Frank Zappa

American musician (1940–1993)

AI overview

Frank Zappa was an American musician and composer who lived from 1940 to 1993 and became known for his innovative and often unconventional approach to rock music. His work matters because he pushed the boundaries of what popular music could be, blending rock with classical, jazz, and satirical elements while maintaining a distinctive artistic vision throughout his career.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 21 December 1940
Died: 4 December 1993
Works: 15

Top works

ha-Sefer ha-amiti shel Franḳ Zapah
The real Frank Zappa book
Frank Zappa - Apostrophe (')
La verdadera historia de Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa - over-Nite Sensation

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Origin: United States
Active from: 1940-12-21
Active to: 1993-12-04

art rockavant-gardeavant-progbig bandblues rockclassical

Discography

Official site Discogs Stream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 1,350,185
Total plays: 67,443,190

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

The SILVA ribosomal RNA gene database project: improved data processing and web-based tools
· 2012 · cited 29,203x
Intermolecular interactions from a natural bond orbital, donor-acceptor viewpoint
· 1988 · cited 16,705x
Accurate normalization of real-time quantitative RT-PCR data by geometric averaging of multiple internal control genes
· 2002 · cited 16,051x
The american rheumatism association 1987 revised criteria for the classification of rheumatoid arthritis
· 1988 · cited 15,809x
NMRPipe: A multidimensional spectral processing system based on UNIX pipes
· 1995 · cited 13,865x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

“On a personal level, Freaking Out is a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricting standards of thinking, dress, and social etiquette in order to express creatively his relationship to his immediate environment and the social structure as a whole.”
“If your children ever find out how lame you really are, they’ll murder you in your sleep.”
“Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget about the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you've got any guts. Some of you like Pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read. Forget I mentioned it. This song has no message. Rise for the flag salute.”
“The things that were happening in 1955 were cosmic … in terms of music history.”
“Scientology, how about that? You hold on to the tin cans and then this guy asks you a bunch of questions, and if you pay enough money you get to join the master race. How's that for a religion?”
“I consider that the building materials are exactly the same as what anybody else makes the thing out of. It's just the way they look at those materials is perhaps a narrower perspective. Time and those waves are at the disposal of anyone who wants to use them.”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, songwriter, guitarist, conductor, actor, satirist, filmmaker, and activist. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed rock, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestral and musique concrète works; he additionally produced nearly all the 60-plus albums he released with his band the Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. His discography is characterized by nonconformity, improvisation, sonic experimentation, musical virtuosity and satire of American culture. Zappa also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation.

As a mostly self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical modernism, African-American rhythm and blues, and doo-wop music. He began writing classical music in high school, while simultaneously playing drums in rhythm-and-blues bands, later switching to electric guitar. His debut studio album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out! (1966), combined satirical but seemingly conventional rock-and-roll songs with extended sound collages. He continued this eclectic and experimental approach throughout his career.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Frank Zappa” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.