Dmitri Shostakovich vs Jimi Hendrix
Two music prodigies, compared on what is actually documented: field, era, country and record. No invented numbers.
The record, side by side
| Dmitri Shostakovich | Jimi Hendrix | |
| Field | Music | Music |
| Sub-field | Composer | Pop |
| Born | 1906 | 1942 |
| Died | 1975 | 1970 |
| Country of birth | Russia | United States |
| Star sign | Libra | Sagittarius |
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 →
Jimi Hendrix
The first instrument Jimi Hendrix ever played was a ukulele with a single string. He found it while helping his father clean out a house in Seattle in 1957, and he spent weeks working out the melody to "Honky Tonk Women" on that single string before his father relented and bought him a five-dollar acoustic guitar. He was fifteen years old, completely self-taught, and he could already hear in his head sounds that no existing guitarist had yet produced. Within four years, by his own account, he had listened to every blues record he could…
Full biography of Jimi Hendrix →
What they share
- Both are held here under Music.
- Their lifetimes overlap.
Where they part
- Born in different countries: Russia and United States.
- 36 years separate their births (1906 and 1942).
Questions people ask
- Who came first, Dmitri Shostakovich or Jimi Hendrix?
- Dmitri Shostakovich. Dmitri Shostakovich was born in 1906, Jimi Hendrix in 1942.
- What field is each of them in?
- Dmitri Shostakovich is filed under Music (Composer). Jimi Hendrix is filed under Music (Pop).
- Were they contemporaries?
- Yes - their lifetimes overlap.