One of the wildest vocalists in all
of popular music, Bjork Gudmundsdottir (known
popularly simply as Bjork) has spent most of her
life creating artful, experimental music that defies
classification. Those who know her only by her solo
career may be surprised to learn that she released
albums with three separate bands prior to going it
alone in 1993, and in fact this eccentric and
original talent has had some measure of fame since
she was sixteen.
When Bjork was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, it was
not immediately apparent that she would someday
become the world's best-known Icelandic musician, if
not the country's most identifiable citizen. As a
child, she studied flute, piano, and voice, and by
1979, she had joined her first band. At fifteen, she
formed the group Tappi Tikarass, a post-punk outfit
influenced strongly by Siouxsie and the Banshees. In
1982, two of the band's songs were included in a
documentary on the Icelandic New Wave called Rock in
Reykjavik, and as a result, Bjork was soon
recognized as one of the area's most promising new
talents.
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