This paper proposes a new framework for analyzing the musical style of Bob Dylan in the field of social science, especially in Peace Studies, by revisiting the thoughts and theories of Paul Williams (1948-2013). First, it criticizes the various approaches that only focus on Dylan’s lyrics to determine their roots and referential or citational relations or to estimate his “true” intentions and messages in his songs. Second, based on the writings of Williams, this paper tries to examine Dylanʼs “sound” during performances, which includes everything he does in his songs (without separating the vocal and instrumental parts) and concentrates on what occurs in the mind or consciousness of the listener and the reason why one is emotionally affected by his performance.

After scrutinizing Williams’ arguments from 1966, when he was just eighteen, to his last writings in the early 21st century, the results in the paper show that there are three essential dimensions in Dylanʼs “sound” : 1) performance; 2) personal and intuitive understanding and experience; and 3) the concept of stopping time. Such aspects explain the interconnected relationship between his “sound” and his listeners, which is a unique but perceivable feature that is generally present in the relationship between great arts and its appreciators.

Finally, this article summarizes its argument and implications on how to deal with arts and culture in social science. According to the text of his speech after receiving the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, Dylan repeatedly stresses the difference between “literature” and “songs,” and always considers his creations as the latter. The implication of the findings is that, to analyze songs in social science, it is important to find different ways to understand culture and use new approaches for dealing with its various dimensions.