Eddie · CC BY-SA 2.0

Janis Ian wrote and recorded 'Society's Child' about an interracial relationship at fifteen, drawing hate mail and station boycotts when it aired in 1966 -- a preview of a career built on saying uncomfortable things plainly. Her 1975 single 'At Seventeen' reached the Billboard Top Ten and carried her seventh album to No. 1; she has since won two Grammys three decades apart, the second for the audiobook of her memoir, and writes science fiction and a syndicated column.