Music
Congratulations! Bob Dylan wins 2016 Nobel prize in literature – and we couldn’t agree more
American singer songwriter Bob Dylan was chosen as this year’s winner of the literature Nobel prize for his outstanding songwriting and “having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
With this award he is the first songwriter ever to win the literature Nobel prize and the ninth American to do so. Sara Danius, permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, describes Dylan as “a great sampler … and for 54 years he has been at it, reinventing himself”. She continues to praise Dylan’s legendary album Blonde on Blonde as “an extraordinary example of his brilliant way of rhyming, putting together refrains, and his brilliant way of thinking”.
Most of Dylan’s best known work dates from the 1960s and are anthems of American anti-war and civil rights movements. In 2013, former Rolling Stones bass player Bill Wyman stated his case for Dylan to get the award: “His lyricism is exquisite; his concerns and subjects are demonstrably timeless; and few poets of any era have seen their work bear more influence.”
The 75-year-old remains an inspiration for not only up-and-coming singer/songwriters but for an entire generation of music lovers and poets.
