Beck

Beck is an American singer, songwriter and producer, born and raised in Los Angeles. He gravitated towards hip-hop and folk as a teenager, played coffeehouses and clubs locally, then moved to New York in 1989 and got caught up in the anti-folk scene. Back in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, he broke through with the 1993 single "Loser", which reached number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 and led off his major label debut, Mellow Gold, in 1994.

His sound is a restless collage: lo-fi experiments, samples, drum machines and live instruments, with oblique, ironic lyrics. Odelay (1996) topped critics' polls, while Sea Change (2002) showed a quieter, more serious side. Morning Phase (2014), a folk-tinged companion to Sea Change, won Album of the Year at the 57th Grammy Awards. Along the way he has taken in country on Mutations, funk on Midnite Vultures and 1960s pop on Modern Guilt.