Bob Dylan

Folk rock in the sixties inherited the tradition of country and western. In the 1960s, the main representatives of folk rock were Joan Baez, The Byrds, Bob Dylan, and so on. However, the most important folk rock singer is Bob Dylan, who was the first and the most important folk rock music creator. Known as the “protest song singer”, for the entire 1960s, Bob Dylan 's music strongly affected young people that were in the wandering and confusion. It was like a banner, a totem, and a pioneer, helped the the youth from the 1960s generation of found the sustenance of their ideals.

The new music was built out of materials already in existence: blues, rock’n’roll, folk music. But although the forms remained, something wholly new and original was made out of these older elements - more original, perhaps, than even the new musicians themselves yet realize. The transformation took place in 1966-7. Up to that time, the blues had been an essentially black medium. Rock’n’roll, a blues derivative, was rhythmic, raunchy, teen-age dance music. Folk music, old and modern, was popular among college students. The three forms remained musically and culturally distinct, and even as late as 1965, none of them were expressing any radically new states of consciousness. Blues expressed black soul; rock, as made famous by Elvis Presley, was the beat of youthful sensuality; and folk music, with such singers as Joan Baez, expressed anti-war sentiments as well as the universal themes of love and

Jerry was not only interested in musical arts but he also drew and painted often and enrolled in the San Francisco Art Institute to study and practice the visual arts. For his fifteenth birthday, Jerry Garcia received an electric guitar, his favorite instrument so far; by this time, Jerry was already playing the banjo and the piano. Soon after, Jerry joined his first band, the Chords, solidifying his destiny as a musician.

Rock ‘n’ roll has played a major role in some known historical developments post World War 2. Music plays a significant part in America 's Cold War culture. Music gave us a sense of new technologies and helped the world to prosper. It also is linked with African Americans living in the South. Music was known for shaping the lives of the people during the 1950s and 1960s. Music was geared towards the youth, race, ethnicity, gender and class. “All Shook Up: How Rock ‘n’ Roll Changed America” by Altschuler, Glenn C, tells us the story of the birth of rock and roll during the concrete years of 1955 to 1965. Altschuler gives us a overview of how rock ‘n’ roll has an historical context. “ For two years the Times printed dozens of

Excessive hype from Dylan’s presence in politics inspired him to move his music in a different direction. In 1964 and 1965, Dylan’s musical style and appearance changed quite rapidly as he transitioned from a modern song writer of the folk scene to a rock music star. Dylan made his breakthrough to the pop music audience in the summer of 1965, when Like a Rolling Stone hit number two on the charts. Unexpectedly, Dylan became the topic of multitudes of articles, and his song lyrics became the subject of literary analyses across the

Jimi Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower begins similarly to Dylan’s, then shifts to a new beat that provides a new light and explains

On July 25, 1965 at the Newport Music festival Ronnie Gilbert announced bob Dylan to the audience “And here he is…take him, you know him, he’s yours.” Bob Dylan accompanied by guitarist Al Kooper and The Paul Butterfield Blues Band, began to play “Maggie’s Farm” in an electrified form. The crowd also became electrified booing and yelling loud enough to drown the sound of the Bob Dylan and all the musicians. The fans did not know that six weeks earlier, Bob Dylan had recorded the classic hit “Like A Rolling Stone”. The fans were upset, they were expecting a Bob Dylan acoustic guitar performance, instead they were unknowing witnessing a rock and roll historical event.

Dylan made a break folk tradition that would have tremendous consequences for popular music. He had a long interest in using electric instruments in his music and a few sessions.

As for this, he was known as the world's most influential singer and songwriter. “I'm really thrilled about this gong for Bob. He created the anthems, the love songs, and the anti-love songs that defined the post-1968 generation and still resonates today. He is the subtlest rhyme artist - captures unspoken meanings in the modulations of his rhyme”(Rainbird).In the song, “The times they are a changin’”, Bob Dylan uses imagery to portray a detailed image in the listener's mind of the horrendous changes that were taking place in the United States. The imagery reflects the poetry in Bob Dylan's work. In the first stanza, “Come gather ’round people/Wherever you roam/And admit that the waters/Around you have grown/And accept it that soon/You’ll be drenched to the bone/If your time to you is worth savin’/Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone/For the times they are a-changin’(Dylan 1-9). Line 1-2 , Dylan is calling to the people, lines 3-6, he is asking people to come together to see what's going on through the country; that if they don't realize that things need to change, the country in going to stay the same. In lines 7-9, he says that the people better stand up in what the county is going through, otherwise the worst is to come. By using imagery, Dylan reflects the overall theme of the song “The times they are a changin’”. Another literary device used in this song was repetition. In line 9, Dylan repeatedly said “For the times they are a-changin’’(Dylan 9). This is also found on line 18,27,36, and 45. Dylan repeated this to convey his message to his listeners that times are changing. ”Dylan and his associates seem to have understood what he was creating as an enactment of a mode of being that was not about him as a person but was the product of something that exceeded him, something searching for expression that

America has always been a country of constant change. Over the many years since the first colonies, not only have we changed in size, but also political, as well as artistic views. This continues to be true still today, but a fairly radical time period was found not too long ago throughout the 1960s. With the Vietnam War looming in the background, the Civil Rights Movement and the Folk Protest Movement came together for a short time to help bring about social changes of the time. Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin” speaks briefly upon this point and helps give a little depth to the movements of the time that were truly changing history.

The revival of American folk music was at an all-time high in the midst of the 1960s. The traditional sound of acoustic instruments combined with cultures of society through vivid lyrics provides an array of musical tones and styles that continue to be listened to by many individuals today. Although folk music may not have have had an adequate presence in the musical society for many years, there are several albums and artists known in the modern era have included folk music in their collections. The male British band, Mumford and Sons led by Marcus Mumford, has expanded the awareness of folk music to a much wider audience. “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan” is viewed as one of Dylan’s finest work because it highlights the success of the amount of influence Dylan brings to the world of folk and popular music. The song lyrics have prevalent meanings that can be interpreted in many different ways by all, however there is no variation in musicality.

If you were alive in 1960s and a teenager, it would be impossible not to know Bob Dylan because he was a folk singer who was involved with the Civil Rights Movement. He impacted the music world by being one of the first musicians to take an active role on moral issues and he united people through his music. If Bob Dylan had not been around there are many movements that might not have been as successful, had he not been there as an advocate. The teens of the 1960’s were listening to Bob Dylan’s music because he was able to take in political events such as the mistreatment of black Americans, the Civil Rights campaigns, and the anti-war movement and set them to prose and poetry and then set that to music. The contents of his songs enabled teens

To understand the sixties counterculture, we must understand the important role of Bob Dylan. His lyrics fueled the rebellious youth in America. Songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times are A-Changin” made him favorable to anti-war demonstrators and supporters of the Civil Rights movement. He was commonly hailed as the spokesman for his generation. Dylan used lyrics to allow the youth to find their own form of counter-culture. The youth generation began to see the effects racism, war, etc. effect the society in America. To combat this, the youth created their own form of counter-culture to promote a peaceful change within society. Some of their actions include forming anti-war protests that opposed America’s involvement in the Vietnam War, and supporting African Americans/women get the rights they deserve through the Civil Rights Movement. Bob Dylan’s music appealed to the young generation because he openly expresses his disapproval of the establishment in order to influenced his audience to move in a direction for change. Counterculture youth rejected cultural norms of the previous generation and their values and lifestyles opposed the mainstream culture present in the 1950’s. The folk music revival of the early 1960s, as well as the counter-culture movement played an important role in advocating change. Bob Dylan wrote songs that influenced the Civil Rights Movement, New Left Movement, and Anti-War Movement.

While Bob Dylan and Mos Def’s music often differs greatly, Dylan’s “Hurricane” and Mos Def’s “Mathematics,” as shown at the end of this paper, have at least as much in common as not. Both artists continue to have impressive careers despite differing backgrounds. Mos Def was born in Brooklyn in 1973 and has had successful careers in both acting and music (Frick). His awards include Black Reel Award for best actor in The Woodsman, Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for his role in Something the Lord Made, his album The New Danger landed on the Billboard album chart at number five, and one single from the album, "Sex, Love & Money," earned him a Grammy nomination for best alternative/urban performance (Frick). Dylan was born in Duluth Minnesota

Duluth Minnesota, May 24th 1941 Robert Allen Zimmerman (Bob Dylan) was born. 69 Years and over 45 albums later Bob Dylan has completely altered the face of popular music since his debut as a fresh faced folk singer in 1962. His early career forged him into an informal chronicler and then he later developed into an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest [Gray, 2006] and became a voice for a generation. His songs have been covered by many artists in a wide span of genres and he has remained a prominent and highly influential figure in the history of popular music over the past five decades. [Gates, David, 1997]