Janis Joplin were scattered from a plane into the Pacific Ocean. Joplin's death in October 1970 at age 27 stunned her fans and shocked the music world, especially when coupled with the death just 16 days earlier of another rock icon, Jimi Hendrix, also at age 27. (This would later cause some people to attribute significance to the death of musicians at the age of 27, as celebrated in the notional '27 Club'.) Music historian Tom Moon wrote that Joplin had "a devastatingly original voice", music columnist Jon Pareles of "The New York Times" wrote that Joplin as an artist was "overpowering
Janis Joplin Joplin was on a "star trip", while others were telling Joplin that Big Brother was a terrible band and that she ought to dump them. "Time" magazine called Joplin "probably the most powerful singer to emerge from the white rock movement", and Richard Goldstein wrote for the May 1968 issue of "Vogue" magazine that Joplin was "the most staggering leading woman in rock ... she slinks like tar, scowls like war ... clutching the knees of a final stanza, begging it not to leave ... Janis Joplin can sing the chic off any listener." For her first major studio recording,