As a pioneer of the reggae genre and a globally recognized symbol of Jamaican culture, Bob Marley is a Musicheads Essential artist.

Robert Nesta Marley was born in Nine Mile, Jamaica, in 1945. When he moved to Kingston, Jamaica, in his teens, he would join forces with his childhood friend, Bunny Wailer, and the young guitarist Peter Tosh to form the ska group The Wailing Rude Boys, which they'd renamed the Wailing Wailers. The Wailers' debut single "Simmer Down" became a Jamaican hit, and they followed it up with the global sensation, "One Love."

In 1969, when Bob Marley was in the midst of converting to Rastafarianism, he became deeply inspired by a new slower beat that had been popularized by the Maytals in their song, "Do the Reggay." Soon, Bob Marley and the Wailers were incorporating this new beat into their sound, replacing the trumpets and saxophones of their earlier recordings with an electric guitar.

By the mid 1970s, Bob Marley had become known internationally as a commanding live performer with a rockstar presence, and the Wailers were critically acclaimed as a trailblazing and genre-defying band.

For most of the 70s, Bob Marley split his time between London and Jamaica, but when Bob Marley returned to the island in December 1976, to perform a peace concert to quell rising political violence, his home was raided, and he, his wife, his manager, and another employee were all shot. Soon after the assassination attempt, Bob Marley moved permanently to London and recorded his best-known album, Exodus, the next year.

Bob Marley died in 1981 from skin cancer. The greatest hits album, Legend, was compiled shortly after his death, and has since become the best-selling reggae album of all time. He has been posthumously awarded a Jamaican Order of Merit, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, solidifying his status as an artistic legend.