He is considered one of the most innovative and stylistically diverse musicians of his generation. As a mostly self-taught composer and performer, Zappa had diverse musical influences that led him to create music that was sometimes difficult to categorize.
While in his teens, he acquired a taste for 20th-century classical modernism , African-American rhythm and blues , and doo-wop music. His debut studio album with the Mothers of Invention, Freak Out! He continued this eclectic and experimental approach throughout his career. Unlike many other rock musicians of his generation, he disapproved of recreational drug use, but supported decriminalization and regulation. Zappa was a highly productive and prolific musician with a controversial critical standing; supporters of his music admired its compositional complexity, while detractors found it lacking emotional depth.
Though he worked as an independent artist , Zappa mostly relied on distribution agreements he had negotiated with the major record labels. He remains a major influence on musicians. He was of Sicilian, Greek, Arab and French descent. Frank, the eldest of four children, was raised in an Italian-American household where Italian was often spoken by his grandparents. After a time in Florida in the s, the family returned to Maryland , where Zappa's father worked at the Edgewood Arsenal chemical warfare facility of the Aberdeen Proving Ground run by the U.
Due to their home's proximity to the arsenal, which stored mustard gas , gas masks were kept in the home in case of an accident. Zappa's father often brought mercury -filled lab equipment home from his workplace and gave it to Zappa to play with. Zappa was often sick as a child, suffering from asthma , earaches and sinus problems. A doctor treated his sinusitis by inserting a pellet of radium into each of Zappa's nostrils.
At the time, little was known about the potential dangers of even small amounts of therapeutic radiation and mercury exposure. Nasal imagery and references appear in his music and lyrics, as well as in the collage album covers created by his long-time collaborator Cal Schenkel.
