Joni Mitchell began as a folk artist but also incorporated different influences into her own writing and composition and performance.
In her song “Big Yellow Taxi”, she sang, “That you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. A paved paradise, put up a parking lot.”
And she ignited a subgenre that we’ve come to call the singer-songwriter movement of the early 1970s. Overall, the wonderful era of the singer-songwriter was happening particularly in the 1960s and ’70s. As our country was going through a tumultuous time, and there was a lot of change, we had artists who were essentially in the midst of that and paying attention to all of it.
These artists were speaking to that situation. There was also this sense of freedom where there were many artists who had no problems picking up the guitar and creating and speaking what they did whether it was just them on the guitar or them with a band.
In the song “Something in the Way She Moves”, James Taylor sang, “There’s something in the way she moves or looks my way or calls my name. It seems to leave this troubled world behind.”
We were ready to hear a lot of singer-songwriters. We didn’t come from a period when it only had to be one artist who did this in the genre or who did it in the style. It was the 1960s and ’70s, and in terms of the music listening public, they were open and they were willing, and they were ready to hear a variety of things. And I think that for artistry, that results in incredible music.
From the song “So Far Away”, Carole King sang: “So far away. Doesn’t anybody stay in one place anymore?”
One of the things I’ve seen happening recently is the return to this type of artistry. And when I speak to young artists, it’s one of the things I regularly speak about. Upcoming artists need to know that they have the opportunity now to create and to go outside of the norm. It’s a wonderful thing when artists go outside of the norm, and it’s important that it continue to happen.
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