Beck Hansen has enjoyed three decades of success, creating an unprecedented variety of music across a labyrinth of releases that challenge conventions and push pop music boundaries. Hes been individually pigeonholed as folk, anti-folk, lo-fi, alternative, hip-hop, rock, R&B, rap, country, noise, dance-pop, and electronica by critics of only one album. Mainly, hes just Beck. Becks free-range approach to music and art was fostered at an early age. His father is a classically trained musician, his mother lived life as art, and his grandfather was a central figure in the experimental Fluxus scene. Beck absorbed these influences, then dropped out of school at age 14 to forge his own path. Just nine years later, he became an overnight success with the so-called slacker anthem Loser. This book provides meticulous, chronological organization to Becks seemingly overwhelming official recorded output, from the indie experimentation of Stereopathetic Soulmanure and One Foot in the Grave, through the commercial and critical heights of Odelay and Morning Phase, and into the mainstream successes of Guero, The Information, and Colors. Along the way, details of more than 300 songs include the expected (Where Its At), the underappreciated (Rental Car), and the obscure (Brandon Nevins).
