Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, author, and visual artist. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture for more than 60 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'" became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements.

Dylan's lyrics incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed to the burgeoning counterculture. Initially modeling his style on the songs of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, and the music of Celtic and English folk, Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it with "the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry".

In 1965, he controversially abandoned his early folk-influenced style to launch rock and roll with the six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone". His mid-1960s albums, including Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde, reached the top tier of United States albums charts.

Dylan's 1975 album Blood on the Tracks was considered by critics to be a return to form. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again Christian and released a series of albums of contemporary gospel music. In the 1980s, Dylan returned to secular recording, though his work continued to be influenced by his religious faith.

Dylan has toured continuously since the late 1980s on what has been called the Never Ending Tour. Since 1994, Dylan has published nine books of paintings and drawings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. He has sold more than 145 million records, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".