Is Music Poetry? On Bob Dylan’s Historic Awarding of the Nobel Prize

By now you’ve heard that Bob Dylan is the 2016 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, a highly coveted honor usually reserved for career writers. Over the last few days, the music and literary communities have been showering the singer with congratulatory words, even if the singer has not acknowledged the honor himself.

Dylan is the first American to earn the award in 23 years, since Toni Morrison received it back in 1993. But that’s not the point…

Bob Dylan’s receipt of the prize has sparked a sort of controversy as to whether or not his work actually warrants such an award. Even deeper, it sparks a debate as to what constitutes literature. Can music be poetry or is it exclusively its own thing?

Join Vinyl Bay 777 in exploring this question of whether music deserves to be treated like literature or as an “other.”

There have been many opinion pieces saying that Dylan, while deserving to be honored for his work, does not deserve to be recognized with a literary award. An op-ed article in The New York Times says that with giving the prize to Dylan, the committee fails to honor a “writer” in a world where reading and book sales are in decline, that they missed an opportunity to give a boost to literature in general. Another article in Pitchfork claims that since you cannot separate Dylan’s words from his music to stand on their own, that it is not poetry.  An op-ed in Vice makes the same claim, backing it up with words from respected music critics on the subject.

Each of these articles surmises that there is something inherently different between music and prose. Music cannot be literature because it is so intertwined in melody that it is completely different. It is not the “high-brow” type of art that people see prose and poetry as, but as an “other” with its own awards and accolades.

On the other hand, it can be argued that a musical artist can be deserved of a literature award for their storytelling ability. The Swedish Academy’s (who hands out the Nobel Prize awards) gave Dylan the award because he “created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.” This is the backbone of Rolling Stone’s argument as to why Dylan deserves the honor. Writer Rob Sheffield compares his style to that of Shakespeare, who changed playwriting and poetry (also once considered “low-brow” entertainment) by drawing inspiration from others and turning it on its ear, making it accessible to everyone and, essentially, making it his own. Musician Tom Waits says it best in a Tweet he posted Thursday: "Before epic tales and poems were ever written down, they migrated on the winds of the human voice and no voice is greater than Dylan's."

So if the definition of literature is considered to be storytelling, Dylan deserves the honor on his merits as a songwriter and storyteller alone. By effectively relating a story and getting a point across through words and phrasing, a song becomes poetry.

A lot of musicians write music and lyrics simply because they must get their stories out, the same thing many authors feel about writing prose and poetry. It comes from the same place, that same urge to create. Whether or not you believe that a musician such as Bob Dylan, who has been challenging normal music conventions for decades, deserves a literature accolade, let’s remember that music and prose are both about creativity. Dylan did not choose to be awarded a prize for literature, but if the committee decided to give him one, than his creativity in songwriting and storytelling must deserve it on some level.

Decide for yourself whether Bob Dylan deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature by dropping by Vinyl Bay 777 or shopping online at vinylbay777.com and picking up titles from Bob Dylan’s catalog, as well as thousands of titles from more artists! With newly extended store hours, there are even more opportunities to browse one of the largest collections of new and used vinyl, CDs and cassettes on Long Island!