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Dylan left to attend the [[University of Minnesota]] in [[Minneapolis]].  It was there that he developed a deep interest in [[folk music]], listening to the recordings of artists such as Odetta and [[Woody Guthrie]].<ref>Bob Dylan's roots are in American folk music, with people like [[Pete Seeger]] and Woody Guthrie. [http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/american-pie/]</ref>

Dylan left to attend the [[University of Minnesota]] in [[Minneapolis]].  It was there that he developed a deep interest in [[folk music]], listening to the recordings of artists such as Odetta and [[Woody Guthrie]].<ref>Bob Dylan's roots are in American folk music, with people like [[Pete Seeger]] and Woody Guthrie. [http://www.faqs.org/faqs/music/american-pie/]</ref>

In 1961, he dropped out of college and headed to [[New York City]], where he became part of the burgeoning folk music scene in [[Greenwich Village]] and eventually landed a contract with [[Columbia Records]], for whom he still records today.

In 1961, he dropped out of college and headed to [[New York City]], where he became part of the burgeoning folk music scene in [[Greenwich Village]] and eventually landed a contract with [[Columbia Records]], for whom he recorded during most of his career.  Dylan had written a number of original songs, and the music publisher with whom he signed recommended he seek to achieve the modest career goal of publishing a book of his folk songs.  This design motivated him to write and perfect his own songs and to write them whether or not they eventually appeared on an album.

His first four studio albums<ref>''Bob Dylan'' (1962); ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963); ''The Times They Are a-Changin''' (1964); and ''Another Side of Bob Dylan'' (1964)</ref> established Dylan as a major voice within the developing protest counterculture of the early Sixties. It was ''Bringing It All Back Home'' (1965), however, that propelled him to international fame and stardom. To howls of protest from his devoted "folkie" fans, Dylan "plugged in" and the album's glorious fusion of electric guitars, driving rock rhythms and his unique lyrical style<ref>By turns surreal, poetic, visionary and political.</ref> set a benchmark to which all other artists aspired. He arguably never scaled these heights again, especially in terms of producing an album of such consistent quality and musical completeness. His next three albums<ref>''Highway 61 Revisited'' (1965); ''Blonde on Blonde'' (1966); and ''John Wesley Harding'' (1967)</ref> are rightly highly regarded, but after these his output became of increasingly variable quality and ''Blood On The Tracks'' (1975) is his last album from his classic period to be highly regarded by rock critics.

His first four studio albums<ref>''Bob Dylan'' (1962); ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' (1963); ''The Times They Are a-Changin''' (1964); and ''Another Side of Bob Dylan'' (1964)</ref> established Dylan as a major voice within the developing protest counterculture of the early Sixties. It was ''Bringing It All Back Home'' (1965), however, that propelled him to international fame and stardom. To howls of protest from his devoted "folkie" fans, Dylan "plugged in" and the album's glorious fusion of electric guitars, driving rock rhythms and his unique lyrical style<ref>By turns surreal, poetic, visionary and political.</ref> set a benchmark to which all other artists aspired. He arguably never scaled these heights again, especially in terms of producing an album of such consistent quality and musical completeness. His next three albums<ref>''Highway 61 Revisited'' (1965); ''Blonde on Blonde'' (1966); and ''John Wesley Harding'' (1967)</ref> are rightly highly regarded, but after these his output became of increasingly variable quality and ''Blood On The Tracks'' (1975) is his last album from his classic period to be highly regarded by rock critics.