Singer-songwriter

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The term singer-songwriter refers to performers who both write and sing their own material.

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Distinguishing singers from songwriters and vice versa

Singer-songwriters write original, often personally distinctive, songs, and become the primary performers of their songs. This distinguishes them from artists who are only singers, such as Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Aretha Franklin, and Frank Sinatra; typically, such performers sing the material of professional songwriters (and of artists who are primarily songwriters), who normally do not perform their own work, such as Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerry Leiber or Mike Stoller. Even in many cases where the performer and writer are one and the same, the results are not considered singer-songwriter material, because the roles of songwriter and singer are essentially discrete (such as a rock musician writing a ballad for his band to play).

Singers and bands performing material by separate, professional songwriters were the standard in popular music until about the 1960s when the influence of folk music introduced singer-songwriters to a wider audience. Previous to this, some artists such as folk singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie did much of his work in the 1930s, and most blues singers from the 1930s-1950s such as Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters too performed their own work (which, however, was usually heavily influenced by earlier blues songs). Arguably, these performers were not yet mainstream.

Icons in the francophone world such as Georges Brassens, Léo Ferré and Jacques Brel performed their own songs in the 1940s and 1950s; Brel's work, in particular, was widely translated into English.

By the late 1960s, it became more common for artists to perform their own music, and for that music to be highly intertwined with the personality and viewpoint of the artist. In many places around the world, distinct styles evolved in which a single person became known as much for lyrical contest as musical skill. Very often, these movements became part of a major roots revival and sometimes, a political opposition.

Typically, a singer-songwriter will perform solo or with understated accompaniment, accompanying themselves on an instrument (often guitar or keyboards), and be equally well-known for the songs they write as for the way they are performed.

Latin traditions

Beginning in the 1960s, many Latin 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 performes 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.

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-songerwriters 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.

North America

The first recognition of the singer-songwriter as a musical genre in 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, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, David Blue, Carly Simon, Cat Stevens, Bruce Cockburn, Van Morrison, Harry Chapin, and James Taylor. 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.

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 Lucinda Williams and Patti Smith) 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, Nancy Griffith, k.d. lang and P.J. Harvey. 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, Joan Osborne and Tori Amos, 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, and Richard Buckner.

The format of a singer-songwriter concert is frequently a solo artist performing their own works, possibly with a backup band, introducing each song with some explanation of its origin, meaning, etc. For the most part, these are fairly serious songs with personal meaning to the artist. In some cases, most notably Cheryl Wheeler, Christine Lavin, and Vance Gilbert, significant humor is incorporated into these songs and/or presentations. (Wheeler was offered a stand up comic gig at one point, and Christine Lavin once broke her nose while twirling a baton during a show.) Many fans personally relate to the songs, and are generally more likely to know all the lyrics than fans of pop or rock music. Frequently it is the lyrics, rather than the melody or beat of a song, or even the voice of the artist that attracts the fans.

One flourishing aspect of this genre is largely invisible: the indie singer-songwriter. The solo artist format, less expensive on tour and in the studio, fosters "indie" artists who enjoy limited fame and longer careers than most major-label artists. A number of recording labels such as Folkways, Rounder, etc. catered to smaller but devoted customer bases. Some major recording labels also introduced "indie" flavored labels to capture some of this market.

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 touring world are: Dar Williams, Ani DiFranco, Richard Shindell, Willy Porter, Billy Jonas, Annie Gallup, Patty Larkin, and Jennifer Kimball. Emerging indie artists getting notice in 2005 are: Jonathan Byrd, Anais Mitchell, Juliet Wyers, Danya River, Molly Venter.

See also

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