Early Career

Beck took the lo-fi sound of DIY indie rock to the top of the charts in 1994 with his oddball folk-rap hit Loser. But his avant-pop musical palette extends well beyond the beats and samples of that hit, including everything from feedback and other sources of noise to toy instruments and found sounds. His disjointed, surreal lyrics have often been compared to Highway 61 Revisited-era Bob Dylan.

Beck was born in L.A. to bohemian parents. His mother, Bibbe, was raised amid New York's Andy Warhol Factory art scene of the '60s and in the '90s was part of the underground L.A. punk-drag band Black Fag. His father was a bluegrass street musician. His grandfather, Al Hansen, was a pioneer in the avant-garde Fluxus movement, and in 1998, Beck helped put together a traveling art exhibition that paired his visual artwork with his late grandfather’s. During his teens he discovered the music of Sonic Youth and Pussy Galore. After hearing a record by Mississippi John Hurt at a friend’s house, however, he began playing his own post punk brand of acoustic country blues.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide