One of Dylan's many gifts to rock-and-roll was intellectual credibility. With Dylan, lyrics became tools of self-expression. He inspired others to open up and speak their minds about the things that mattered most to them. To look at pressing social issues, to make the lyrics poetic, to make the message complex. To stay true to yourself.

Bob Dylan ironically, shaped the course of popular music by mistake. Even before the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys, a creative and new style was introduced by this young wandering musician. Since beginning his career in 1960, he has been a poet, a political activist, a musician and a mystery. His songs drew upon every style of American music, including rock and roll, blues, gospel, folk and country. Dylan's life as a singer-songwriter captured the public's attention from a time of mass confusion until today, opening up the expressive possibilities of rock.Composing over 100's of songs, performing wor

While the social revolution was being fought, Elvis Presley, Chuck Barry and Little Richard began playing rock and roll music, music that gave teenagers a vehicle for expression and an identity that was distinct. The early rock and roll singers also gave voice to the rhythm and blues of African Americans and the country music of poor southerners, who felt ignored by the whites in society. While in film, actors like James Dean, Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift impressed the idea of self determined rebel upon a new generation, a characterization that seems to have coincided with the defient style of rock and roll music then. All of these elements: conformism, social revolution, rock and roll music, and the "rebel" movie hero, converged into a creative and excepting time for the young Dylan to grow up in, a time for the mainstream American and the youth behind it to emerge.

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Born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941, in Duluth Minnesota to Beatrice and Abraham Zimmerman, Dylan was soon to move to Hibbing in 1947. It, like many other small towns felt the optimism, prosperity, and conformism that followed WWII. Hibbing became more directly touched by national events with the onset of radio, movies and television. By the mid 1950's it, too, felt the social tensions that were rolling across the country, especially with Senator Joesph McCarthy a

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Approximate Word count = 961
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)