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Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize for Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

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The 75-year-old songwriter, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, began his musical career in 1959 in his native Minnesota.

His songs from the 1960s became anthems of the anti-war and civil rights movements.

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Dylan later moved away from traditional folk songwriting and decided to "go electric."

Among his most popular albums are Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blondeand Blood on the Tracks.

Dylan had been mentioned in the Nobel speculation for years, but few experts expected the academy to extend the prestigious award to a genre such as pop music.

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The Nobel Committee's permanent secretary Sara Danius said Dylan was "a great sampler" who has been reinventing himself for 54 years.

"Bob Dylan writes poetry for the ear," she said. "But it's perfectly fine to read his works as poetry."

She invited people to listen to Blonde on Blonde, "an extraordinary example of his brilliant way of rhyming, putting together refrains, and his brilliant way of thinking."

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Danius admitted that the choice may seem surprising to many, but she drew parallels between Dylan's work and that of ancient Greek poets Homer and Sappho.

"They wrote poetic texts which were meant to be performed, and it’s the same way for Bob Dylan. We still read Homer and Sappho, and we enjoy it," she said.

Dylan is the first American winner of the Nobel literature prize since Toni Morrison in 1993.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.