Bob Dylan (PDF)

Bob Dylan's contribution to popular music is immeasurable.
Venerated as rock's one true genius, Dylan is considered
responsible for introducing a new range of topics and new lyrical
complexity into popular music. Without Bob Dylan, rock critic Dave
Marsh once claimed, there would be no popular music as we
understand it today.

As such an exalted figure, Dylan has been the subject of
countless books and intricate scholarship considering various
dimensions of both the man and his music. This book places new
emphasis on Dylan as a rock star. Whatever else Dylan is, he is a
star - iconic, charismatic, legendary, enigmatic. No one else
in popular music has maintained such star status for so long a
period of time.

Showing how theories of stardom can help us understand both Bob
Dylan and the history of rock music, Lee Marshall provides new
insight into how Dylan's songs acquire meaning and affects
his relationship with his fans, his critics and the recording
industry. Marshall discusses Dylan's emergence as a star in
the folk revival (the "spokesman for a generation") and
the formative role that Dylan plays in creating a new type of music
- rock - and a new type of star. Bringing the book
right up to date, he also sheds new light on how Dylan's
later career has been shaped by his earlier star image and how
Dylan repeatedly tried to throw off the limitations and
responsibilities of his stardom.

The book concludes by considering the revival of Dylan over the
past ten years and how Dylan's stardom has developed in a way
that contains, but is not overshadowed by, his achievements in the
1960s.