Frank Zappa was never one of those artists who existed within the confines of the standard music industry. A lover of satire, nonconformity, improvisation, and experimentation, Zappa made music for the sake of fulfilling his own creative visions. Zappa was a composer just as much as he was a musician, and like all great composers, he was steadfast in his pursuit of what he had written. As early in life as high school, Zappa was composing and arranging pieces for his school orchestra.
While Zappa was a renegade who gravitated to the avant-garde, he had a deep appreciation for classical music. Born to Italian American parents of Neapolitan and Sicilian origins, Zappa grew up with an appreciation for the Italian classical music he often heard in his youth. It’s often said that one has to learn the rules in order to break them properly. Zappa’s classical roots provided him with the foundation for all his experiments to come— and they did.
Today, Freak Out! Is regarded as one of rock’s very first conceptual albums, and also one of the greatest records of all time. In 1999, it received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award, which is a special honor given to records that have enduring historical significance. While Freak Out! can be looked at as representing a seminal moment in music history, it is also just one part of Zappa’s legacy.
Throughout his career, Zappa recorded a prolific 60 albums as a solo artist and leader of the Mothers of Invention. It’s a momentous discovery that is still being mined today: he left behind a trove of unreleased recordings that his estate has released posthumously. While such a volume of work is an astounding legacy in and of itself, perhaps Zappa’s greatest contribution of all was how his very existence inspired other musicians to embrace elements of the absurd (and unconventional) in their own work. Contemporaries like David Bowie and The Beatles were influenced by Zappa, just as so many artists of the following generations were as well. It’s hard to imagine bands like Phish or Weeze existing in a world without Zappa.
While it’s been twenty years since Zappa’s death, his artistic essence remains strong, present in every musician who dares to manipulate sound in new and surprising ways - whether the world is ready for it or not.
Natalli Marie Amato
Natalli Amato is a music and lifestyle journalist from Sackets Harbor, New York. Her bylines include Rolling Stone, Vice, and The Boot. She is also the author of several collections of poetry.