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
Music history of the United States in the 1970s popular music's most successful artists died within six weeks of each other in 1977: Elvis Presley (on August 16) and Bing Crosby (on October 14). Presley—whose top 1970s hit was "Burning Love" in 1972— ranked among the top artists of the rock era, while Crosby was among the most successful pre-rock era artists. The early seventies also marked the deaths of rock legends Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix as well as the plane crash in 1977 in which three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed. Music history of the United States in the 1970s Popular music of the