Laurie Anderson

Laurie Anderson became a unique musical force by combining her background in avant-garde/experimental art with comparatively conventional rock/pop settings, creating some of the most innovative, unprecedented recordings of the '80s and beyond. Born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, she would study in New York, where she graduated from Barnard and earned an M.F.A. at Columbia. She began working on her idiosyncratic brand of multimedia performance art in 1969. Over the course of the '70s, Anderson's performance pieces and installations made her a respected figure in the avant-garde art scene. But her career entered a whole new phase with the release of her first widely distributed single, "O Superman," in 1981. The record, featuring spoken word and minimalist electronics, became a surprise hit, reaching No. 2 in England and charting high in several other countries. Virtually overnight, Anderson became widely known as a recording artist, hailed by audiences with no knowledge of her previous work. Warner Bros released Anderson's debut LP, Big Science, in 1982, making her a cult hero among fans of alternative music. Anderson's next LP, 1984's Mister Heartbreak, took a step toward slightly more conventional song structures, with help from players like Adrian Belew and Bill Laswell. The video for "Excellent Birds" featuring Peter Gabriel earned Anderson even more attention. Anderson would shift back and forth between the conceptual and the song-oriented throughout her discography, while almost always balancing between the two. Anderson began a much-publicized relationship with Lou Reed in the '90s, leading to their marriage in 2008, and the two would often be a part of each other's projects. Though Anderson's albums usually attracted her biggest audiences, she always continued working in a multiplicity of media, including ballet, gallery exhibitions, and theatrical pieces. Anderson became a widow when Reed lost his life to liver disease in 2013. In the late 2010s, she continued to explore, releasing Landfall, a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet, and Songs from the Bardo with Jesse Paris Smith (daughter of Patti Smith) and Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal.