “way out there”and pro-Communist. They took the slur and wore it proudly. Soon, “beatnik” conjured images of black-clad men with goatees wearing sunglasses and berets playing bongos and reading poetry in coffeehouses.To followers, it was all about being hip and “playing it cool.”

To the un-hip “squares” of mainstream culture, beatniks were just ignorant criminals, lazy delinquents,alcoholics and drug addicts who contributed nothing of value to society. The same would be said abouthippies as beat culture gave way to the hippie movement in the late 1960s.

Somber colors and dark shades were replaced with colorful “psychedelic” clothing and long hair. “Playingit cool,” or keeping a low profile, took a back seat to “being cool,” or displaying one’s individuality. Rockand roll music and folk songs became more popular than jazz and bebop. And while the beats tended toshun politics, the hippies actively took part in the civil rights movement and protests against the VietnamWar. Most important for women, birth control pills became available in the early ’60s, leading to an explo-sion in sexual exploration and giving females greater control over their reproductive lives.

Despite these differences, the foundations of the hippie movement of the ’60s and ’70s were laid muchearlier by the beats, who—for the first time—made not conforming with popular culture cooler than fit-ting in. Their ideas about art and society greatly influenced the “free love,” anti-war values of the hippies.Many have also recognized the impact the beat movement had on later counter-culture trends like thepunks, slackers and goths.

And as for Janis: She once said, “All I ever wanted to be was a beatnik.” Well, she became a psychedelicstar of the hippie’s Summer of Love instead.

SingingWhile Janis Joplin was a skilled and powerfulsinger, her signature sound put a lot of strain onher voice. During her life, other singers warnedher that unless she learned to protect her vocalchords, she could seriously damage them overthe years. Joplin often said she didn’t care—she’d rather enjoying singing in the momentthan worry about the future. But before shedied, she began to show an interest in improv-ing her technique.

In staging Love, Janis around the country overthe past several years, one of the greatest chal-lenges has been finding singers who could cap-ture the power and energy of Joplin’s sound—without damaging their own voices. And sinceJoplin never performed more than three or fourshows a week, the actresses portraying herwere singing more than she did.

“Some of the biggest Broadway stars tried todo the show and they’re the ones who lastedthe shortest length of time,” said writer anddirector Randal Myler. “Janis was a freak ofnature in her singing style. It can strip yourvoice if you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Actors Theatre of Louisville has dealt this prob-lem by hiring two different actresses to play thesinging Janis Joplin character. Katrina Chesterand Lauren Dragon will alternate in the role toprotect their voices.

Chester also performed the role in 2002-2003in New York. Like Joplin, Chester is a “streetsinger,” who hasn’t had much training. She’stoured and recorded albums with blues androck bands since she was a teen.

“Singing this music is very different,” she said.“You’re really shocking your vocal chords. Ifyou can get past the first month, you’re OK.”

And alternating between singing and talking—as she must do on stage—places an extra strainon the voice. To protect her vocal chords whenshe’s offstage, Chester avoids smoking, caf-feine (even ice tea) and alcohol because theyall hurt the vocal muscles. She doesn’t speak forthe first three hours every day when she’s per-forming and avoids yelling—except on stage.Finally, she gets nine to 13 hours of sleep eachnight. “The one thing that will help your vocalchords more than anything else is sleep,” shesaid. “Eight hours is really not that great.”

TimelineJanis Joplin lived in an exciting and turbulent time marked byboth idealism and disillusionment in politics and society. It wasa time of rapid change and innovation scientifically, culturallyand musically. Here are a some key moments:

1877 – Thomas Edison invents the phonograph, the first device for recording and replayingsound.

1895 – “Laughing Song” is the first recorded blues song, by industry pioneer and formerVirginia plantation slave George W. Johnson.

1937 – Bessie Smith dies. Called the “Empress of the Blues,” her music would influence JanisJoplin.

December 1941 – The United States enter World War II after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.

January 19, 1943 – Janis Lyn Joplin is born to Seth and Dorothy Joplin in the oilrefinery seaport of Port Arthur, Texas.

1945 – World War II ends: The Soviets invade Berlin; Adolf Hitler commits suicide. Japan sur-renders after the United States drops the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. TheAllies divide Germany and Berlin. The United Nations is officially formed.

Summer 1950 – North Korean troops invade South Korea. U.S. troops defend South Koreaalongside forces from other United Nations countries.

1952 –Bandstand, later called American Bandstand, premieres. The TV show has teens dancingto rock-and-roll music. It will be cancelled in 1987, in part due to the rise of music video chan-nels.

July 1953 – The Korean War ends when a cease-fire is declared.

1955 – “(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley and the Comets becomes thefirst rock-and-roll song to hit #1. Poet Allen Ginsburg reads “Howl” at the Six Gallery, bringingthe Beats to San Francisco.

1956 – “Heartbreak Hotel” becomes Elvis Presley’s first #1 hit. He will become one of themost popular American singers ever, selling over one billion recordings worldwide — morethan anyone else in history.

1957 – Beat poet and novelist Jack Kerouac publishes his novel, On the Road.

1958 – At age 15, Janis reads about Kerouac and the Beats in Time magazineand decides to become a beatnik.

May 1960 – In response to bombings against churches and schools in the South, PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower signs the 1960 Civil Rights Act, creating a Civil Rights Commission andintroducing penalties for obstructing a person’s attempt to vote.

Summer 1960 – Janis graduates Thomas Jefferson High School and enrolls atLamar Tech College.

Fall 1960 – Janis moves to Los Angeles to live with her mother’s sisters andfalls in with the beatnik scene in Venice, California.

November 1960 – John F. Kennedy elected president. His Inaugural Address challengesAmericans: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your coun-try.” His administration focused on expanding civil rights and bringing aid to poorer nationsthrough the formation of the Peace Corps.

New Year’s Eve 1961 – Janis has her first public singing engagement at theHalfway House in Beaumont, Texas.

1961 – East Germany begins construction on the BerlinWall, which separates communist-controlled East Berlinfrom capitalist West Berlin.

Summer 1962 – Janis moves to folk/beatapartment house in Austin while attending theUniversity of Texas there. She sings and playsautoharp as part of bluegrass band, the WallerCreek Boys.

September 1962 – Timothy Leary founds International Foundation for Internal Freedom topromote LSD research.

Fall 1962 – Fraternity boys at University of Texas start a campaign to haveJanis voted “Ugliest Man on Campus.”

October 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis: The Soviet Union brings the world to the brink of nuclearwar by building missile bases in Cuba, just 90 miles from Florida. After tense negotiationsbetween President Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, the Russian leader agrees toremove the missiles.

1963 – Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking book, The Feminine Mystique, is published. It discussesthe worthlessness women feel in roles that require them to be financially, intellectually andemotionally dependent upon their husbands.

January 1963 – Janis hitches to San Francisco with friend Chet Helms, beginssinging and passing the hat in coffeehouses.

August 1963 – 200,000 people attend Washington, D.C., Civil Rights March, where civil rightleader Martin Luther King, Jr. makes his “I Have a Dream” speech.

November 1963 – President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Lyndon B. Johnson becomespresident.

February 1964 – British rock band The Beatles appears on American TV variety program, TheEd Sullivan Show, beginning the British invasion in pop music.

July 1964 – President Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits segregation inany public place and creates the Equal Employment Commission.

June 1964 – Janis returns to Port Arthur and gives college another go at LamarTech.

March 1965 – The U.S. steps up its support of South Vietnam in its war against communist-backed North Vietnam by sending the American combat troops.

August 1965 – A six-day race riot in Watts section of Los Angeles leaves 35 dead.

September 1965 – San Francisco writer Michael Fallon applies the term “hippie” to the SanFrancisco counterculture in an article about the Blue Unicorn coffeehouse.

One of Janis’ early folk bands

After chasing down writer/director of Love, Janis RandalMyler, I enjoyed a fabulous interview with him mainlyfocused on his direction of the musical. Myler studied atthe Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts inCalifornia and then went on the University of Alberta inCanada. He has written other biographical pieces onartists such as Hank Williams, Nat King Cole, and TheMamas and The Papas. Having directed hundreds ofplays, Myler has a distinct directing style and some goodadvice to young theatre artists.

How did you start out in the theatre world?

I’ve just been doing theatre since high school. I haven’tdone anything else. I trained as an actor and somewherein college switched over to writing and directing andnever looked back. I’m glad I trained as an actor though,because you learn a lot. It teaches you how to treat peo-ple in a certain way.

What is your favorite play that you’vedirected?

It’s corny to say but they’re always my favorite when I’mworking on them. I’ve been away from this show for acouple of years and working on other pieces. But it’s greatto come back to it because it’s like you’re coming back toold friends. To come back to Janis Joplin and relive thatworld is to relive a part of my teenage years - growing upin the Bay area during the Summer of Love. So right now,this is my favorite and when I’m opening this play andmove on, the next one will be my favorite. They are all mychildren and you shouldn’t have a favorite child.

How do you see your directing in compari-son to other directing styles or habits?

I think each director evolves their own style and there’s noright or wrong in that style. There are directors that Iadmire that are very stylized in their direction. I don’t liketo see my direction on stage, yet there are a lot of direc-tors who love to see their direction on stage. I feel bestwhen I don’t see my direction at all so long as the actingis real. I like to hide as a director. I think that’s just my style;I prefer not to see it. Actually I prefer not to see a direc-tor’s work in other shows, it’s just not my taste. I don’t wantto see their ideas in clocking or notice their ideas in act-ing. It’s a matter of personal taste.

Why did you decide to have the role of Janisplayed by two different actors?

I didn’t set out to do that in any theatrical way. I realizedthe more I listened to the music and read the letters, there

were two definite sides to her persona. Was she the bikerchick up there singing or was she the little girl in her moth-er’s dress up clothes? There are two very strong personaswith Janis - there’s an off-stage and an on-stage persona.In a play you can do anything. And to be honest, realisti-cally, you couldn’t sing those songs and then do those let-ters. You couldn’t do those letters and then sing thosesongs. You’d have to lie down. I always saw it as a one-woman show done by two performers.

Why isn’t the interviewer seen?

There’s no place in Janis’ life for a male on stage. I don’tthink one was around long enough. I think she was in themidst of a male-dominated rock scene. And I think theinterviewers, they’re faceless press that built her up andknocked her down. That’s what press does. And I thinkthat that’s just a choice I made. I didn’t want to see thatperson. They’re not important enough to be on stage withher. Plus, you know, once they’re not there, they can beanybody. They can be press in Texas; they can be pressin New York; they can be press in San Francisco. They’rejust the unseen press. You don’t see them when you readthe reviews in the papers.

What has been the biggest challenge indoing this show?

I think the biggest challenge is probably finding thesingers to do the show. Because everything about Janis’style of music is incorrect - in terms of singing it. Some ofthe biggest Broadway stars tried to do the show andthey’re the ones who lasted the shortest length of time.Janis was a freak of nature in her singing style and shedidn’t have to sing eight shows a week. Even at herheight, she sang a show or two and was wasted. Thestyle of singing is adverse to what you learn from yoursinging coaches. It can strip your voice if you don’t knowwhat you’re doing. The most success we’ve had are thesingers that work for a living as singers and are used tostarting their performance at 10 at night.

What advice do you have for younger people wanting to work in the theatre?

If you want to be an actor in the theatre, start in highschool taking lots of different things: chorus, singing,dance, movement. You know all those different things canhelp you as an actor. Just do as much of it as you can. Weall started in small high schools somewhere. All the bigstars in New York started in small towns and small highschools. We tend to forget that we all come from some-where like that. It’s hard to imagine that as a kid in highschool, but it’s true. Everybody came to New York fromsomewhere.

CAREERS INTHEATREAn interview with Randal Myler, Love, Janis playwright

Festival Review: Now & Then

Max Yasgur — the man who lent his land to 450,000 hippies for a weekend inAugust 1969 — referred to Woodstock as “the largest group of people ever assem-bled in one place.” He also said to the crowd on the first day of Woodstock “Ithink you people have proven something to the world: that a half a million kidscan get together and have three days of fun and music.” The International MovieDatabase referred to the 1967 festival Monterey Pop as “the last pure gasp of six-ties love and harmony, coming as it did before things went haywire in 1968 &1969. While Woodstock was more of a rampage of frustration, Monterey is morerepresentative of how those who were there want the sixties remembered.” Quotesfrom today’s music festivals include Bonnaroo being named “the rock festival toend all festivals” while the official Wakarusa website suggests their festival to be “aperfect world”. How have festivals changed since then and now, and is that changefor the better?

With the growing popularity of modern festivals such as Bonaroo and Wakarusa,it becomes necessary to ask of the difference between current festivals and festivalsof the 1960s counter-culture. What are the similarities between the way our soci-ety was observed in the 1960s and the way we view it today? Who are the observersthat we rely on to tell us about our culture? Are the founders of Bonnaroo andWakarusa and Lollapalooza trying to promote the long lost ideas of peace, love andharmony — or are they just trying to make money? How are these festivals thesame? And furthermore, how are they different? It is possible to revive the idealsof 1960s counter-culture such as freedom of expression, free love, and world peace(or what critics call naivete)? These questions are what bring about a slew of con-troversy surrounding modern and classic music festivals.

A growing culture of social insubordination to the government was prominent inthe 1960s. Whether it was Bob Dylan singing about the assassination of early1960s Civil Rights leader Medger Evers, the widespread rejection of 1950s cultureamong young adults, or the Grateful Dead promoting the use of hallucinogens —musicians openly criticized the mainstream culture and opinions of 1960sAmerican society. The same has become true in today’s society. Though the poli-tics of our government lean on the conservative side of issues, more and moreUnited States citizens rejecting the norm and designing their own beliefs andmorals. Progressive artists such as Janis Joplin, Melanie Safka, and Jimi Hendrixappeared at festivals in the 1960s and the same is true for festivals today: musicalartists Ben Harper, Ani DiFranco, and the Yonder Mountain String Band — all ofwhom are fairly left — play at today’s festivals. However, the overall feeling of fes-tivals today seems different.

While researching for this article, I noticed a major difference between the classicand contemporary festivals in the visual aspects of the websites I researched. Thewebsites for Woodstock and Monterey Pop are full of flowers, and peace signs. Theslogan used for the Woodstock poster is “Three Days of Peace and Music,” andMonterey Pop is credited with jumpstarting the “Summer of Love.” The websitesfor Bonnaroo and Wakarusa, however, focus more on what accolades each festivalhas received from the media including Rolling Stone and Spin magazine.

I attended Bonaroo in the summer of 2004. I didn’t get the vibe of “free love” orthe sense of community between the other attendees and myself. What I saw wasa microcosm of capitalism and money that was eaten up by people who claim toreject the materialistic and consumer driven image of today’s world. The differencewas made clear to me when I watched the Woodstock anniversary video. Theamount of concession — t-shirts, necklaces, drinks, and food — is much moreavailable at these contemporary festivals than they were at festivals in the 1960s. Itseems that, though encouraged hedonism and excess, Woodstock and MontereyPop truly focused on community and togetherness while Bonnaroo and Wakarusaare much more individualistic.

Further Reading

Janis JoplinLove, Janis by Laura JoplinBuried Alive: The Biography of Janis Joplin by Myra FriedmanPiece of My Heart: A Portrait of Janis Joplin by David DaltonJanis by David DaltonScars of Sweet Paradise: The Life and Times of Janis Joplin by Alice EcholsPearl: The Obsessions and Passions of Janis Joplin by Ellis AmburnA Bad Woman Feeling Good: Blues and the Women Who Sing Them by Buzzy

Jackson

The SixtiesThe Columbia Guide to America in the 1960s by David Farber and Beth BaileyThe Haight-Ashbury: A History by Charles PerryBeneath the Diamond Sky: Haight Ashbury 1965-1970 by Barney HoskynsWoodstock: An Encyclopedia of the Music and Art Fair by James E. PeroneWoodstock: The Oral History by Joel MakowerDon’t Think Twice, It’s All Right: Bob Dylan, the Early Years by Andy GillDylan: A Man Called Alias by Richard Williams Jimi Hendrix: The Man, the Magic, the Truth by Sharon LawrenceBreak on Through: The Life and Death of Jim Morrison by James Riordan and

Jerry ProchinichyThe Beatles Anthology by BeatlesTicket to Ride by Larry KaneGot a Revolution!: The Turbulent Flight of Jefferson Airplane by Jeff Tamarkin, Home Before Daylight: My Life on the Road with the Grateful Dead by Bob WeirAutobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm XThe Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King Jr. and

Clayborne CarsonJohn F. Kennedy: A Biography by Michael O’BrienThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

The Beat GenerationNaked Lunch by William S. BurroughsThe Portable Beat Reader, edited by Ann ChartersHappy Birthday of Death by Gregory CorsoLong Live Man by Gregory CorsoThe Rolling Stone Book of the Beats: The Beat Generation and the American

Culture by Holly George-WarrenCollected Poems 1947-1980 by Allen GinsbergHowl and Other Poems by Allen GinsbergOn the Road by Jack KerouacThe Dharma Bums by Jack KerouacHuge Dreams: San Francisco and Beat Poems by Michael McClure

On the Webwww.actorstheatre.org – Interactive timeline of Janis Joplin’s life and historical

eventswww.janisjoplin.net and www.janisjoplinforever.com – Information about the

singerwww.rollingstone.com – Biographies and information about rock musicianswww.woodstock69.com – Information about the original Woodstock festivalwww.bonnaroo.com – Details on Bannaroo Art and Music festival