That clip, which resurfaced in Martin Scorsese’s 2019 Rolling Thunder Revue doc, currently has 3.5 million views. “Holy Jesus, what did I just stumble upon?” one comment reads. “This is hypnotizing, I had never heard of this song prior to 20 minutes ago,” another says. One subscriber is incredibly honest: “When I was younger I never got the appeal of Joni Mitchell, now I’m kicking myself for not realizing sooner in my life how great she is.”
This kind of discourse is expected today, but it wasn’t always the case. Mitchell has been on this earth for 80 years, but we’ve only started to truly appreciate her the way she deserves in the last five. In that timeframe, she’s received countless awards, from the Kennedy Center Honors to the MusiCares Person of the Year award to the Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize for Popular Song — belated accolades from a world rushing to make up for lost time. At first, Mitchell (still recovering from a 2015 brain aneurysm) stayed largely off the radar while all this happened. Following a tentative return to the public eye in 2019, she performed her first full set in over 20 years at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival; a year later, she tore it up at the Gorge Amphitheater for more than 25,000 fans. She’s also been revisiting her catalog with an archive series, looking back on her stunning body of work while giving her newfound Gen Z and millennial following new releases to discover.
That following, by the way, is massive. To name just a few examples: Olivia Rodrigo recently became a Joni fan while vacationing in Hawaii; Clairo named her dog after Joni; Harry Styles embarked on a mythical dulcimer quest after hearing the instrument on Blue; and to teens on Tiktok, she’s officially on a Stevie Nicks level of coolness.
All of this is to say: Welcome to the Jonissance.
Lifelong Joni fans might roll their eyes at how ridiculously overdue all of this recognition is — I certainly did. There was never a moment where I was formally introduced to Mitchell’s music. It was just always around me, whether through CDs in the car or my mother’s humming while she cooked tomato sauce on the stove. But in many circles, it wasn’t considered cool to like Mitchell in the early-to-mid aughts. I even remember my friends teasing me for liking Blue in school. “What is this old music, and why is her voice like that?” Skip to 2023, and the kids are all demanding to know how to get that voice.
Lifelong Joni fans might roll their eyes at how ridiculously overdue all of this recognition is — I certainly did. There was never a moment where I was formally introduced to Mitchell’s music. It was just always around me, whether through CDs in the car or my mother’s humming while she cooked tomato sauce on the stove. But in many circles, it wasn’t considered cool to like Mitchell in the early-to-mid aughts. I even remember my friends teasing me for liking Blue in school. “What is this old music, and why is her voice like that?” Skip to 2023, and the kids are all demanding to know how to get that voice.
by Angie Martoccio, Rolling Stone | Read more:
Image: YouTube/Martin Scorsese Rolling Thunder Review
