Marley, Bob (Robert Nesta Marley), 1945–81, Jamaican reggae singer, songwriter, and guitarist. As a member of the Wailers, a reggae band that included Bunny Wailer (b. Neville Livingston, 1947-2021) and Peter Tosh (b. Winston McIntosh, 1944-1987) , and later on his own, Marley propelled reggae to worldwide popularity. His commitment to nonviolence and the Rastafarian religion are transparent in his music, and his smoky tenor and loping reggae beat combined to enhance the appeal of his political message. Marley and his songs remain enormously popular throughout the world.
See biographies by A. Boot and V. Goldman (1982), T. White (1983, rev. ed. 2006), C. J. Farley (2006), and D. Burnett (2009); R. Steffens, So Much Things To Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley (2017); studies by V. Goldman (2006) and J. Toynbee (2009); discography by R. Steffens and L. J. Pierson (2005).
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