Society's Child
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- English-language readers studying popular song lyrics as texts
- Students who need to cite the original lyrics in coursework
- Fans interested in 1960s social-issue songs
- Teachers and researchers analyzing English lyrics linguistically
Not a good fit for
- Readers seeking a systematic account of Janis Ian's life and career
- Those expecting song appreciation, reviews, or background on its creation
- Readers with weak English who need a Chinese translation
Reading tips
- Listen to the recording first, then follow the lyrics, noting pauses and shifts in tone at repetitions.
- Read the lyrics aloud section by section as a poetic text, marking rhyme and rhythm.
- If used for research, record the source and release date of the text for proper citation.
- Read alongside lyrics of other social-issue songs from the same period for thematic comparison.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
FAQ
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About the author
Janis Ian, born in the United States in 1951, is a singer-songwriter. She won a Grammy Award for her song "At Seventeen," which also brought her to a wider audience. Her writing often starts from personal experience and focuses on adolescent sensitivity, the loneliness of growing up, and women's experiences, with lyrics that are delicate and introspective. The library holds two of her works, including Society's Child and Music by Janis Ian; the former drew attention for addressing interracial romance and shows her early engagement with social issues. Overall, her work is notable for its narrative quality, with melody and text closely intertwined, and has had a certain influence within pop music and the singer-songwriter tradition. Public information on the details of her life is limited, so this introduction is based only on confirmed works and award information.
