Rock+of+Ages

Smith, Wendy. “Rock of Ages: Forty years after their deaths, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin now seem part of the mainstream culture they rebelled against.” EBSCOhost Online Research Databases, 2010. Web. Accessed 27 February 2017.

Smith’s personal account of how the deaths of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix impacted her, and other members of her generation, is special in the sense that it is raw. Society did feel this way; young teen were impacted drastically by their deaths. These rock star’s deaths were glorious and tragic. After gaining the sense of defiance, and watching a powerful musician die of overdoes or suffocation due to barbiturate intoxication, “ premature death can seem romantically tragic rather than criminally wasteful .”

This personal account of experiencing the lustful deaths and societal grievances is powerful in ways that go deeper than just facts and research. Not only did their deaths create a sense of desire, but the ripples of their legacy that trickled out after their death were surprising and enlightening, both positively and negatively. I intend to touch on these personal accounts to address the raw attitude that is experienced by the individual.