Bob Marley » (Bilingual)

Co-founders of the Media Research & Information Bureau—the largest chart-compiling and music research agency in Europe—Luke Compton and Dafydd Rees have written more than 20 books about the music business, including DK's Encyclopedia of Rock Stars.

His name is synonymous with the indigenous Jamaican off-beat music of reggae, a local genre he took from his beloved island homeland to the world. The first reggae superstar, the dreadlocked, ganja-smoking Marley became a musical ambassador not only for the rhythmic Caribbean music that he helped create, but also for themes of peace, revolution, poverty, spirituality, love, and the Rastafarian philosophy. With his life cruelly cut short by cancer at only 36, Marley entire recording career spanned only 19 years. His greatest hits collection, Legend, is by far the best-selling reggae album of all time, while his 1977 opus, Exodus, was named Album Of The Century by Time magazine in 1999. The Music Icons series: Each title contains a painstaking selection of approximately 150 portraits, colorful posters and record covers, rare concert photos, and previously unpublished candid photos.