Dmitri Shostakovich vs Janis Joplin
Two music prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Dmitri Shostakovich | Janis Joplin | |
| Field | Music | Music |
| Sub-field | Composer | Composer |
| Born | 1906 | 1943 |
| Died | 1975 | 1970 |
| Country of birth | Russia | United States |
| Star sign | Libra | Capricorn |
Who they are
Dmitri Shostakovich
In January 1936, Josef Stalin attended a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District at the Bolshoi Theatre and left before the final act. Two days later, Pravda published an unsigned editorial — almost certainly authorized at the highest level — titled "Muddle Instead of Music." The article attacked the opera as "formalist" and "bourgeois," its dissonances described as deliberate assaults on Soviet socialist culture. Shostakovich was twenty-nine years old, the most celebrated composer in the Soviet Union, and now suddenly in danger. He had a new symphony nearly finished —…
Full biography of Dmitri Shostakovich →
Janis Joplin
In June 1967, at the Monterey International Pop Festival in California, a twenty-four-year-old woman from Port Arthur, Texas, walked onto an outdoor stage with a psychedelic blues band called Big Brother and the Holding Company and sang "Ball and Chain" — a song originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton in 1952 — with such ferocity that the audience of 7,000 people went silent in the middle of the song before erupting at its close. Seated in the audience was Mama Cass Elliott of the Mamas and the Papas, one of the most commercially successful acts…
Full biography of Janis Joplin →
What they share
- Both are held here under Music.
- Same sub-field: Composer.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Born in different countries: Russia and United States.
- 37 years separate their births (1906 and 1943).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Dmitri Shostakovich or Janis Joplin?
- Dmitri Shostakovich. Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906, Janis Joplin in 1943.
- What field is each of them in?
- Dmitri Shostakovich is filed under Music (Composer). Janis Joplin is filed under Music (Composer).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.