This one’s quite a doozy.
This morning, New York Times dropped their “30 Greatest Living American Songwriters” list. As the outlet describes in the sub-headline, the list was compiled by more than 250 music insiders and six NYT critics. Despite the fact that there are supposedly an large number of highly reputable albeit unnamed insiders and critics aiding in the list, there are some INCREDIBLY questionable names throughout.
Starting out with the positives, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson come in representing country music, as did Josh Osborne, Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally… who were for some reason named as a trio. Those were named as the three representatives of country music of the thirty songwriters. You could argue that Lucinda Williams falls, at least in part, under the greater country music umbrella as well.
Personally, I think this list would have been even more laughable without the inclusion of Parton and Nelson. I don’t think I really need to tell you how much of an impact the two have made on country music over the course of the last seven decades. With Nelson, he’s obviously wrote country standards such as Patsy Clines’ “Crazy,” “On The Road Again,” “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” “Funny How Time Slips Away” and countless of more classics throughout his career.
Like Willie, Dolly has a songwriting career few can match. In addition to writing arguably the most iconic ballad in all of American music, “I Will Always Love You,” she’s obviously penned standards in the genre such as “Jolene,” “9 to 5,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” and more.
The Osborne, Clark and McAnally pick is undoubtedly confusing one (but not close to the worst pick on the list). Beyond the fact that they are the entry on the list to be named as a group and not predominantly writing as a unit, personally, I don’t think their work truly holds a candle critically compared to many writers on this list. Of course, you cannot ignore the sheer commercial success the trio has had over their years in Music Row. Combining their writing credits into one, the trifecta has written the following smash hits: Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Backroad” (McAnally, Osborne & others), Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” (McAnally & Clark), “Drinkin’ Problem” (Osborne, McAnally & others), Kenny Chesney’s “Come Over” (McAnally, Osborne & Hunt), Morgan Wallen’s “Sand In My Boots (Osborne, Ashley Gorely & HARDY) and Morgan Wallen’s “7 Summers” (McAnally, Osborne & Wallen). Regardless, it feels like they weren’t well-known enough to the average NYT reader to stand on their own and got lumped in together into a trio. Which would sorta preclude them from making the list, right?
Some of the obvious, respectable picks on the non-country side of things include the likes of the legendary Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen (regardless of your political leanings, you cannot deny his songwriting prowess), Carole King, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Outkast.
In the “understandable given their popularity” category (in my opinion), include Taylor Swift, Lana Del Ray, Mariah Carey and Lionel Richie. For Swift, you cannot really understate her popularity and influence she’s had on the current generation of women in songwriting. Is she quite the writer many dedicated Swifties think she is? Definitely not. With that being said, however, she’s proven throughout her career that she can weave together incredibly solid, interconnected stories within a record (see 2020’s folklore for example). Del Ray, in a similar fashion, is a solid songwriter and, in many ways, more consistent from album-to-album than Swift. With that being said, is she really a Top 30 living American songwriter? As much as I love a majority of her work, I can’t say she is.
Now it’s time for the downright baffling picks. Starting us off incredibly strong is Young Thug. Yes, that wasn’t a typo. While he’s certainly maintained his status as being one of the better mainstream rappers of the last two decades, it feels a bit egregious to have him here. The same can be said about Jay Z as well. It feels a bit egregious to have these two on the list while ignoring the work of Kanye West. While there’s no defending his actions (and obvious mental illness) over the past few years, you can’t tell me an artist such as Kanye, who has proven to be one of the best lyricists in his genre (and even won a gospel Grammy), is missing on this list for anything other than biased reasons.
Arguably the two most egregious picks on this list is none other than the most recent Super Bowl halftime performer, Bad Bunny, and Fiona Apple. You can feel any type of way about the pair, but to me, the fact that they have a limited collection of songs should have opened up more artists to be featured. For Apple, she’s only released 56 songs in 30 years. Bad Bunny, on the other hand, has more songs but has only been around for eight years. Give me a break…
Of course, this list is clearly biased, especially considering the fact that Kanye was left off this list in favor of the likes of Young Thug and Jay Z. When you truly take a look at some of the songwriters left off, you really begin to scratch your head.
Immediately, I said to myself, “Where the hell is Jason Isbell?” Like Springsteen, you can vehemently disagree with his politics, but there is simply no argument that can be made against him being one of the most prolific and influential songwriters in the Americana scene with classics such as “Cover Me Up,” “If We Were Vampires,” “24 Frames” and many, many more underrated gems.
Keeping with that theme, why isn’t Tyler Childers, Kacey Musgraves, Turnpike Troubadours’ Evan Felker on this list potentially? Again, I can admit my country bias is showing here, but I simply don’t see a reality where the likes of Young Thug, Apple and Bad Bunny can hold a candle to either men’s songwriting prowess. Hell, if we’re looking at this from a commercial success lens, you might as well throw in Ed Sheeran too over some of these aforementioned names given his undeniable proficiency. Maybe John Mayer as well? Seems like the entire rock world was largely ignored.
I could keep listing names, but I think you get the point I’m trying to make here. While it’s great to see Willie and Dolly on here — though I think this list would have been even more of a joke if they were somehow left off — it’s an incredibly flawed, slightly bias showing from NYT.
You can take a look at all thirty songwriters below.
New York Times’ 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters (Unranked)
- Nile Rodgers
- Lucinda Williams
- Stevie Wonder
- Jay-Z
- Paul Simon
- Taylor Swift
- Brian & Eddie Holland
- Missy Elliott
- Lionel Richie
- Dolly Parton
- Young Thug
- Diane Warren
- Josh Osborne, Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally
- Fiona Apple
- Babyface
- Stephen Merritt
- Romeo Santos
- Carole King
- Outkast
- Mariah Carey
- Willie Nelson
- Kendrick Lamar
- Valerie Simpson
- Bob Dylan
- Lana Del Ray
- The-Dream
- Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis
- Bad Bunny
- Bruce Springsteen
- Smokey Robinson
