Sunday 30 August 2015

Frank Zappa: Biography, Songs & Death

This lesson will cover the life, career, and legacy of Frank Zappa. We will consider his experimentalism, influences, and passion for fighting censorship.

Frank Zappa: Visionary Eccentric

Few rock musicians have challenged popular tastes and expanded the vocabulary of rock music more than Frank Zappa. Throughout his career Zappa composed virtuosic, deeply bizarre music that delighted his fans and confused most everyone else. The majority of Zappa's music was too long (and much too strange) for top 40 radio; nonetheless, he earned a reputation during his relatively short life as one of the most complex and iconoclastic rock musicians of the 20th century.


Frank Zappa, 1977











Early Life and Career

Frank Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1940. Zappa's family moved around a good dealduring his childhood, eventually settling in Southern California. Doo-wop, a mainly vocal form of pop music that emphasized muti-part vocal harmonies set to a simple melody, was prevalent in Southern California during the 1950s. This fairly simple form of music would be a major influence on Zappa, one that would stay with him for the rest of his life.

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Frank Zappa is considered to be one of the most influential rock musicians of the late twentieth century. Between the start of his career in the late fifties and his death in 1993 he recorded and rele..


On September 19, 1985, Frank Zappa testified before the United States Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the Parents Music Resource Center or PMRC, a music organizati.

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