Beck

American musician (born 1970)

This article is about the American musician. For other uses, see Beck (disambiguation).

Beck

Beck in 2018

Born|

Bek David Campbell

(1970-07-08) July 8, 1970 (age 55)

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Occupations|

* Musician
* singer
* songwriter
* record producer

Years active| 1988–present
Spouse|

Marissa Ribisi

(m. 2004; div. 2021)​

Children| 2
Parents|

* David Campbell (father)
* Bibbe Hansen (mother)

Awards| Full list
Musical career
Genres|

* Alternative rock
* folk rock
* psychedelia
* electronic
* folk rock
* alt-country
* lo-fi (early)

Instruments|

* Vocals
* guitar
* bass guitar
* keyboards

Works| Beck discography
Labels|

* DGC
* Interscope
* Bong Load
* Fonograf
* Capitol
* K
* Sonic Enemy

Musical artist

Website| beck.com
Signature

Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Campbell; July 8, 1970), known mononymously as Beck, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to fame in the early 1990s with his experimental and lo-fi style, and became known for creating musical collages of wide-ranging genres. He has musically encompassed folk, funk, soul, hip hop, electronica, alternative rock, country, and psychedelia. He has released 14 studio albums (three of which were released on indie labels), as well as several non-album singles and a book of sheet music.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Beck gravitated towards hip hop and folk in his teens and began to perform locally at coffeehouses and clubs. He moved to New York City in 1989 and became involved in the city's anti-folk movement. Returning to Los Angeles in the early 1990s, he saw his commercial breakthrough with his 1993 single "Loser." After signing with DGC Records, the song peaked at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and served as lead single for his third album and major label debut, Mellow Gold (1994). Its follow-up, Odelay (1996), topped critic polls and won several awards. He released the country-influenced, twangy Mutations in 1998, and the funk-infused Midnite Vultures in 1999. The soft-acoustic Sea Change in 2002 showcased a more serious Beck, and 2005's Guero returned to Odelay's sample-based production. The Information in 2006 was inspired by electro-funk, hip hop, and psychedelia; 2008's Modern Guilt was inspired by 1960s pop; and 2014's folk-infused Morning Phase won Album of the Year at the 57th Grammy Awards. His 2017 album, Colors, won awards for Best Alternative Music Album and Best Engineered Album, Non-classical at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards. His fourteenth studio album, Hyperspace, was released on November 22, 2019. In 2022, Beck was nominated for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

With a pop art collage of musical styles, oblique and ironic lyrics, and postmodern arrangements incorporating samples, drum machines, live instrumentation and sound effects, Beck has been hailed by critics and the public throughout his musical career as being among the most idiosyncratically creative musicians of 1990s and 2000s alternative rock. Two of Beck's most popular and acclaimed recordings are Odelay and Sea Change, both of which were ranked on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Beck is a four-time platinum artist; he has collaborated with several artists and has made several contributions to soundtracks.

## Early life

[edit]

Bek David Campbell was born[1] in Los Angeles on July 8, 1970,[2] the son of American visual artist Bibbe Hansen and Canadian arranger, composer, and conductor David Campbell.[3] Bibbe Hansen grew up amid Andy Warhol's The Factory art scene of the 1960s in New York City and was a Warhol superstar.[3] She moved to California at 17 and met David Campbell.[4] Beck's maternal grandfather, artist Al Hansen, was of Norwegian descent[5][6] and was a pioneer in the avant-garde Fluxus movement.[3] Beck's maternal grandmother was Jewish; he has said that he considers himself Jewish because he was "raised celebrating Jewish holidays."[7]

Beck was born in a rooming house near downtown Los Angeles. As a child he lived in a declining neighborhood near Hollywood Boulevard.[8] He remembers "By the time we left there, they were ripping out miles of houses en masse and building low-rent, giant apartment blocks."[4] The working-class family struggled financially, moving to Hoover and Ninth Street, a neighborhood populated primarily by Koreans and Salvadorian refugees.[4] He was sent for a time to live with his paternal grandparents in Kansas; he later remarked that he thought "they were kind of concerned" about his "weird" home life.[9] Because his paternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister, Beck grew up influenced by church music and hymns.[9] He also spent time in Europe with his maternal grandfather.[3]

After his parents separated when he was 10,[4] Beck stayed with his mother and brother Channing in Los Angeles, where he was influenced by the city's diverse musical offerings—everything from hip hop to Latin music and his mother's art scene—all of which would later reappear in his work.[10] Beck obtained his first guitar at 16 and became a street musician, often playing Lead Belly covers at Lafayette Park.[11] During his teens, Beck discovered the music of Sonic Youth, Pussy Galore, and X, but remained uninterested in most music outside the folk genre until many years into his career.[3][4] The first contemporary music that made a direct connection with Beck was hip hop, which he first heard on Grandmaster Flash records in the early 1980s.[4] Growing up in a predominantly Latin district, he found himself the only white child at his school, and quickly learned how to breakdance.[4] When he was 17, Beck grew fascinated after hearing a Mississippi John Hurt record at a friend's house,[12] and spent hours in his room trying to emulate Hurt's finger-picking techniques.[9] Shortly thereafter Beck explored blues and folk music further, discovering Woody Guthrie and Blind Willie Johnson.[12]

Feeling like "a total outcast", Beck dropped out of school after junior high.[12] He later said that although he felt school was important, he felt unsafe there.[8] When he applied to the new performing arts high school downtown, he was rejected.[13] His brother took him to post-Beat jazz places in Echo Park and Silver Lake. He hung out at Los Angeles City College perusing records, books, and old sheet music in the college's library. He used a fake ID to sit in on classes there, and he also befriended a literature instructor and his poet wife.[13] He worked at a string of odd jobs, including loading trucks and operating a leaf blower.[12]

## Career

[edit]

### Early performances and first releases (1988–1993)

[edit]

Beck began as a folk musician, switching between country blues, Delta blues, and more traditional rural folk music in his teenage years.[4] He began performing on city buses, often covering Mississippi John Hurt alongside original, sometimes improvisational compositions.[9] "I'd get on the bus and start playing Mississippi John Hurt with totally improvised lyrics. Some drunk would start yelling at me, calling me Axl Rose. So I'd start singing about Axl Rose and the levee and bus passes and strychnine, mixing the whole thing up", he later recalled.[9] He was also in a band called Youthless that hosted Dadaist-inspired freeform events at city coffee shops.[4] "We had Radio Shack mics and this homemade speaker and we'd draft people in the audience to recite comic books or do a beatbox thing, or we'd tie the whole audience up in masking tape," Beck recalled.[4]

In 1989, Beck caught a bus to New York City with little more than $8.00 and a guitar.[9] He spent the summer attempting to find a job and a place to live with little success.[9] Beck eventually began to frequent Manhattan's Lower East Side and stumbled upon the tail end of the East Village's anti-folk scene's first wave.[3] Beck became involved in a loose posse of acoustic musicians—including Cindy Lee Berryhill, Kirk Kelly, Paleface, and Lach headed by Roger Manning—whose raggedness and eccentricity placed them well outside the acoustic mainstream.[12][14] "The whole mission was to destroy all the clichés and make up some new ones," said Beck of his New York years. "Everybody knew each other. You could go up onstage and say anything, and you wouldn't feel weird or feel any pressure."[14] Inspired by that freedom and by the local spoken-word performers, Beck began to write free-associative, surrealistic songs about pizza, MTV, and working at McDonald's, turning mundane thoughts into songs.[14] Beck was roommates with Paleface, sleeping on his couch and attending open mic nights together.[15] Daunted by the prospect of another homeless New York winter, Beck returned to his home of Los Angeles in early 1991.[12][16] "I was tired of being cold, tired of getting beat up," he later remarked. "It was hard to be in New York with no money, no place ... I kinda used up all the friends I had. Everyone on the scene got sick of me."[9]

Back in Los Angeles, Beck began to work at a video store in the Silver Lake neighborhood, "doing things like alphabetizing the pornography section".[9] He began performing in arthouse clubs and coffeehouses such as Al's Bar and Raji's.[3][9][12] In order to keep indifferent audiences engaged in his music, Beck would play in a spontaneous, joking manner.[17] "I'd be banging away on a Son House tune and the whole audience would be talking. So maybe out of desperation or boredom, or the audience's boredom, I'd make up these ridiculous songs just to see if people were listening," he later remarked.[18] Virtually an unknown to the public and an enigma to those who met him, Beck would hop onstage between acts in local clubs and play "strange folk songs", accompanied by "what could best be described as performance art" while sometimes wearing a Star Wars stormtrooper mask.[12] Beck met someone who offered to help record demos in his living room, and he began to pass cassette tapes around.[12]

Eventually, Beck gained key boosters in Margaret Mittleman, the West Coast's director of talent acquisitions for BMG Music Publishing, and the partners behind independent record label Bong Load Custom Records: Tom Rothrock, Rob Schnapf, and Brad Lambert.[3] Schnapf saw Beck perform at Jabberjaw and felt he would suit their small venture.[12] Beck expressed a loose interest in hip hop and Rothrock introduced him to Carl Stephenson, a record producer for Rap-A-Lot Records.[12][19] In 1992, Beck visited Stephenson's home to collaborate with him. The result—the slide-sampling hip hop track "Loser"—was a one-off experiment that Beck set aside, going back to his folk songs, making his home tapes such as Golden Feelings, and releasing several independent singles.[12]

### Mellow Gold, and independent albums (1993–1994)

[edit]

By 1993, Beck was living in a rat-infested shed near a Los Angeles alleyway with little money.[9] Bong Load issued "Loser" as a single in March 1993 on 12" vinyl with only 500 copies pressed.[20] Beck felt that "Loser" was mediocre, and only agreed to its release at Rothrock's insistence.[21] "Loser" unexpectedly received radio airplay, starting in Los Angeles, where college radio station KXLU was the first to play it,[22][20] and later on Santa Monica College radio station KCRW, where radio host Chris Douridas played the song on Morning Becomes Eclectic, the station's flagship music program. "I called the record label that day and asked to have Beck play live on the air", Douridas said. "He came in that Friday, rapped to a tape of 'Loser' and did his song 'MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack.'"[12] That night, Beck performed at the Los Angeles club Cafe Troy to a packed audience and talent scouts from major labels.[12] The song then spread to Seattle through KNDD The End, and KROQ-FM began playing the song on an almost hourly basis.[20] As Bong Load struggled to press more copies of "Loser", Beck was beset with offers to sign with major labels.[23] During the bidding war in November, Beck spent several days in Olympia, Washington, recording material with Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening, which would later see release the following year on Johnson's K Records as One Foot in the Grave.[24]

A fierce bidding war ensued, with Geffen Records A&R director Mark Kates signing Beck in December 1993 amid intense competition from Warner Bros. and Capitol.[12][24] Beck's non-exclusive contract with Geffen allowed him an unusual amount of creative freedom, with Beck remaining free to release material through such small, independent labels as Flipside, which issued the sprawling, 25-track collection of pre-"Loser" recordings titled Stereopathetic Soulmanure on February 22 the following year.[12][24] By the time Beck released his first album for Geffen, the low-budget, genre-blending Mellow Gold on March 1,[12] "Loser" was already in the top 40 and its video in MTV's Buzz Bin.[8] "Loser" quickly ascended the charts in the U.S., reaching a peak of number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and topping the Modern Rock Tracks chart.[25] The song also charted in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout Europe. Beck's newfound position of attention led to his characterization as the "King of Slackers", as the media dubbed him the center of the new so-called "slacker" movement.[26] Critics, feeling it the essential follow-up to Radiohead's "Creep",[24] found vacantness in the lyrics of "Loser" strongly associated with Generation X, although Beck himself strongly contested his position as the face of the "slacker" generation: "Slacker my ass. I mean, I never had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive. That slacker stuff is for people who have the time to be depressed about everything."[9]

### Backlash and Odelay (1994–1997)

[edit]

Feeling as though he was "constantly trying to prove myself",[8] Beck suffered a backlash, with skeptics denouncing him as a self-indulgent fake and the latest marketing opportunity.[27] In the summer of 1994, Beck was struggling and many of his fellow musicians thought he had lost his way.[4] Combined with "Loser"'s wildly popular music video and the world tour, Beck reacted believing the attention could not last, resulting in a status as a "one-hit wonder". At other concerts, crowds were treated to twenty minutes of reggae or Miles Davis or jazz-punk iterations of "Loser".[13] At one-day festivals in California, he surrounded himself with an artnoise combo. The drummer set fire to his cymbals; the lead guitarist "played" his guitar with the strings faced towards his body; and Beck changed the words to "Loser" so that nobody could sing along.[4] "I can't tell you how many times I was looking at faces that were looking back at me with complete bewilderment—or just pointing and shaking their heads and laughing—while performing during that period," he later recalled.[28] Despite this, Beck gained the respect of his peers, such as Tom Petty and Johnny Cash, and created an entire wave of bands determined to recapture the Mellow Gold sound.[29] Feeling his previous releases were just collections of demos recorded over the course of several years, Beck desired to enter the studio and record an album in a continuous linear fashion, which became Odelay.[28]

Beck blends country, blues, rap, jazz and rock on Odelay, the result of a year and half of feverish "cutting, pasting, layering, dubbing, and, of course, sampling".[11] Each day, the musicians started from scratch,[30] often working on songs for 16 hours straight.[11] Odelay's conception lies in an unfinished studio album Beck first embarked on following the success of "Loser", chronicling the difficult time he experienced: "There was a cycle of everyone dying around me," he recalled later.[29] He was constantly recording, and eventually put together an album of somber, orchestrated folk tunes; one that, perhaps, "could have been a commercial blockbuster along with similarly themed work by Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana".[29] Instead, Beck plucked one song from it—the Odelay album closer "Ramshackle"—and shelved the rest ("Brother" and "Feather In Your Cap" were, however, later released as B-sides).[4][29] Beck was introduced to the Dust Brothers, producers of the Beastie Boys' album Paul's Boutique, whose cut-and-paste, sample-heavy production suited Beck's vision of a more fun, accessible album.[citation needed] After a record executive explained that Odelay would be a "huge mistake", he spent many months thinking "that I'd blown it forever".[13]

Odelay was released on June 18, 1996, to commercial success and critical acclaim. The record produced several hit singles including "Where It's At", "Devils Haircut", and "The New Pollution",[31] and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1997, winning a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album as well as a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for "Where It's At". During one busy week in January 1997, he landed his Grammy nominations, appeared on Saturday Night Live and Howard Stern, and did a last-minute trot on The Rosie O'Donnell Show. The combined buzz gave Odelay a second wind, leading to an expanded fan base and additional exposure[18] Beck enjoyed but, like several executives at Geffen, was bewildered by the success of Odelay. He would often get recognized in public, which made him feel strange. "It's just weird. It doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel natural to me. I don't think I was made for that. I was never good at that," he later told Pitchfork.[28] Odelay sold two million copies and put "one-hit wonder" criticisms to rest. During this time, he contributed the song "Deadweight" to the soundtrack of the film A Life Less Ordinary (1997).[32]

### Mutations and Midnite Vultures (1998–2001)

[edit]

Beck in Hamburg, 2000

Having not been in a proper studio since "Deadweight", Beck felt anxious to "go in and just do some stuff real quick", and compiled several songs he had had for years.[32] Beck and his bandmates wrote songs in fourteen days, although just twelve made it onto the album, 1998's Mutations.[32] Beck hired the producer Nigel Godrich, who had produced Radiohead's 1997 album OK Computer.[32] Godrich was leaving the United States for England in a short time, which led to the album's quick production schedule—"No looking back, no doctoring anything."[32] The whole point of the record was to capture the performance of the musicians live, an uncharacteristic far-cry from the cut-and-paste aesthetic of Odelay.[32] Though the album was originally slated for release by Bong Load Records, Geffen intervened and issued the record against Beck's wishes.[33][34] The artist then sought to void his contracts with both record labels, and in turn the labels sued him for breach of contract. The litigation went on for years and it remains unclear to this day if it has ever been completely resolved.[35] Beck was later awarded Best Alternative Music Performance for Mutations at the 42nd Grammy Awards.[36]

Midnite Vultures, Beck's next studio effort, was originally recorded as a double album, and more than 25 nearly completed songs were left behind.[28] In the studio, Beck and producers studied contemporary hip hop and R&B, specifically R. Kelly, in order to embrace and incorporate those influences in the way Al Green and Stax records had done in previous decades.[28] In July 1998, a core group began to assemble at Beck's Pasadena home: bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen, keyboardist Roger Joseph Manning Jr., and producer-engineers Mickey Petralia and Tony Hoffer.[30] Dozens of session players passed through including Beck's father, David Campbell, who played viola and arranged some of the strings. The musicians held communal meals and mountain-bike rides on dusty trails nearby, but remained focused on Beck's instructions: to make an up-tempo album that would be fun to play on tour night after night.[30] "I had so many things going on", said Beck of the recording process. "I had a couple of rooms of computers hooked up, I was doing B sides for Japan, I was programming beats in one room and someone would be cooking dinner in the other room."[30] In November 1999, Geffen released the much-anticipated Midnite Vultures,[37] which attracted confusion: "fans and critics misguidedly worried whether it was serious or a goof," and as a result, The New York Times wrote that the album "never won the audience it deserved".[38] The record was supported by an extensive world tour. For Beck, it was a return to the high-energy performances that had been his trademark as far back as Lollapalooza. The live stage set included a red bed that descended from the ceiling for the song "Debra", and the touring band was complemented by a brass section.[39] Midnite Vultures was nominated for Best Album at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards.[40]

### Sea Change (2002–2003)

[edit]

In 2000, Beck and his fiancée, stylist Leigh Limon, ended their nine-year relationship.[41] Beck lapsed into a period of melancholy and introspection, during which he wrote the bleak, acoustic-based tracks later found on Sea Change.[42] Beck sat on the songs, not wanting to talk about his personal life; he later said that he wanted to focus on music and "not really strew my baggage across the public lobby". Eventually, however, he decided the songs spoke to a common experience, and that it would not seem self-indulgent to record them.[43] In 2001, Beck drifted back to the songs and called Godrich.[44]

Retailers initially predicted that the album would not receive much radio support, but they also believed that Beck's maverick reputation and critical acclaim, in addition to the possibility of multiple Grammy nominations, might offset Sea Change's noncommercial sound.[43] Sea Change, issued by Geffen in September 2002, was regardless a commercial hit and critical darling,[38] with Rolling Stone revering it as "the best album Beck has ever made, [...] an impeccable album of truth and light from the end of love. This is his Blood on the Tracks."[45] The album was later listed by the magazine as one of the best records of the decade and of all time, and it also placed second on the year's Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Sea Change yielded a low-key, theater-based acoustic tour, as well as a larger tour with The Flaming Lips as Beck's opening and backing band.[46][47] Beck was playful and energetic, sometimes throwing in covers of The Rolling Stones, Big Star, The Zombies and The Velvet Underground.[45][48]

Following the release of Sea Change, Beck felt newer compositions were sketches for something more evolved in the same direction, and wrote nearly 35 more songs in the coming months, keeping demos of them on tapes in a suitcase.[28] During his solo tour, the tapes were left backstage during a stop in Washington, D.C., and Beck was never able to recover them. It was disheartening to the musician, who felt the two years of songwriting represented something more technically complex. As a result, Beck took a break and wrote no original compositions in 2003.[28] Feeling as though it might take him a while to "get back to that [songwriting] territory", he entered the studio with Dust Brothers to complete a project that dated back to Odelay. Nearly half of the songs had existed since the 1990s.[28]

### Guero and The Information (2004–2007)

[edit]

Beck in 2005

Guero, Beck's ninth studio album, was recorded over the span of nine months during which several significant events occurred in his life: his girlfriend, Marissa Ribisi, became pregnant; they were married; their son, Cosimo, was born; and they moved out of Silver Lake.[38][49] The collaboration with the Dust Brothers, his second, was notable for their use of high-tech measures to achieve a lo-fi sound.[38] For example, after recording a "sonically perfect" version of a song at one of the nicest recording studios in Hollywood, the Dust Brothers processed it in an Echoplex to create a gritty, reverb-heavy sound: "We did this high-tech recording and ran it through a transistor radio. It sounded too good, that was the problem."[38] Initially due to be released in October 2004, Guero faced delays and did not come out until March 2005, though unmastered copies of the tracks surfaced online in January.[50]

Guero debuted at number two on the Billboard 200, selling 162,000 copies, an all-time sales high.[51] Lead single "E-Pro" peaked at number one at Modern Rock radio, making it his first chart-topper since "Loser".[52] Beck, inspired by the Nintendocore remix scene and feeling a connection with its lo-fi, home-recording method, collaborated with artists 8-Bit and Paza on Hell Yes, an EP issued in February 2005.[49] In December 2005, Geffen also issued Guerolito, a fully reworked version of Guero featuring remixes by the Beastie Boys' Ad-Rock, the Dust Brothers' John King and Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada.[49] Guerolito combines remixes previously heard as B-sides and new versions of album tracks to make a track-by-track reconfiguration of the album.[49] Also released in 2005 was A Brief Overview, a 12-track promotional-only "History of Beck" compilation CD sampler that featured a combination of older and newer Beck tracks.[53]

Beck in 2006

The Information, Beck's tenth studio album, began production around the same time as Guero, in 2003. Working again with Godrich, Beck built a studio in his garden, where they wrote many of the tracks.[54] "The idea was to get people in a room together recording live, hitting bad notes and screaming," said Beck, adding that the album is best described as "introspective hip hop".[55] Beck described the recording process as "painful", noting that he edited down songs constantly and he perhaps recorded the album three times.[56] For the release, Beck was allowed for the first time to fulfill a long-running wish for an unconventional rollout: he made low-budget videos to accompany each song, packaged the CD with sheets of stickers so buyers could customize the cover, and leaked tracks and videos on his website months ahead of the album's release.[54][57] Digital download releases automatically downloaded the song's additional video for each single sale, and physical copies came bundled with an additional DVD featuring fifteen videos.[54]

### Modern Guilt, production work, Record Club and Song Reader (2008–2013)

[edit]

In 2007, Beck released the single "Timebomb", which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance.[58] For his next studio effort, his tenth, Beck tapped Danger Mouse to produce, and the two first met in December 2007 to record. The duo knocked out two tracks in two days, but the notion that the album would be finished in a timely fashion soon evaporated.[58] Beck had known Danger Mouse casually before, as many of his former musicians ended up working with Danger Mouse's side project, Gnarls Barkley. Still, the musicians were surprised at how well they got along.[59] Following the grueling recording schedule, Beck was exhausted, calling it "the most intense work I've ever done on anything", relating that he "did at least 10 weeks with no days off, until four or five in the morning every night."[59] Beck's original vision was a short 10-track burst with two-minute songs, but the songs gradually grew as he fit 'two years of songwriting into two and a half months."[59] Modern Guilt (2008) was "full of off-kilter rhythms and left-field breakdowns, with an overall 1960s vibe."[59]

Modern Guilt was the final release in Beck's contract with Geffen Records. Beck, then 38, had held the contract since his early 20s.[58][59] Released from his label contract and going independent, Beck began working more heavily on his own seven-year-old label, which went through a variety of names.[28] He focused on smaller, more quixotic projects,[13] and moonlighted as a producer, working with artists such as Charlotte Gainsbourg, Thurston Moore and Stephen Malkmus.[28] Beck worked for five or six days a week at the small studio on his property in Malibu, and founded Record Club, a project whereby an entire classic album—by The Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, INXS, Yanni—would be covered by another singer in the span of a single day.[13] Beck provided four songs for the film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), each attributed to the title character's fictional band, Sex Bob-Omb.[60] Beck also collaborated with Philip Glass,[61] Jack White,[62] Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow,[63] Jamie Lidell,[64] Seu Jorge,[65] Childish Gambino,[66] and The Lonely Island.[67]

Beck performing in 2013

Song Reader, a project Beck released in December 2012, is 20 songs presented only as sheet music, in the hopes that enterprising musicians will record their own versions.[68] The idea of Song Reader came about nearly fifteen years prior, shortly after the release of Odelay.[13] When sent a book of transcribed sheet music for that album, Beck decided to play through it and grew interested in the world before recorded sound. He aimed to keep the arrangements as open as possible, to re-create the simplicity of the standards, and became preoccupied with creating only pieces that could fit within the Great American Songbook.[13] In 2013 Beck began playing special Song Reader concerts with a variety of guests and announced he was working on a record of Song Reader material with other musicians as well as possibly a compilation of fan versions.[69]

In the summer of 2013, Beck was reported to be working on two new studio albums: one a more self-contained acoustic disc in the vein of One Foot in the Grave and another described as a "proper follow-up" to Modern Guilt.[70] Beck expected to release both albums independently, and released three standalone singles over the course of the year: the electro ballad "Defriended", the chorus-heavy "I Won't Be Long", and finally "Gimme".[70][71][72] In October 2013, Beck signed to Capitol Records.[73]

### Morning Phase, Colors, Hyperspace (2014–2022)

[edit]

In January, Beck released the lead single "Blue Moon" from his twelfth studio album, Morning Phase.[74] A second single "Waking Light" was also released a week prior to the official release of Morning Phase on February 21, 2014.[75][76][77] For the recording of the album, Beck reunited with many of the same musicians with whom he had worked on the critically acclaimed 2002 album Sea Change, and likely because of this, it has been noted that the two albums share a similar mood and genre.[78]

On February 8, 2015, at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Morning Phase won three Grammys: Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical; Best Rock Album; and Album of the Year.[79] Upon receiving the Album of the Year award, the album beat out Pharrell Williams's G I R L, Beyoncé's self-titled album, Sam Smith's In the Lonely Hour, and Ed Sheeran's x.[80]

Beck in October 2018

In June 2015, Beck released "Dreams", the first single for his next album.[81] The next June, he released the next single, "Wow".[82] On September 8, 2017, Beck released the single "Dear Life", which was followed up with the official release of "Up All Night" on September 18.[83][84] The album, Colors, was released on October 13, 2017. It was recorded at co-executive producer Greg Kurstin's Los Angeles studio, with Beck and Kurstin playing nearly every instrument themselves.[85] The experimental pop-fused record received generally positive reviews from critics.[86] On July 18, 2018, Beck performed the title track Colors, and the first single "Wow" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.[87]

On April 15, 2019, Beck released a single co-produced with Pharrell Williams titled "Saw Lightning" from his fourteenth studio album, titled Hyperspace.[88] The song "Dark Places" was released on November 6, with the album being released on November 22.[89]

### Recent activity (2022–present)

[edit]

On September 25, 2022, Beck released a cover of Neil Young's track "Old Man" to promote a Sunday Night Football game. The track was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance for the 65th Grammy Awards later in 2022.[90][91] A music video for the track would be released on December 8, 2022.[92] Following the commercial featuring the cover, Neil Young posted a still image from his 1988 music video for "This Note's For You", an anti-commercialization song in protest of the cover and commercial.[93]

Later on February 10, 2023, he released the song "Thinking About You", his first original solo-track since 2019's Hyperspace. A music video for the track would be released on February 20, 2023. It is currently unknown if this means a 15th studio album will be released in the upcoming future or not.[94] Many music critics have noted that it sounds like a return to the folk of Morning Phase and Sea Change.[95][96][94]

On June 21, 2023, Beck released the track "Odyssey" with French pop-rock band Phoenix, who did a co-headlining summer tour with Beck, which started in August and ended in September.[97][98][99][100]

## Collaborations and contributions

[edit]

Beck performs at Madison Square Garden with Jenny Lewis in 2018

Beck co-wrote and performed on the song "Flavor", from the 1994 Jon Spenser Blues Explosion album Orange.

In 1999, Beck contributed to a tribute album for Bruce Haack and Esther Nelson and their label Dimension 5 Records. The album, Dimension Mix, released in 2005, was a benefit for Cure Autism Now that was produced by Ross Harris, an early collaborator who designed the artwork for Mellow Gold.

On June 20, 2009, Beck announced that he was starting an experiment called Record Club, in which he and other musicians would record cover versions of entire albums in one day. The first album covered by Beck's Record Club was The Velvet Underground & Nico. Starting on June 18, the club began posting covers of songs from the album on Thursday evenings, each with its own video.[101] On September 4, 2009, Beck announced the second Record Club album, Songs of Leonard Cohen. Contributors included MGMT, Devendra Banhart, Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother and Binki Shapiro of Little Joy.[102] In the third Record Club venture, Wilco, Feist, Jamie Lidell and James Gadson joined Beck to cover Skip Spence's Oar. The first song, "Little Hands", was posted on Beck's website on November 12, 2009.[103] The Record Club has since covered albums by INXS and Yanni.

On June 19, 2009, Beck announced Planned Obsolescence, a weekly DJ set put together by Beck or guest DJs. Soon after, on July 7, Beck announced that his website would be featuring "extended informal conversations with musicians, artists, filmmakers, and other various persons" in a section called Irrelevant Topics. Then, on July 12, he added a section called Videotheque, which he said would contain "promotional videos from each album, as well as live clips, TV show appearances and other rarities". Also in 2009, Beck collaborated with Charlotte Gainsbourg on her album IRM, which was released in January 2010. Beck wrote the music, co-wrote the lyrics, and produced and mixed the album. The lead single, "Heaven Can Wait", is a duet by Beck and Gainsbourg.[104]

In late February 2010, it was announced that electronic artist Tobacco of Black Moth Super Rainbow had collaborated with Beck on two songs, "Fresh Hex" and "Grape Aerosmith", on his upcoming album Maniac Meat. Tobacco revealed that in making the album, Beck sent the vocal parts to him, and that they had never actually met.[citation needed] In March 2010, Beck revealed that he had produced songs for the new Jamie Lidell album, Compass.[105] In the summer of 2010, Beck contributed songs to both The Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack, with "Let's Get Lost" (a duet with Bat for Lashes),[106] and True Blood (HBO Original Series Soundtrack, Vol. 2), with "Bad Blood".[107] He also contributed songs to the soundtrack of Edgar Wright's film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which was released in August 2010.[108]

In 2011, he collaborated with Seu Jorge on a track titled "Tropicália (Mario C. 2011 Remix)" for the Red Hot Organization's charitable album Red Hot+Rio 2, a follow-up to the 1996 album Red Hot + Rio. Proceeds from the sales will be donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues.[109]

In October 2011, it was widely reported that Beck and producer Hector Castillo were collaborating with American composer Philip Glass to produce a remix album of the composer's works in honor of his 75th birthday.[110][111][112][113] The album, Rework Philip Glass Remixed, was released on October 23, 2012, to critical acclaim, and featured Beck as both a curator and a performer.[114][115] In particular, Pitchfork described Beck's 22-minute contribution to the album, "NYC: 73–78", as "a fantasia ... the most startling and original piece of music with Beck's name on it in a while, and the first new work to bear his own spirit in even longer."[116] Reflecting on Beck's contribution to the album, Glass remarked that he was "impressed by the novelty and freshness of a lot of the ideas".[117] Beyond his work as a performer, Beck acted as the album's curator, bringing together a diverse collection of artists—including Amon Tobin, Tyondai Braxton, Nosaj Thing, and Memory Tapes—whose work had also been influenced by Glass.[118][119] In December 2012, an interactive iPhone app titled "Rework_" was released to complement the album.[120][121]

Beck has contributed three new songs—"Cities", "Touch the People" and "Spiral Staircase"—to the video game Sound Shapes for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation Vita.[122] Beck collaborated on two songs for Childish Gambino's "Royalty" mixtape in 2012.[123] In 2014, Beck collaborated with Sia for the song "Moonquake Lake", which is featured in the soundtrack for the 2014 Annie film.[124]

In 2015, Beck collaborated with former Fun. frontman Nate Ruess on the single "What This World Is Coming To", which was one of the Grammy-winning artist's many works featured on his debut solo album Grand Romantic released in June 2015. He also collaborated with electronic dance music duo The Chemical Brothers on their album Born in the Echoes, providing lead vocals and also credited in writing for the track "Wide Open", released in July.[125] In 2016, Beck collaborated with French electronic music band M83, providing vocals for the song "Time Wind" from their album Junk. He was also featured on "Tiny Cities" by Flume. He also collaborated with Lady Gaga on the song "Dancin' in Circles", from her 2016 album Joanne.[126]

Also in 2016, during a pre-show for the Grammy Awards, Beck collaborated with the surviving members of the band Nirvana to play Nirvana's rendition of "The Man Who Sold the World" as a tribute to both David Bowie, who had died just 1 month earlier, and Kurt Cobain, the former lead singer of Nirvana.[127] Beck and Nirvana teamed up once again in 2020 for a fundraiser event, alongside St. Vincent and Dave Grohl's Daughter Violet Grohl.[128]

In 2017, Beck appeared in the multiple award-winning film The American Epic Sessions, directed by Bernard MacMahon. He recorded "14 Rivers, 14 Floods" backed by a full gospel choir, live onto the first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s.[129]

In 2021, Beck collaborated with Paul McCartney to make his hit single "Find My Way" on the album McCartney III Imagined.

In 2023, Beck collaborated with The Chemical Brothers for the second time on the song "Skipping like a Stone". This was the fourth single to be released from their album For That Beautiful Feeling.

In 2024, Beck appeared on the song, "Boom Boom Back" by the band, Hinds. The song is from the band's 2024 album, Viva Hinds. Later in July that year Beck also featured on the Orville Peck song "Death Valley High" off the latter's album Stampede. A music video for the song was also filmed and feature appearances from the two musicians as well as drag queen Gigi Goode and actress Sharon Stone.

## Musical style

[edit]

Beck's musical style has been considered alternative[130] and indie.[131] He has played many of the instruments in his music himself.[132] Beck has also done some remixes for fellow artists, notably David Bowie and Björk. He has been known to synthesize several musical elements together in his music, including folk, psychedelia, electronic, country, Latin music, hip hop, funk, soul, blues, noise music, jazz, art pop and many types of rock.[133][134] Because of this unconventional approach, Beck has been described as a postmodern musician.[135] He has also taken music from Los Angeles as a reference point in his songs.[133]

Pitchfork Media applauded Midnite Vultures, saying, "Beck wonderfully blends Prince, Talking Heads, Paul's Boutique, 'Shake Your Bon-Bon', and Mathlete on Midnite Vultures, his most consistent and playful album yet." The review commented that his mix of "goofy piety and ambiguous intent" helped the album.[136] A Beck song called "Harry Partch", a tribute to the composer of the same name and his "corporeal" music, employs Partch's 43-tone scale.[137]

## Art career

[edit]

During 1998, Beck's art collaborations with his grandfather Al Hansen were featured in an exhibition titled "Beck & Al Hansen: Playing With Matches", which showcased solo and collaborative collage, assemblage, drawing and poetry works.[138] The show toured from the Santa Monica Museum of Art to galleries in New York City and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Beck chose Winnipeg due to a family connection, as his grandfather gave their family stability through his work as a street car conductor in Winnipeg.[139] A catalog of the show was published by Plug in Editions/Smart Art Press.[140]

## Personal life

[edit]

Beck's nine-year relationship with designer Leigh Limon and their breakup is said to have inspired his 2002 album Sea Change.[141] He wrote most of the songs for the album one week after the breakup.[142] In April 2004, Beck married actress Marissa Ribisi, the twin sister of actor Giovanni Ribisi, shortly before the birth of their son.[143][144] Their daughter was born in 2007.[58] Beck filed for divorce from Ribisi on February 15, 2019.[145] Their divorce was finalized on September 3, 2021.[146]

Beck has described himself as both Jewish[7] and a Scientologist, but no longer identifies as the latter.[147][148] Through his parents, he has been involved in Scientology for most of his life; his ex-wife, Marissa, is also a second-generation Scientologist.[149] He publicly acknowledged his affiliation for the first time in a New York Times Magazine interview on March 6, 2005.[38][10] Beck disavowed previous reports of his being a Scientologist in a November 2019 interview with the Sydney Morning Herald and said, "I think there's a misconception that I'm a Scientologist. I'm not a Scientologist. I don't have any connection or affiliation with it."[148] He added that "I was raised celebrating Jewish holidays, and I consider myself Jewish."[150]

Beck's mother is artist/writer/performer Bibbe Hansen, a former Andy Warhol The Factory collaborator.[151][152] His siblings are fiber artist Channing Hansen (born in 1972 in Los Angeles)[153] and poet Rain Whittaker.[154][151]

Beck sustained a spinal injury while filming the music video for 2005's "E-Pro". The incident was severe enough to curtail his touring schedule for a few years, but he has since recovered.[69][155]

Beck primarily lived in Los Feliz, Los Angeles until 2022.[156] He owns properties in California, Tennessee, and Arkansas.[157]

## Appearances in media

[edit]

The 1986 punk rock musical film Population: 1, starred Tomata du Plenty of The Screamers and featured a young Beck in a small non-speaking role.[158] Beck also appears in Southlander (2001), an American independent film by Steve Hanft and Ross Harris.[159]

Beck has performed on Saturday Night Live seven times. During his 2006 performance in the Hugh Laurie episode, Beck was accompanied by the puppets that had been used onstage during his world tour. He has made two cameo appearances as himself on Saturday Night Live: one in a sketch about medicinal marijuana, and one in a VH1 Behind the Music parody that featured "Fat Albert & the Junkyard Gang".[160] Beck performed a guest voice as himself on Matt Groening's animated show Futurama, in the episode "Bendin' in the Wind".[161] He performed in episode 10 of the fourth season of The Larry Sanders Show, in which the producer character Artie (Rip Torn) referred to him as a "hillbilly from outer space".[162] He also made a very brief voice appearance in the 1998 cartoon feature film The Rugrats Movie,[163] and guest-starred as himself in a 1997 episode of Space Ghost Coast to Coast titled "Edelweiss".[164]

On January 22, 2010, Beck appeared on the last episode of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien as a backup guitarist for a Will Ferrell-led rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" alongside ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons, Ben Harper, and O'Brien himself on guitar.[165][166] On March 1, 2014, Beck was the musical guest on a Saturday Night Live episode hosted by Jim Parsons. Beck also appeared as himself in the 2017 film The Circle, giving a musical performance of the song "Dreams".

## Discography

[edit]

Main article: Beck discography

### Studio albums

[edit]

* Golden Feelings (1993)
* Stereopathetic Soulmanure (1994)
* Mellow Gold (1994)
* One Foot in the Grave (1994)
* Odelay (1996)
* Mutations (1998)
* Midnite Vultures (1999)
* Sea Change (2002)
* Guero (2005)
* The Information (2006)
* Modern Guilt (2008)
* Morning Phase (2014)
* Colors (2017)
* Hyperspace (2019)

## Awards and nominations

[edit]

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Beck

## See also

[edit]

* Rock music portal
* Biography portal

* List of people from Los Angeles
* List of singer-songwriters

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Rocking the Catskills". Jews Rock. Archived from the original on June 11, 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
2. ^ Martell, Nevin (2002). Beck: The Art of Mutation. Simon & Schuster. p. 1\. ISBN 9780743424486.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h George-Warren, Holly and Romanowski, Patricia. (2001). The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll. New York: Fireside, 1136 pp. First edition, 2001.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cavanagh, David (July 1997). "The Devil Inside". Q. London: Bauer Media Group. pp. 92–99.
5. ^ Davis, Vaginal (1999). "Bibbe Hansen, 1999". Indexmagazine.com. Archived from the original on March 8, 2007. Retrieved March 4, 2007.
6. ^ Higgins, Dick (June 30, 1995). "Obituary: Al Hansen". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on September 20, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
7. ^ a b McAlley, John (September 1, 2008). "Reverberation: The Beck Sessions (September 2008 cover story)". spin.com. Spin Magazine. Archived from the original on September 27, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
8. ^ a b c d Kemp, Mark (April 17, 1997). "Beck: The Rolling Stone Interview". Rolling Stone. No. 758\. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. pp. 58–64, 94, 97. ISSN 0035-791X.
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wild, David (April 21, 1994). "Meet Beck: The Unlikely Success Story of a Hip-Hop Folk Rocker". Rolling Stone. No. 680\. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. pp. 79–80\. ISSN 0035-791X. Archived from the original on August 6, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
10. ^ a b Petrusich, Amanda (November 25, 2019). "Beck Is Home". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Archived from the original on November 29, 2019. Retrieved November 29, 2019.
11. ^ a b c Dunn, Jancee (July 11, 1996). "Beck: Resident Alien". Rolling Stone. No. 738/739. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. pp. 50–51, 53. ISSN 0035-791X.
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Hochman, Steve (February 20, 1994). "Don't Get Bitter on Us, Beck". Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Lee, Dan P. (December 23, 2012). "Listening to Beck: The Artist on His New Album, Which Isn't Really an Album At All". New York. New York City: New York Media, LLC. ISSN 0028-7369. Archived from the original on May 30, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
14. ^ a b c Rotondi, James (September 1994). "Beck & Roger Manning: "Set Your Guitars and Banjos on Fire"". Guitar Player. Vol. 28, no. 9\. San Bruno: New Bay Media. pp. 113–116\. ISSN 0017-5463.
15. ^ Leibovitz, Annie. American Music. New York: Random House, 264 pp. First edition, 2003. ISBN 978-0-375-50507-2.
16. ^ Palacios, Julian. Beck: Beautiful Monstrosity, p.67. Boxtree, 2000. ISBN 978-0-7522-7143-9.
17. ^ Palacios 2000, p. 71
18. ^ a b Browne, David (February 14, 1997). "Beck in the High Life". Entertainment Weekly. No. 366\. New York City: Time Inc. pp. 32–35\. ISSN 1049-0434.
19. ^ Palacios 2000, p. 72
20. ^ a b c Palacios 2000, p. 77
21. ^ Palacios 2000, p. 74
22. ^ Hart, Ron (March 4, 2019). "Beck Producer Tom Rothrock Looks Back on 'Mellow Gold' & Its Unlikely Road to Success". Billboard. NYC. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
23. ^ Palacios 2000, p. 80
24. ^ a b c d Rosen, Craig (November 27, 1993). "Labels are at Beck's call; "Loser" may win deal for new artist". Billboard. Vol. 105, no. 48\. New York City: Prometheus Global Media. ISSN 0006-2510. Archived from the original on August 6, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
25. ^ "Beck—Artist Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved December 21, 2008.
26. ^ Palacios 2000, p. 84
27. ^ Lewman, Mark (April 8, 1994). ""Loser" Takes All". Entertainment Weekly. No. 217\. New York City: Time Inc. p. 14\. ISSN 1049-0434.
28. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dombal, Ryan (August 17, 2011). "Beck: 15 Years". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on June 27, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
29. ^ a b c d Brown, Mark (October 9, 1996). "Beck Lives Through the Hype That Would Have Killed Most Losers". The Orange County Register. Santa Ana: Freedom Communications. ISSN 0886-4934.
30. ^ a b c d Healy, Mark (December 9, 1999). "Beck: Notes on a Full-Grown Man". Rolling Stone. No. 827\. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. pp. 38–40\. ISSN 0035-791X.
31. ^ "Beck, Jamiroquai big winners at MTV Music Awards" Archived December 15, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. CNN, September 5, 1997
32. ^ a b c d e f DeCurtis, Anthony (November 26, 1998). "Q&A: Beck". Rolling Stone. No. 800\. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. p. 39\. ISSN 0035-791X.
33. ^ "Beck on top". Now. Archived from the original on January 20, 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
34. ^ "Beck to the Base". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on April 20, 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
35. ^ "Beck Battles Labels Over Business, Artistic Issues". MTV. May 4, 1999. Archived from the original on February 25, 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
36. ^ "The Grammys 2000; Other Winners". Los Angeles Times. February 24, 2000. Archived from the original on May 4, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
37. ^ "Midnite Vultures, Review". BBC. January 5, 2010. Archived from the original on February 13, 2011. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
38. ^ a b c d e f Lubow, Arthur (March 6, 2005). "Beck at a Certain Age". The New York Times. New York City. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on October 10, 2020. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
39. ^ "Beck Revives Soul of '70s, Singer Keeps Crowd Rocking". Los Angeles Daily News. May 8, 2000. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
40. ^ Boucher, Geoff (January 4, 2001). "The 43rd Annual Grammy Nominations; Grammys Cast a Wider Net Than Usual; Awards * Breaking recent tradition, the academy's nominations are spread out among many acts". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 4, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
41. ^ Paul Lester (September 29, 2002). "Beck to basics". The Age. Melbourne. Archived from the original on November 9, 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
42. ^ Jon Wiederhorn (September 26, 2002). "Beck Shoots For Feel-Good Acoustic Heartbreak LP". MTV News. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
43. ^ a b Issac Guzman (September 29, 2002). "Beck Checks in to Heartbreak Hotel". Daily News. New York.
44. ^ Josh Tyrangial (September 22, 2002). "Beck Gets (Kind of) Blue". Time. Archived from the original on October 27, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
45. ^ a b David Fricke (October 3, 2002). "Review: Sea Change, Beck". Rolling Stone. No. 906\. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. pp. 97–98\. ISSN 0035-791X. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
46. ^ Jon Wiederhorn (July 10, 2002). "Beck Previewing New Songs on Acoustic Tour". MTV News. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
47. ^ Jon Wiederhorn (August 14, 2002). "Beck's Plan For Keeping Everyone Awake: The Flaming Lips". MTV News. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
48. ^ Christina Fuoco (August 12, 2002). "Beck Gets The Giggles, White Stripes' Jack at Michigan Gig". MTV News. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
49. ^ a b c d Montgomery, James (October 19, 2005). "Beastie Boys, Dust Brothers Get Their Hands on Beck's Guero". MTV News. Archived from the original on April 8, 2008. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
50. ^ Perez, Rodrigo (January 19, 2005). "Finished Version of That Beck LP You Downloaded Due in March". MTV News. Archived from the original on January 15, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2008.
51. ^ "50's Massacre Staves Off Beck's Guero". MTV News. April 6, 2005. Archived from the original on September 14, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
52. ^ "Beck's GUERO Debuts at #2" (Press release). Los Angeles: PR Newswire. April 6, 2005. Archived from the original on November 6, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2013. "The numbers and critical acclaim have aligned: Beck's Guero entered the Top 200 albums at #2 today, representing an all-time sales high for the three-time Grammy winner."
53. ^ Beck (2005). "A Brief Overview". Archived from the original on January 31, 2019. Retrieved January 30, 2019.
54. ^ a b c Serpick, Evan (October 5, 2006). "Beck Breaks New Ground". Rolling Stone. No. 1010\. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. p. 16\. ISSN 0035-791X. Archived from the original on March 26, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
55. ^ "Fall Music Preview: Beck, The Information". Rolling Stone. No. 1008\. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. September 7, 2006. p. 32\. ISSN 0035-791X.
56. ^ "Beck's 'Painful' Album". BBC. October 2, 2006. Archived from the original on October 22, 2006. Retrieved October 16, 2006.
57. ^ Montgomery, James (June 26, 2006). "Beck Giving Fans Sticky Fingers With Quasi-Hip-Hop Album". MTV. Archived from the original on May 2, 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
58. ^ a b c d Itzkoff, Dave (July 6, 2008). "In a Chaotic Industry, Beck Abides". The New York Times. New York City. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 18, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
59. ^ a b c d e Edwards, Gavin (May 29, 2008). "Beck, Danger Mouse Craft '60s-Style Disc". Rolling Stone. No. 1053\. New York City. p. 20\. ISSN 0035-791X. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved July 12, 2013.
60. ^ Brittain, Jace (June 21, 2010). "Beck and Michael Cera team up on Scott Pilgrim soundtrack". Entertainment Weekly. New York City: Time Inc. ISSN 1049-0434. Archived from the original on January 2, 2014. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
61. ^ Battan, Carrie (October 3, 2012). "Listen to Beck's Epic 20-Minute Philip Glass Remix". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on July 13, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
62. ^ Battan, Carrie (May 23, 2012). "Beck to Release New Single on Jack White's Third Man Records, Hear Clips Now". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on July 6, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
63. ^ Breihan, Tom (February 19, 2010). "Beck to Guest on New Tobacco Album". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on June 15, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
64. ^ Fitzmaurice, Larry (May 10, 2011). "Listen: Beck Remixes Jamie Lidell". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
65. ^ Breihan, Tom (May 4, 2011). "Red Hot + Rio 2 Tropicália Tribute Compilation Tracklist Revealed, Collaborations Abound". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on July 9, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
66. ^ Hogan, Mark (May 31, 2012). "Even Beck Can't Save Childish Gambino's Messy 'Silk Pillow'". Spin. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
67. ^ Fitzmaurice, Larry (May 3, 2011). "Listen to Beck's Collab With the Lonely Island". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
68. ^ NPR staff (December 29, 2012). "Beck Explains Song Reader, An Album Fans Perform Themselves". NPR. Archived from the original on July 1, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
69. ^ a b "Beck Working on "Song Reader" Record; Reveals "Morning Phase" Details". The Future Heart. November 21, 2013. Archived from the original on November 24, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
70. ^ a b "Beck Planning Two New Albums; Listen to New Song 'Defriended'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 11, 2013. Retrieved July 10, 2013.
71. ^ "Beck Hands Out New Song 'I Won't Be Long'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on July 5, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2013.
72. ^ Nephilim (September 18, 2013). "Gimme: il nuovo sorprendente singolo di Beck (anteprima audio)" [Gimme: the amazing new single by Beck (Audio Preview)] (in Italian). Radio Musik. Archived from the original on September 21, 2013. Retrieved September 18, 2013.
73. ^ Itzkoff, Dave (October 29, 2013). "Beck to Release New Album After Signing With Capitol Records". The New York Times. Retrieved November 4, 2023.
74. ^ "Blue Moon: Beck". Amazon. January 20, 2014. Archived from the original on January 30, 2014. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
75. ^ "Waking Light: Beck". Amazon. February 4, 2014. Archived from the original on February 5, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
76. ^ Minsker, Evan (February 4, 2014). "Listen: Beck: "Waking Light"". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on February 7, 2014. Retrieved February 4, 2014.
77. ^ "Morning Phase: Beck". Amazon. February 25, 2014. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved March 2, 2014.
78. ^ "Why Beck's 'Morning Phase' Is Already Among the Best Albums of 2014 " Radio.com News". News.radio.com. November 26, 2013. Archived from the original on January 5, 2014. Retrieved February 24, 2014.
79. ^ "Beck Wins Album of the Year Grammy, Kanye Runs on Stage". Pitchfork. February 8, 2015. Archived from the original on May 24, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
80. ^ "Awards". GRAMMY.com. April 30, 2017. Archived from the original on February 13, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
81. ^ Anderson, Trevor (June 15, 2015). "Beck Returns to Funk With 'Dreams' From Upcoming Album". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 14, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
82. ^ Black, Julia (June 2, 2016). "Beck's New Album Will Sound Nothing Like His Grammy-Winning Morning Phase". Esquire. Archived from the original on November 30, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
83. ^ Monroe, Jazz; Wicks, Amanda (August 24, 2017). "Beck Shares New Song "Dear Life": Listen". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on October 16, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
84. ^ Reed, Ryan (September 6, 2017). "Watch Beck's Hallucinatory Video for Slick New Song 'Up All Night'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on September 12, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
85. ^ Greene, Andy (August 11, 2017). "Beck Talks 'Complex' New Pop Opus 'Colors'". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 14, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
86. ^ "Reviews and Tracks for Colors by Beck". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 17, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
87. ^ "Beck Gives Electrifying Performances of 'Colors' & 'Wow' on 'The Late Show': Watch". Billboard. Archived from the original on July 20, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2018.
88. ^ Bote, Joshua (April 15, 2019). "Listen: Beck and Pharrell Team Up For 'Saw Lightning'". NPR. Archived from the original on April 25, 2019. Retrieved April 25, 2019.
89. ^ Kaufman, Gil (November 7, 2019). "Beck Goes to Some Seriously 'Dark Places' on Meditative 'Hyperspace' Song: Listen". Billboard. Archived from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved November 9, 2019.
90. ^ "Beck Gives a New Shine to Old Man". Rolling Stone Australia. December 13, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
91. ^ "Beck Covers Neil Young's "Old Man": Listen". Stereogum. September 26, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
92. ^ Peacock, Tim (December 9, 2022). "Beck Shares Performance Video For His Cover Of Neil Young's 'Old Man'". uDiscover Music. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
93. ^ "Neil Young Takes A Shot At Beck's "Old Man" Cover Appearing In An NFL Commercial". Stereogum. September 27, 2022. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
94. ^ a b Kreps, Daniel (February 10, 2023). "Beck Gets Back Into His Morning Phase on New Song 'Thinking About You'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
95. ^ "BECK "THINKING ABOUT YOU" NEW SINGLE OUT NOW". Umusic. Archived from the original on April 23, 2023. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
96. ^ lewis, scott (February 8, 2023). "Beck Shares New Acoustic Standalone Single 'Thinking About You'". Indie88. Retrieved April 23, 2023.[permanent dead link]
97. ^ "Beck and Phoenix Team Up for New Song "Odyssey"". Pitchfork. June 21, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
98. ^ Paul, Larisha (January 23, 2023). "Beck and Phoenix Share Dates for 2023 Co-Headlining 'Summer Odyssey' Tour". Rolling Stone. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
99. ^ Geraghty, Hollie (June 21, 2023). "Beck and Phoenix share collaborative single 'Odyssey'". NME. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
100. ^ "Beck, Phoenix Team Up for Sparkling New Song 'Odyssey'". Yahoo Entertainment. June 21, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
101. ^ "Beck Hansen on Vimeo". Vimeo.com. Archived from the original on September 16, 2009. Retrieved September 1, 2009.
102. ^ Lindsay, Andrew. "Beck, MGMT & Banhart cover Leonard Cohen". stereokill.net. Archived from the original on February 14, 2010. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
103. ^ "Beck and Wilco Cover Skip Spence". Pitchfork. July 22, 2009. Archived from the original on September 17, 2009. Retrieved September 1, 2009.
104. ^ "New Charlotte Gainsbourg (With Beck): 'IRM'". Pitchfork Media. October 9, 2009. Archived from the original on January 26, 2010. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
105. ^ "Beck To Produce New Jamie Lidell". idiomag. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
106. ^ Breihan, Tom (June 25, 2010). "Let's Get Lost" by Beck / Bash for Lashes Review". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on October 26, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
107. ^ Stosuy, Brandon (May 24, 2010). "Beck – "Bad Blood". Stereogum. Archived from the original on October 26, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
108. ^ Wilkinson, Matt (June 23, 2010). "Beck records new material for 'Scott Pilgrim' soundtrack". NME. Archived from the original on October 26, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
109. ^ Adams, Gregory (May 4, 2011). "Red Hot + Rio 2 Reveals Tracklisting Featuring Beck, Beirut, David Byrne". Exclaim!. Archived from the original on August 29, 2011. Retrieved August 26, 2011.
110. ^ Michaels, Sean (October 18, 2011). "Philip Glass, Beck (musician), Music, Pop and rock (Music genre), Classical music (Music genre), Electronic music (Music genre), Culture". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on April 10, 2017. Retrieved December 14, 2016.
111. ^ Rao, Mallika (October 17, 2011). "Beck Is Remixing Philip Glass Songs". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on April 10, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
112. ^ [1] Archived April 26, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
113. ^ "Beck And Producer Hector Castillo Putting Together Tribute Remix Album in Honor of Philip Glass | FEELguide | Film, Music, Design, Science, Style, Psychology, and More". FEELguide. October 19, 2011. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
114. ^ "Details of Beck-Inspired Philip Glass Remix Album Announced | News". Pitchfork. August 7, 2012. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
115. ^ Nicole Oran (August 9, 2012). "Beck's Philip Glass Remix Album Set for October Release :: Music :: News :: Paste". Pastemagazine.com. Archived from the original on November 1, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
116. ^ "Philip Glass: "73 – 78 (Beck Remix)" | Tracks". Pitchfork. October 9, 2012. Archived from the original on October 23, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
117. ^ "Beck & Philip Glass". Dazed Digital. October 14, 2013. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
118. ^ "Behind The Release: Philip Glass Rework : SonicScoop – Creative, Technical & Business Connections For NYC's Music & Sound Community". Sonicscoop.com. January 24, 2013. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
119. ^ "Rework: Beck and Others Remix the Music of Philip Glass for the Iconic Composer's 75th Birthday". Brain Pickings. October 23, 2012. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
120. ^ "A Magical App For Exploring A Philip Glass Remix By Beck | Co. Design | business + design". Fastcodesign.com. December 12, 2012. Archived from the original on July 22, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
121. ^ Mark Teo (March 5, 2013). "APP OF THE MONTH: Rework_, a whole new way to enjoy Philip Glass's music". Aux.tv. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
122. ^ "Beck – "Cities," "Spiral Staircase," & "Touch The People" – Stereogum". Stereogum. August 14, 2012. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
123. ^ "Even Beck Can't Save Childish Gambino's Messy 'Silk Pillow'". SPIN. May 31, 2012. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved April 5, 2018.
124. ^ Rigby, Sam (October 23, 2014). "Sia and Beck Join Stars on Annie Movie Soundtrack". digitalspy.com. Digital Spy. Archived from the original on November 4, 2014. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
125. ^ Kreps, Daniel (January 25, 2016). "Chemical Brothers Continue Robot Fascination With Beck Collabo Video". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 26, 2017. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
126. ^ Browne, David (October 18, 2016). "Lady Gaga's 'Joanne': Mark Ronson on Producing 'Raw and Exposed' New Album". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on October 19, 2016. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
127. ^ Shepherd, Jack (February 16, 2016). "Surviving members of Nirvana team up with Beck to cover David Bowie's 'Man Who Sold The World'". The Independent. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
128. ^ Chan, Tim (January 5, 2020). "Dave Grohl Reunites With Nirvana Members For Special Performance". Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
129. ^ "The Long-Lost, Rebuilt Recording Equipment That First Captured the Sound of America". WIRED. Archived from the original on December 30, 2017. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
130. ^ "Beck, Braxton, Babyface Share Grammy Wealth". MTV. February 27, 1997. Archived from the original on February 14, 2008. Retrieved May 6, 2008.
131. ^ Hochman, Steve (February 27, 2005). "Old school night for 'The O.C.'". Los Angeles Times. p. E47.
132. ^ "The Information review". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 22, 2008. Retrieved May 6, 2008.
133. ^ a b Beato, Greg (March 28, 2005). "White-Boy Shuffle". New York. Archived from the original on June 26, 2008. Retrieved May 6, 2008.
134. ^ Holden, Stephen (February 28, 1999). "MUSIC; They're Recording, but Are They Artists?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2019.
135. ^ Moon, Tom (October 20, 2017). "'Colors' continues Beck's postmodern pastiche". NPR. Retrieved September 24, 2022.
136. ^ "Midnite Vultures review". Pitchfork Media. Archived from the original on April 6, 2008. Retrieved May 6, 2008.
137. ^ Beck.com Beck salutes Harry Partch Archived January 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
138. ^ "Playing with Matches". Stewoo. Archived from the original on May 9, 2008. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
139. ^ "Q&A: Why Beck nearly quit making albums". October 12, 2017. Archived from the original on September 26, 2022. Retrieved September 26, 2022.
140. ^ McKenna, Kristine (May 3, 1998). "ART; Beck's First Sampling; The pop star learned about collage from his larger-than life grandfather, Al Hansen. A Santa Monica show connects their careers". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 4, 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2008.
141. ^ "Guess I'm Doing Fine". Salon.com. October 2, 2002. Archived from the original on December 27, 2007.
142. ^ "Beck Gets (Kind of) Blue". Time. September 22, 2002. Archived from the original on October 27, 2011. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
143. ^ "Beck Marries Marissa Ribisi". United Press International. April 20, 2004. Retrieved April 26, 2008.[dead link]
144. ^ "Beck Expecting Baby No. 2?". Spin. October 18, 2006. Archived from the original on May 31, 2015. Retrieved July 13, 2008.
145. ^ "Singer Beck Files for Divorce From Wife of 14 Years". The Blast. February 15, 2019. Archived from the original on February 16, 2019. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
146. ^ "Beck Finalizes Divorce from Wife Marissa Ribisi as Couple Divvies Up Possessions — Including Banksys". People. September 8, 2021. Retrieved October 2, 2021. "The musician's divorce from wife Marissa Ribisi was finalized on Sept. 3, more than two years after he first filed for divorce in February 2019 after nearly 15 years of marriage"
147. ^ Dunphy, Neil (June 12, 2005). "A sort of homecoming". tribune.ie. Sunday Tribune. Archived from the original on September 15, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2014. "'Yeah, I'm a Scientologist,' Beck resumes…"
148. ^ a b "'I think there's a misconception': musician Beck on Scientology". The Sydney Morning Herald. November 22, 2019. Archived from the original on November 22, 2019. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
149. ^ "Scientologists Beck & Marissa Ribisi had their second child, daughter Tuesday in June 2007". Celebrific. Archived from the original on November 21, 2007.
150. ^ Trepany, Charles. "Beck says he's not a Scientologist after all: 'I think there's a misconception'". Usatoday.com. Archived from the original on November 27, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
151. ^ a b "Bio – Welcome". Bibbe.com.
152. ^ "Andy Warhol Superstars". Warholstars.org.
153. ^ "Channing Hansen". Stephenfriedman.com.
154. ^ ""Lydia Lunch and Bibbe Hansen (aka Beck's Mom) to Read at Spotty Dog"". The Rogovoy Report. February 16, 2016.
155. ^ "Beck Details Spinal Injury That Nearly Ended His Touring Career". Rolling Stone. March 14, 2014. Archived from the original on August 13, 2017. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
156. ^ "Beck asks $2.95 million for musician-friendly home in los Feliz". Los Angeles Times. August 31, 2022.
157. ^ Natalie, Britney (August 25, 2023). "Now That's 'Where It's At': Rent Beck's Arkansas Ranch House for Just $1,250 a Month". SF Gate. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
158. ^ "AgitPop and Cult Epics present Population: 1". Population1movie.com. Archived from the original on January 14, 2019. Retrieved September 1, 2009.
159. ^ Gordon, Jeremy (May 10, 2016). "Beck, Elliott Smith-Starring Cult Classic Southlander Gets Reissue". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on October 16, 2017. Retrieved October 16, 2017.
160. ^ Ryan, Maureen (October 30, 2006). "Bright spots scarce on 'SNL'". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on July 7, 2008. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
161. ^ "Futurama Volume Three DVD". Sci Fi. May 3, 2004. Archived from the original on July 1, 2008. Retrieved April 26, 2008.
162. ^ "Beck: 'Gamma Ray'". LastBroadcast.co.uk. August 11, 2008. Archived from the original on May 4, 2009. Retrieved September 1, 2009.
163. ^ IMDB entry for The Rugrats Movie full cast & crew Archived September 27, 2016, at the Wayback Machine.
164. ^ IMDB entry for "Edelweiss" Archived February 8, 2017, at the Wayback Machine.
165. ^ Roberts, Soraya (January 23, 2010). "Will Ferrell and wife Viveca Paulin perform 'Free Bird' with Conan O'Brien on last 'Tonight Show'". New York Daily News. New York. Archived from the original on January 26, 2010. Retrieved November 21, 2010.
166. ^ Leo, Alex (January 23, 2010). "Will Ferrell Sings Free Bird on Conan's Last Show (VIDEO)". The Huffington Post. New York. Archived from the original on June 22, 2016. Retrieved May 6, 2013.

## External links

[edit]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (April 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

Beck at Wikipedia's sister projects

* Media from Commons
* Quotations from Wikiquote
* Data from Wikidata

* Official website
* Beck discography at Discogs
* Beck at AllMusic
* Beck at IMDb
* Diskobox, comprehensive discography
* Whiskeyclone.net, large, informative Beck site
* Beck at Rolling Stone

* v
* t
* e

Beck

Studio albums|

* Golden Feelings
* Stereopathetic Soulmanure
* Mellow Gold
* One Foot in the Grave
* Odelay
* Mutations
* Midnite Vultures
* Sea Change
* Guero
* The Information
* Modern Guilt
* Morning Phase
* Colors
* Hyperspace

Remix albums|

* Guerolito

EPs|

* A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight
* Beck
* Paisley Park Sessions

Compilations|

* Stray Blues

Official singles|

| Album|

* "Loser"
* "Pay No Mind (Snoozer)"
* "Beercan"
* "It's All in Your Mind"
* "Where It's At"
* "Devils Haircut"
* "The New Pollution"
* "Sissyneck"
* "Jack-Ass"
* "Tropicalia"
* "Cold Brains"
* "Nobody's Fault but My Own"
* "Sexx Laws"
* "Mixed Bizness"
* "Nicotine & Gravy"
* "Lost Cause"
* "Guess I'm Doing Fine"
* "E-Pro"
* "Girl"
* "Hell Yes"
* "Cellphone's Dead"
* "Nausea"
* "Think I'm in Love"
* "Chemtrails"
* "Gamma Ray"
* "Youthless"
* "Blue Moon"
* "Waking Light"
* "Say Goodbye"
* "Heart Is a Drum"
* "Dreams"
* "Wow"
* "Up All Night"
* "Saw Lightning"
* "Uneventful Days"
* "Dark Places"
* "Everlasting Nothing"

|

Non-album|

* "Deadweight"
* "Timebomb"
* "Looking for a Sign"
* "I Just Started Hating Some People Today"
* "Defriended"
* "Odyssey"

Other singles|

| Promotional|

* "Orphans"
* "Wave"

|

Featured|

* "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?"
* "Heaven Can Wait"
* "The Valley of the Pagans"

Other notable songs|

| As performer|

* "Fuckin with My Head (Mountain Dew Rock)"
* "Truckdrivin Neighbors Downstairs (Yellow Sweat)"
* "Steal My Body Home"
* "Broken Train"
* "Debra"
* "Diamond Dogs"
* "I'm So Glad"
* "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime"

|

As writer|

* "Feel Good Time"

Other projects|

| Collaborations|

* Record Club
* Song Reader
* Song Reader: The Musical

|

Albums as producer|

* Conquest EP
* Kissin Time
* IRM
* Mirror Traffic
* Demolished Thoughts
* Stage Whisper
* 3 Pears
* Wig Out at Jagbags

See also|

* Discography
* Awards and nominations
* "Bendin' in the Wind"
* Dust Brothers
* Nigel Godrich
* Danger Mouse
* Deconstructing Beck

Family|

* Marissa Ribisi (ex-wife)
* David Campbell (father)
* Bibbe Hansen (mother)
* Al Hansen (grandfather)
* Giovanni Ribisi (ex-brother-in-law)

Awards for Beck

* v
* t
* e

Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist

* Michael Jackson (1989)
* Michael Hutchence (1991)
* Lenny Kravitz (1994)
* Prince (1995)
* Prince (1996)
* Beck (1997)
* Jon Bon Jovi (1998)
* Beck (1999)
* Beck (2000)
* Eminem (2001)
* Shaggy (2002)
* Eminem (2003)
* Justin Timberlake (2004)
* Eminem (2005)
* Kanye West (2006)
* Justin Timberlake (2007)
* Kanye West (2008)
* Kanye West (2009)
* Jay-Z (2010)
* CeeLo Green (2011)
* Bruno Mars (2012)
* Frank Ocean (2013)
* Bruno Mars (2014)
* Pharrell Williams (2015)
* Justin Bieber (2016)
* Drake (2017)
* Kendrick Lamar (2018)
* Drake (2019)
* Tyler, the Creator (2020)
* The Weeknd (2021)

* v
* t
* e

Grammy Award for Album of the Year

1950s|

* The Music from Peter Gunn – Henry Mancini (1959)

1960s|

* Come Dance with Me! – Frank Sinatra (1960)
* The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart – Bob Newhart (1961)
* Judy at Carnegie Hall – Judy Garland (1962)
* The First Family – Vaughn Meader (1963)
* The Barbra Streisand Album – Barbra Streisand (1964)
* Getz/Gilberto – Stan Getz & João Gilberto (1965)
* September of My Years – Frank Sinatra (1966)
* A Man and His Music – Frank Sinatra (1967)
* Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles (1968)
* By the Time I Get to Phoenix – Glen Campbell (1968)

1970s|

* Blood, Sweat & Tears – Blood, Sweat & Tears (1970)
* Bridge over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel (1971)
* Tapestry – Carole King (1972)
* The Concert for Bangladesh – George Harrison & Friends (1973)
* Innervisions – Stevie Wonder (1974)
* Fulfillingness' First Finale – Stevie Wonder (1975)
* Still Crazy After All These Years – Paul Simon (1976)
* Songs in the Key of Life – Stevie Wonder (1977)
* Rumours – Fleetwood Mac (1978)
* Saturday Night Fever – Various Artists (1979)

1980s|

* 52nd Street – Billy Joel (1980)
* Christopher Cross – Christopher Cross (1981)
* Double Fantasy – John Lennon & Yoko Ono (1982)
* Toto IV – Toto (1983)
* Thriller – Michael Jackson (1984)
* Can't Slow Down – Lionel Richie (1985)
* No Jacket Required – Phil Collins (1986)
* Graceland – Paul Simon (1987)
* The Joshua Tree – U2 (1988)
* Faith – George Michael (1989)

1990s|

* Nick of Time – Bonnie Raitt (1990)
* Back on the Block – Quincy Jones and Various Artists (1991)
* Unforgettable... with Love – Natalie Cole (1992)
* Unplugged – Eric Clapton (1993)
* The Bodyguard – Whitney Houston (1994)
* MTV Unplugged – Tony Bennett (1995)
* Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette (1996)
* Falling into You – Celine Dion (1997)
* Time Out of Mind – Bob Dylan (1998)
* The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill – Lauryn Hill (1999)

2000s|

* Supernatural – Santana (2000)
* Two Against Nature – Steely Dan (2001)
* O Brother, Where Art Thou? – Various Artists (2002)
* Come Away with Me – Norah Jones (2003)
* Speakerboxxx/The Love Below – Outkast (2004)
* Genius Loves Company – Ray Charles & Various Artists (2005)
* How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb – U2 (2006)
* Taking the Long Way – Dixie Chicks (2007)
* River: The Joni Letters – Herbie Hancock (2008)
* Raising Sand – Robert Plant & Alison Krauss (2009)

2010s|

* Fearless – Taylor Swift (2010)
* The Suburbs – Arcade Fire (2011)
* 21 – Adele (2012)
* Babel – Mumford & Sons (2013)
* Random Access Memories – Daft Punk (2014)
* Morning Phase – Beck (2015)
* 1989 – Taylor Swift (2016)
* 25 – Adele (2017)
* 24K Magic – Bruno Mars (2018)
* Golden Hour – Kacey Musgraves (2019)

2020s|

* When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? – Billie Eilish (2020)
* Folklore – Taylor Swift (2021)
* We Are – Jon Batiste (2022)
* Harry's House – Harry Styles (2023)
* Midnights – Taylor Swift (2024)
* Cowboy Carter – Beyoncé (2025)

* v
* t
* e

Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album

1990s|

* I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got — Sinéad O'Connor (1991)
* Out of Time — R.E.M. (1992)
* Bone Machine — Tom Waits (1993)
* Zooropa — U2 (1994)
* Dookie — Green Day (1995)
* MTV Unplugged in New York — Nirvana (1996)
* Odelay — Beck (1997)
* OK Computer — Radiohead (1998)
* Hello Nasty — Beastie Boys (1999)

2000s|

* Mutations — Beck (2000)
* Kid A — Radiohead (2001)
* Parachutes — Coldplay (2002)
* A Rush of Blood to the Head — Coldplay (2003)
* Elephant — The White Stripes (2004)
* A Ghost Is Born — Wilco (2005)
* Get Behind Me Satan — The White Stripes (2006)
* St. Elsewhere — Gnarls Barkley (2007)
* Icky Thump — The White Stripes (2008)
* In Rainbows — Radiohead (2009)

2010s|

* Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix — Phoenix (2010)
* Brothers — The Black Keys (2011)
* Bon Iver — Bon Iver (2012)
* Making Mirrors — Gotye (2013)
* Modern Vampires of the City — Vampire Weekend (2014)
* St. Vincent — St. Vincent (2015)
* Sound & Color — Alabama Shakes (2016)
* Blackstar — David Bowie (2017)
* Sleep Well Beast — The National (2018)
* Colors — Beck (2019)

2020s|

* Father of the Bride — Vampire Weekend (2020)
* Fetch the Bolt Cutters — Fiona Apple (2021)
* Daddy's Home – St. Vincent (2022)
* Wet Leg – Wet Leg (2023)
* The Record – Boygenius (2024)
* All Born Screaming – St. Vincent (2025)

* v
* t
* e

Grammy Award for Best Rock Album

1990s|

* Voodoo Lounge – The Rolling Stones (1995)
* Jagged Little Pill – Alanis Morissette (1996)
* Sheryl Crow – Sheryl Crow (1997)
* Blue Moon Swamp – John Fogerty (1998)
* The Globe Sessions – Sheryl Crow (1999)

2000s|

* Supernatural – Santana (2000)
* There Is Nothing Left to Lose – Foo Fighters (2001)
* All That You Can't Leave Behind – U2 (2002)
* The Rising – Bruce Springsteen (2003)
* One by One – Foo Fighters (2004)
* American Idiot – Green Day (2005)
* How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb – U2 (2006)
* Stadium Arcadium – Red Hot Chili Peppers (2007)
* Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace – Foo Fighters (2008)
* Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends – Coldplay (2009)

2010s|

* 21st Century Breakdown – Green Day (2010)
* The Resistance –  Muse (2011)
* Wasting Light – Foo Fighters (2012)
* El Camino – The Black Keys (2013)
* Celebration Day – Led Zeppelin (2014)
* Morning Phase – Beck (2015)
* Drones – Muse (2016)
* Tell Me I'm Pretty – Cage the Elephant (2017)
* A Deeper Understanding – The War on Drugs (2018)
* From the Fires – Greta Van Fleet (2019)

2020s|

* Social Cues – Cage the Elephant (2020)
* The New Abnormal – The Strokes (2021)
* Medicine at Midnight – Foo Fighters (2022)
* Patient Number 9 – Ozzy Osbourne (2023)
* This Is Why – Paramore (2024)
* Hackney Diamonds – The Rolling Stones (2025)

* v
* t
* e

MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction

* Tim Newman (1984)
* Jean-Baptiste Mondino (1985)
* Steven Barron (1986)
* Stephen R. Johnson (1987)
* Andy Morahan and George Michael (1988)
* David Fincher (1989)
* David Fincher (1990)
* Tarsem (1991)
* Mark Fenske (1992)
* Mark Pellington (1993)
* Jake Scott (1994)
* Spike Jonze (1995)
* Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (1996)
* Beck (1997)
* Jonas Åkerlund (1998)
* Torrance Community Dance Group (1999)
* Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (2000)
* Spike Jonze (2001)
* Joseph Kahn (2002)
* Jamie Thraves (2003)
* Mark Romanek (2004)
* Samuel Bayer (2005)
* Robert Hales (2006)
* Samuel Bayer (2007)
* Erykah Badu and Mr. Roboto (2008)
* Marc Webb (2009)
* Francis Lawrence (2010)
* Adam Yauch (2011)
* Romain Gavras (2012)
* David Fincher (2013)
* Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (2014)
* Colin Tilley and the Little Homies (2015)
* Melina Matsoukas (2016)
* Dave Meyers and The Little Homies (2017)
* Hiro Murai (2018)
* Calmatic (2019)
* Taylor Swift (2020)
* Lil Nas X and Tanu Muino (2021)
* Taylor Swift (2022)
* Taylor Swift (2023)
* Taylor Swift (2024)

Saturday Night Live appearances

| Preceded by

Whitney Houston

|  Saturday Night Live musical guest
January 11, 1997  | Succeeded by

Snoop Doggy Dogg

|
|

Preceded by

Luciano Pavarotti and Vanessa Williams

|  Saturday Night Live musical guest
January 9, 1999  | Succeeded by

Everlast

Preceded by

Sting

|  Saturday Night Live musical guest
December 4, 1999  | Succeeded by

R.E.M.

Preceded by

Dixie Chicks

|  Saturday Night Live musical guest
February 15, 2003  | Succeeded by

Foo Fighters

Preceded by

Green Day

|  Saturday Night Live musical guest
April 16, 2005  | Succeeded by

System of a Down

Preceded by

My Chemical Romance

|  Saturday Night Live musical guest
October 28, 2006  | Succeeded by

Christina Aguilera

Preceded by

Imagine Dragons

|  Saturday Night Live musical guest
March 1, 2014  | Succeeded by

The National

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* France
* BnF data
* Japan
* Australia
* Czech Republic
* Spain
* 2
* Netherlands
* Norway
* 2
* Poland
* Israel

Academics|

* CiNii

Artists|

* MusicBrainz
* RKD Artists
* Grammy Awards

People|

* Trove
* Deutsche Biographie
* 2
* DDB

Other|

* IdRef
* Yale LUX

*[m.]: married
*[div.]: divorced
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template