Creedence Clearwater Revival The Isley Brothers Bobbie Gentry Smokey Robinson & The Miracles Oliver Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan;[3] born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in history,[4][5][6] Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 60-year career. He rose to prominence in the 1960s, when songs such as "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. Initially modeling his style on Woody Guthrie's folk songs,[7] Robert Johnson's blues[8] and what he called the "architectural forms" of Hank Williams's country songs,[9] Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry".