He has received numerous awards over the years including Grammy, Golden Globe, and Academy Awards he has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, and Songwriters Hall of Fame.
His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally considered to be his songwriting. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres, exploring numerous distinct traditions in American song-from folk, blues and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly, to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing.ĭylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. His early lyrics incorporated a variety of political, social and philosophical, as well as literary influences. A number of his songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was at first an informal chronicler, and later an apparently reluctant figurehead of social unrest. He has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter and musician.