Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter is a term which refers to
performers who belong to the
folk music tradition but, unlike the traditional
folk singers,
write,
compose, and
sing their own
material including
lyrics,
melodies and often the
accompaniment and entire
composition or
song. Most singer-songwriters are less well-known than
pop artists, and depend on word of mouth and extensive touring to garner a fan base, appearing primarily at
house concerts,
coffee houses,
folk clubs, and
festivals. Simply being able to write and perform songs does not qualify an artist as a singer-songwriter. Key requirements are that the songs address real-life issues that are often addressed by traditional
folk songs and that the delivery is closer to folk music than
pop music (e.g., seldom are there drums in
American folk songs). Unlike pop artists, singer-songwriters are better known for their meaningful lyrics than for the presentation of the song.
Beginning in the 1960s, many Latin American countries developed singer-songwriter traditions that adopted elements from various popular styles. The first such tradition was the mid-60s invention of
nueva canción, which took hold in Andean countries like
Chile,
Peru,
Argentina and
Bolivia.
At around the same time, the
Brazilian popular style
bossa nova was evolving into a politically-charged singer-songwriter tradition called
Tropicalismo. Two performers,
Gilberto Gil and
Caetano Veloso became two of the most famous people in all of Brazil through their work in Tropicalismo.
In the same period developed in
Italy a very prolific singer-songwriter (in
Italian cantautore) tradition, initially connected with the French school of the
chansonniers, and lately developed very heterogeneously. Noteworthy performers are:
Domenico Modugno,
Luigi Tenco,
Gino Paoli,
Sergio Endrigo,
Fabrizio De André,
Francesco De Gregori,
Antonello Venditti,
Roberto Vecchioni,
Ivano Fossati,
Lucio Dalla,
Francesco Guccini and
Franco Battiato. See also
Italian singer-songwriters.
The European Hispanic countries of
Spain and
Portugal have also had singer-songwriter traditions, which are sometimes said to have drawn on pan-Latin elements. Spain is known for the
nova canço tradition " exemplified by
Joan Manuel Serrat; the Portuguese
fado performer and songwriter
José Afonso helped lead a revival of Portuguese folk culture, including a modernized form of fado called
nova canção. Following the 1974 revolution, nova canção became more politicized and was known as
canto livre.
In the latter part of the 1960s and into the 70s, socially and politically aware singer-songwriters like
Silvio Rodríguez and
Pablo Milanés emerged in Cuba, birthing a genre known as
nueva trova. Trova as a genre has had broad influence across Latin America. In Mexico, for example, canción yucateca on the Yucatan Peninsula and trova serrana in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca are both regional adaptations of trova.
In the mid-1970s, a singer-songwriter tradition called
canto popular emerged in
Uruguay.
The origins of the singer-songwriter in North America can be traced back to folk singers who created original works in the folk music style. The best known early singer-songwriters include
Woody Guthrie and
Pete Seeger, along with members of
The Weavers (Seeger performed solo and as part of the Weavers). This movement often focused around labor unions, but also included other topics that affected the common person of the times. Seeger became a popular advocate for a number of causes, and used his popularity to not only promote his own causes, but also to introduce his audiences to the songs of many of the newer singer-songwriters, such as
Bob Dylan,
Phil Ochs,
Tom Paxton, and
Harry Chapin.
The first recognition of the singer-songwriter as a
musical genre in English-speaking North America occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s when a series of folk- and
country-influenced musicians rose to prominence and popularity. These early singer-songwriters included
Bob Dylan,
Neil Young,
Bruce Springsteen,
Jackson Browne,
Jim Croce,
Joni Mitchell,
Leonard Cohen,
Randy Newman,
Gordon Lightfoot,
Nick Drake,
Tom Rush,
Phil Ochs,
Eric Andersen,
David Blue,
Carly Simon,
Cat Stevens,
Bruce Cockburn,
Van Morrison,
Townes van Zandt,
Harry Chapin,
James Taylor,
Loretta Lynn and
Johnny Cash. People who had been primarily songwriters, notably
Carole King, also began releasing work as performers. In contrast to the storytelling approach of most prior country and folk music, these performers typically wrote songs from a highly personal (often first-person), introspective point of view. The adjectives "confessional" and "sensitive" were often used (sometimes derisively) to describe this early singer-songwriter style.
It can be argued that some bands of the era - most notably the
Beatles and the wave of artists on both sides of the Atlantic that followed in their wake - fit the definition of singer-songwriters, with most or all of their members taking an active role in the songwriting process. While there is some debate over the claim, it is worthy to note that many former bandmembers (including
Paul McCartney,
John Lennon,
George Harrison,
Paul Simon,
Peter Frampton, and later
Don Henley and
Glenn Frey) found success as singer-songwriters in their later careers.
By the late 1970s and early 1980s the original wave of singer-songwriters had largely been absorbed into a more general pop or
soft rock format, but some new artists in the singer-songwriter tradition (including
Michael Bolton,
Lucinda Williams,
Patti Smith,
Stevie Nicks, and
Warren Zevon) continued to emerge, and in other cases rock and even
punk rock artists such as
Peter Case and
Paul Westerberg transitioned to careers as solo singer-songwriters.
In the late 1980s, the term was re-applied to a group of (predominantly female) artists, beginning with
Suzanne Vega with her first album selling unexpectedly well, followed by the likes of
Tracy Chapman,
Nanci Griffith and
k.d. lang. Likewise, the success of
Tori Amos in the United Kingdom lead to her success in her home market. By the mid-1990s, the term was revived with the success of Canada's
Alanis Morissette and her breakthrough album
Jagged Little Pill. It had grown to encompass fellow-Canadian
Sarah McLachlan, American artists
Sheryl Crow,
Patty Griffin,
Jewel,
Lisa Loeb,
Natalie Merchant,
Joan Osborne and other performers associated with the
Lilith Fair. Also in the 1990s artists such as
Dave Matthews and
Elliott Smith borrowed from the singer-songwriter tradition to create new acoustic-based rock styles. In the 2000's, a quieter style emerged, with largely impressionistic lyrics, from artists such as
Iron and Wine (a solo artist),
Jolie Holland,
Dan Carrigan, and
Richard Buckner.
Recording on the professional-grade systems that became affordable for individuals in the late 1990s (most notably,
ProTools), these artists are known as "indies" because they release their records on independent, often self-owned record labels, or no label at all. Currently, some of the less-known but highly distinctive, well-loved writer-performers in this grass-roots world are:
Dar Williams,
Ani DiFranco,
Richard Shindell,
David LaMotte,
Willy Porter,
David Wilcox,
Annie Gallup,
Patty Larkin,
Pierce Pettis,
Peter Mulvey,
Jennifer Kimball,
Ellis Paul,
Alison Breitman,
Brooks Williams, and
Christopher Williams. Examples of emerging artists getting notice on the folk circuit of the mid-2000s are:
Ralston Bowles,
Jonathan Byrd,
Antje Duvekot,
Michael Bowers,
Juliet Wyers, and
Anais Mitchell, all of whom were recognized as
Kerrville New Folk Finalists in the last few years. Other notable contemporary singer-songwriters include
Josh Ritter,
John Francis, and
Amos Lee.
Since the 1960s, those singers who wrote songs outside the Soviet
establishment have been known as "bards". Many bards performed their songs in small groups of people using a
Russian guitar, rarely if ever would they be accompanied by other musicians or singers. Those who would become popular would be able to hold modest concerts. Bards were rarely permitted to record their music, given the political nature of many songs. As a result, bard tunes usually made their way around via the copying of amateur recordings (known as
magnitizdat) made at concerts, particularly those songs that were of political nature.
Bard poetry differs from other poetry mainly in the fact that it is sung along with a simple guitar melody as opposed to being spoken. Another difference is that this form of poetry focuses less on style and more on meaning. This means that fewer stylistic devices are used, and the poetry often takes the form of narrative. What separates bard poetry from other songs is the fact that the music is far less important than the lyrics;
chord progressions are often very simple and tend to repeat from one bard song to another. A far more obvious difference was the commerce-free nature of the genre: songs were written to be sung and not to be sold.
Singer-songwriters were not common in
Hong Kong until the early 21st century. This is due to the unique situation of the pop music scene in Hong Kong. Record labels are controlled by large enterprises leading to an abundance of K-songs (
Karaoke type songs) in Hong Kong. Currently some of the distinctive and well-known singer-songwriters in Hong Kong are:
Justin (側"),
Ivana Wong (王菀之), and
Rosemary Vandenbroucke, who is also a
supermodel.
Despite the communist isolation, the tradition of singer-songwriter in
Romania flourished in the mid-1970s and it was closely related to the
folk music, with three main styles: ethno folk (including carols-colinde), American-style folk and lyrical folk.
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List of singer-songwriters*
Articles about singer-songwriters
