Assignment 2-2
Icon Analysis

Three icons. Only three. There are a millions icons. No problem. Picking three that mean something to me, not so easy. I choose to highlight three very important women in music, Janice Joplin, Tina Turner and and Cher.Three different women with very different sounds.

It was the best of times, it was the worst, nope it was still the best of times. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. Free love and spread it around. Out of a time where Hendricks was king and Woodstock was making a muddy mess on some guys farm came a plain looking women with a soulful voice. Some say she couldn’t carry a tune, but I say Janice was just pouring her heart out and sometimes that can be pain full. I choose Janice because she was larger then life and didn’t seem to care. To be an icon and loved by so many for her carefree attitude yet she always was true to herself. What Janice means to me I a time where there was less worries ( well no one really worried even if they should have) and a time where people were starting to express themselves – not always politically correct, not always clean and certainly they didn’t always care how they looked. Janice was no beauty but when she sang, she was beautiful.

Tina Tuner started with nothing and ended up with the world. Some of this she accomplished with the help of her husband, but I think her best work was when she went out on her own. To me she is strength and perseverance. I choose Tina because of her strength and her need to be her own women. So often women feel they cant do things along or are too afraid to leave a bad situation. Tina is still making music and looks great, even though she is in her 60’s. I choose Tina’s strength and her ability to change with the times. She is always true to the type of music she wants to sing but can change it to fit each music era as it goes by.

I choose Cher because she is larger then life. Again, another female artist who has withstood the test of time and has been doing her thing for 40 years (and doesn’t even look a day over 40 I might add). Cher is a different kind of icon – she is adored by millions and worshiped by the gay community. This icon to me represents a woman who had always been teased as a child for her Native American and Armenian background. Not only did she spend a short time in foster care but also suffers from Dyslexia. To me she is another woman who overcame many obstacles and never gave up on her dreams.

Three very different women from three very different times. All became icons but doing what they loved. I choose these women not so much because of their music, but because they never gave up or gave in.