Peter Gabriel

Peter Gabriel, born in 1950, British rock singer and songwriter, known for his creative, meticulously produced recordings of rock music, and for his role in popularizing worldbeat. Gabriel was born in London to a middle-class family. His mother, an amateur musician, came from a family that included several professional musicians. In 1966, at Charterhouse, one of Britain's exclusive private high schools, Gabriel formed a band that eventually became known as Genesis. Under that name—with Gabriel, outrageously costumed, as its singer and chief songwriter—the group became a leader in art rock, a style of rock music distinguished by its theatrical and musically complex songs. Genesis proved to be a springboard for the solo careers of several of the band's members, including bassist Mike Rutherford and drummer Phil Collins, who took over as lead vocalist after Gabriel left the band in 1975.

Gabriel released three solo albums between 1977 and 1980, each one titled Peter Gabriel (as if, Gabriel explained, they were issues of a magazine). On the third of these was the notable song “Biko” (1980), a tribute to Stephen Biko, a black South African activist who was killed by police. By this time, Gabriel had gained a reputation as a painstaking, innovative artist who was more concerned with producing creative music than with achieving commercial success. Nevertheless, his fifth album, So (1986), became a huge hit. It included the song “Sledgehammer,” a melding of rhythm-and-blues (R&B) and other rock-music styles which was accompanied by an innovative music video that used an animation technique known as claymation.

In the 1980s, Gabriel increasingly devoted himself to activities outside his commercial career. He promoted world music (especially that of Senegalese singer Youssou N'Dour) by opening his RealWorld recording studio and organizing the annual World of Music, Arts, and Dance (WOMAD) tour. He also supported political causes, joining N'Dour and popular singers Bruce Springsteen, Sting, and Tracy Chapman in 1988 for a world tour on behalf of the human rights organization Amnesty International. In 1992 Gabriel released the moody and introspective album Us.

Gabriel has composed music for many motion pictures, including the score for Birdy (1984), by British director Alan Parker, and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), by American director Martin Scorsese. Gabriel won a Grammy Award in 1990 for the latter soundtrack. In 1993 he released a CD-ROM, XPLORA1, about his life and work, becoming one of the first musical artists to explore computer multimedia in depth.