''The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia'' is a 2006 compendium of articles written by Michael Gray covering the life and work of

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

. It includes reviews of varying length for each album and numerous songs in Dylan's musical output, but is not just a work of music criticism. The topics for individual articles encompass Dylan's musical forebears, literary influences, personal acquaintances, key career events, musical associates, cultural context, forays into film and writing, and minutiae of all sorts. Gray's opinions characterize the content found in the ''Encyclopedia''. Gray connects Dylan to the tradition of

country blues Country blues (also folk blues, rural blues, backwoods blues, or downhome blues) is one of the earliest forms of blues music. The mainly solo vocal with acoustic fingerstyle guitar accompaniment developed in the rural Southern United States in t ...

, and there are many articles relating to blues music and blues musicians, especially those from the 1920s and 1930s. Gray summarises the life and work of key early

rock and roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a Genre (music), genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It Origins of rock and roll, originated from Africa ...

performers from the 1950s, as well as entries on influential artists from the fields of

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

and the

folk music revival A roots revival (folk revival) is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. Often, roots revivals include an addition of newly composed songs with socially and politically aware ly ...

. There are also articles on historical figures, ranging from

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentary, historical settings ...

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...

. First editions of the ''Encyclopedia'' included a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

duplicating its content, making it readable on the home computer.

References

Books about Bob Dylan Books about rock music {{music-publication-stub