Several musicians wrote songs about Biko, including Tom Paxton, Peter Hammill, Steel Pulse, and Tappa Zukie. British musician Peter Gabriel, who heard of Biko's death through the BBC's coverage of the event, was moved by the story and began researching his life, based on which he wrote a song about the killing. This coincided with Gabriel becoming interested in African musical styles, which influenced his third solo album "Peter Gabriel" (1980), also known as "Melt", on which "Biko" was ultimately included. Gabriel was also influenced to write the song through his association with politically inclined new-wave musician Tom Robinson; Robinson is said to have encouraged Gabriel to release the piece when Gabriel began to have doubts. Though there were other political songs on the album, "Biko" was the only piece that was explicitly a protest song.