Janis Ian Research Paper

The author of the autobiography is named Janis Ian, who was a white girl that grew up among black people in New Jersey. She was one of seven white girls in her whole school and therefore there were a lot of opinions about the racial differences and angry narrow-minded parents, who would interfere in their children’s lives and choices about love. Janis Ian was a famous song writer and she was born in 1951 in New York, but lived in New Jersey through her childhood.

In this essay I will focus on how Janis Ian uses her music to send a message to the world and focus on the style of the text. At the same time I will include a characterization of Janis Ian based on this excerpt of her autobiography.

The autobiography is about a talented song writer named Janis Ian, who wrote songs about her childhood, where
she grew up among black people.
This autobiography starts In Media Res where the crowd is yelling: “Nigger lover! Nigger lover!...” Janis Ian was standing on the stage in Encino, California and halfway through her most controversial song(Society’s Child), some of the people in the crowd decide to yell horrible things to get her to feel threatened and therefore either stop the concert or even stop her career. At this time Janis Ian was only fifteen years old and terrified of what the hostile crowd would do to her. She struggled not to cry but in the end she collapsed and walked off the stage without showing weakness for the crowd. As soon as she hit the wings, she ran to the ladies’ room and cried out. While she was crying, she thought about the horrible racial segregation in her childhood, which ended up defining her whole life. The concert promoter came rushing in to the ladies room and asked her what she was doing. She told about her fear of getting killed or getting things thrown at her. The concert promoter had a fear of
losing money and therefore he encouraged her to go back up on the stage and show those people what she was really made of. She was afraid and didn’t want to go back but the promoter’s words made her think about her childhood and how her parents raised her to be a hero. How she should not be stepped on by a small amount of people, who apparently didn’t like her music and keep singing for those who did. She went back on the stage and sang like there was no one else but her in the room. Giving it all she got and the crowd loved it. Those who were yelling were now stopped by the other fans and left the concert. Janis Ian watched them leave and she as they left she began the final verse of Society’s child.

Janis Ian seems like an early developed human who had an amazing voice and a strong meaning behind her words. She had a tough childhood where she grew up among mostly black people. She wrote songs on this and the most controversial one is Society’s Child which is about a childhood relationship with a black man. It’s also about the way her mom forbids her to see the black man and how the society doesn’t approve this kind of relationship: “She called you ‘Boy’ instead of your name.” Her mom wouldn’t approve this relationship and Janis Ian had to break the relationship up because of this, which led her to write the biggest hit Society’s Child. Janis Ian was brave hearted and threw light on the big problem. She wanted to make people see how we are all alike and no man nor woman, should be mistreated because of the tone of skin.
She tried to unite the people through her music and she did. The problem was that no radio had the guts to play her songs and the one that did, was burned to the ground.
The writing style is very fast-moving. It goes through a lot of emotions and lots of flashbacks where she gives the reader information about her childhood and her career. As a reader you are thrown through the past and the present which gives an impression that her life was a little wild and unbalanced. In this excerpt Janis Ian gives an insight into the music business which already at that time was inflated by the capitalism that emerged in the show business. Even though she feared for her life, the concert promoter talked her into going back on the stage to give the paying-customers a show.

The excerpt of the autobiography is thrilling and exploits her personal life through her career. It seems like she has met a lot of resistance, which only evolved her as a person and as a singer. She takes the challenge on and decides from the start that she wants to tell the whole truth about racial segregation to the listeners. “Janis, if you’ll change just one word in the song - just one word - I can guarantee you a number one record. Just change ‘black’ to anything else. It’s your decision.”(p. 5 l. 200) Janis Ian doesn’t want to change the words because it would change the whole idea of the song. She stands up for what she believes in and doesn’t want to compromise with the song to earn money.