Frank Zappa (1940-1993), American composer and rock musician, recognized as a master of a wide variety of musical styles. Zappa was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His family moved often throughout his childhood. During his teenage years, his musical development was shaped by two divergent musical influences: 20th-century classical music (especially the works of French composer Edgard Varèse) and 1950s rhythm and blues. At the age of 14, Zappa joined a band as a drummer. When he was 18 years old, he began playing the guitar instead. In 1959 he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked at a variety of jobs while writing music and playing in bands.

In 1965, amid a changing American culture that favored new and adventurous clothing, lifestyles, and music, Zappa began to develop his unconventional music. He formed a band called The Mothers, later renamed The Mothers of Invention, which in 1966 released its debut record, Freak Out. Imaginative and original, the songs on the album were ironic essays of social criticism. They incorporated the sounds of contemporary rock music while simultaneously mocking that music. They also borrowed techniques from traditional and modernist classical music.

Zappa quickly became a celebrity. During the next three years, his band released five more albums, including We're Only in It for the Money (1968) and Uncle Meat (1969), the latter a two-hour musical collage resembling the work of such 20th-century classical composers as Russian American Igor Stravinsky much more than contemporary rock music. Zappa was recognized as one of rock music's most notable guitarists. French composer Pierre Boulez conducted performances of some of his later classical compositions. Zappa's bands employed several performers who later became famous, including avant-garde rock musician Captain Beefheart, heavy-metal guitarist Steve Vai, jazz violinist Jean-Luc Ponty, new-age composer Patrick O'Hearn, and two members of the band Little Feat: Roy Estrada and Lowell George. Zappa also pioneered many modern recording techniques.

During his career Zappa released more than 60 albums, including studio recordings and meticulously edited collections of live performances. He also developed a distinctive persona—that of a humorist, a serious composer, a social critic, and an entrepreneur. In 1995 Zappa was posthumously elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.