Bob Dylan is on the short list of the most influential artists of the 20th Century. He coupled a love for all forms of popular and folk music with a personal and poetic songwriting style instead of relying on professional craftsmen or standard tunes. Influenced by Woody Guthrie, Dylan proved that you didn't have to be a technically perfect singer or musician to make brilliant pop music. The songs on 1963's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan catapulted the artist to stardom but he was already burning to get away from acoustic backing and match his unique vision to rock, country, and blues music. Dylan's music influenced a whole new generation of musicians -- such as the Beatles or Stevie Wonder -- to start crafting songs about what was important to them. While Dylan kick-started Folk and Country Rock in his '60s studio work, the ragged home recordings he made with the Band showed that not even poorly placed microphones could stifle brilliance. Dylan tours constantly these days and records less often then he used to, but as albums such as 1997's Time Out of Mind prove, the man still has a lot to say and continues to do it in a way that no one else can.
Discography:
1962- Bob Dylan
1963- The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
1964- The Times They Are a-Changin'
1964- Another Side of Bob Dylan
1965- Bringing It All Back Home
1965- Highway 61 Revisited
1966- Blonde on Blonde
1967- John Wesley Harding
1969- Nashville Skyline
1970- Self Portrait
1970- New Morning
1973- Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
1973- Dylan
1974- Planet Waves
1975- Blood on the Tracks
1975- The Basement Tapes
1976- Desire
1978- Street Legal
1979- Slow Train Coming
1980- Saved
1981- Shot of Love
1983- Infidels
1985- Empire Burlesque
1986- Knocked Out Loaded
1988- Down in the Groove
1989- Oh Mercy
1990- Under the Red Sky
1992- Good as I Been to You
1993- World Gone Wrong
1997- Time Out of Mind
2001- "Love and Theft"
2006- Modern Times
2009- Together Through Life
2009- Christmas in the Heart
2012- Tempest