Editing Singer-songwriter (section)

=== North America, United Kingdom, and Ireland ===
{{See also|American folk music revival}}
[[File:Paul Simon at the 9-30 Club (b).jpg|thumb|250x250px|[[Paul Simon]] in concert, 2011]]

The term "singer-songwriter" in North America can be traced back to singers who developed works in the blues and folk music style. Early to mid-20th century American singer-songwriters include [[Lead Belly]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.leadbelly.org/re-homepage.html |title=Leadbelly Foundation |website=Leadbelly.org |access-date=22 September 2010 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123193411/http://www.leadbelly.org/re-homepage.html |archive-date=23 January 2010  }}</ref> [[Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)|Jimmie Rodgers]],<ref>{{cite web |first = Ted|last = Ownby |url= http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/39/jimmie-rodgers-the-father-of-country-music |title=Jimmie Rodgers: The Father of Country Music |website= Mississippi History Now |date=July 2004 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101007161643/http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/39/jimmie-rodgers-the-father-of-country-music |archive-date=7 October 2010  }}</ref> [[Blind Lemon Jefferson]],<ref>Dicaire, David.  ''Blues Singers: Biographies of 50 Legendary Artists of the Early 20th Century'', pp. 140–144. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc., 1999. {{ISBN|0-7864-0606-2}}.</ref> [[T-Bone Walker]],<ref name="RS greatist guitarists">{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/5945/32609/33089|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100612164258/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/5945/32609/33089|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 June 2010|title=47; T-Bone Walker|last= Wenner |first=Jann|author-link=Jann Wenner|year=2010|magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=16 November 2010}}</ref> [[Blind Willie McTell]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://toto.lib.unca.edu/sounds/piedmontblues/mctell.html |title=East Coast Piedmont Blues – Blind Willie McTell |website=Toto.lib.unca.edu |access-date=23 May 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101173308/http://toto.lib.unca.edu/sounds/piedmontblues/mctell.html |archive-date=1 November 2013  }}</ref> [[Lightnin' Hopkins]],<ref>Russell, Tony (1997). The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray. Dubai: Carlton Books Limited. pp. 145–146. {{ISBN|1-85868-255-X}}.</ref> [[Son House]],<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.nationalguitars.com/part3.html |title=National Guitar.com |access-date=11 April 2008 |url-status= bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080411011621/http://www.nationalguitars.com/part3.html |archive-date=11 April 2008  }}</ref> and [[Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson]].<ref>{{Cite journal |title=The 50 albums that changed music |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2006/jul/16/popandrock.shopping |journal=[[The Observer]] |date=16 July 2006 |access-date=1 November 2008 | location=London}}</ref><ref>Booklet accompanying the ''Complete Recordings'' box set, Stephen LaVere, Sony Music Entertainment, 1990, Clapton quote on p. 26</ref> In the 1940s and 1950s country singer-songwriters like [[Hank Williams]] became well known,<ref>[http://www.sputnikmusic.com/bands/Hank-Williams/9523/ Hank Williams Sputnik Music profile] Retrieved 8 September 2014</ref> as well as [[Woody Guthrie]], and [[Pete Seeger]],<ref name= "Spivey">Spivey, Christine A. {{cite web |url=http://www.loyno.edu/history/journal/1996-7/Spivey.html |title=This Land is Your land, This Land is My Land: Folk Music, Communism, and the Red Scare as a Part of the American Landscape. |access-date=25 June 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625072313/http://www.loyno.edu/history/journal/1996-7/Spivey.html |archive-date=25 June 2008  }} ''The Student Historical Journal 1996–1997'', Loyola University New Orleans, 1996.</ref> along with [[Ronnie Gilbert]] and [[Lee Hays]] and other members of [[the Weavers]] who performed their mostly topical works to an ever-growing wider audience.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=LnORWrmvlloC&q=Committee "Sing out, warning! sing out, love!": the writings of Lee Hays], by Lee Hays and Steven Koppelman (Amherst and Boston: [[University of Massachusetts Press]], 2003), p. 116.</ref> These proto-singer-songwriters were less concerned than today's singer-songwriters with the unadulterated originality of their music and lyrics, and would lift parts from other songs and play covers without hesitation. The tradition of writing topical songs (songs regarding specific issues of the day, such as Lead Belly's "Jim Crow Blues" or Guthrie's "[[Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)]]") was established by this group of musicians. Singers like Seeger and Guthrie would attend rallies for labor unions, and so wrote many songs concerning the life of the working classes, and social protest; as did other folksingers like [[Josh White]], [[Cisco Houston]], [[Malvina Reynolds]], [[Earl Robinson]], [[Ewan MacColl]], [[John Jacob Niles]], and [[Doc Watson]], while blues singers like Johnson and Hopkins wrote songs about their personal life experiences. This focus on social issues has greatly influenced the singer-songwriter genre. Additionally in the 1930s through the 1950s several jazz and blues singer-songwriters emerged like [[Hoagy Carmichael]], [[Billie Holiday]], [[Ray Charles]], [[Harry Gibson]], [[Peggy Lee]], and [[Nina Simone]], as well as in the [[rock n' roll]] genre from which emerged influential singer-songwriters [[Jerry Lee Lewis]], [[Buddy Holly]], [[Chuck Berry]], [[Roy Orbison]], [[Sam Cooke]], [[Ritchie Valens]], and [[Paul Anka]]. In the [[country music]] field, singer-songwriters like [[Hank Williams]], [[Patsy Cline]], [[Tammy Wynette]], [[Loretta Lynn]], [[George Jones]], [[Merle Haggard]], [[Roger Miller]], [[Billy Edd Wheeler]], and others emerged from the 1940s through the 1960s, often writing compelling songs about love relationships and other subjects.[[File:Joni Mitchell 1983.jpg|thumb|left|[[Joni Mitchell]], 1983]][[File:Woody Guthrie 2.jpg|thumb|[[Woody Guthrie]], 1943]]The first popular recognition of the singer-songwriter in English-speaking North America and the United Kingdom occurred in the 1960s and early 1970s when a series of blues, folk and [[country music|country]]-influenced musicians rose to prominence and popularity. These singer-songwriters included [[Bob Dylan]], [[Neil Young]], [[John Lennon]], [[Van Morrison]], [[Willie Nelson]], [[Paul Simon]], [[Leonard Cohen]], [[Albert Hammond]], [[Gordon Lightfoot]], and [[Joni Mitchell]]. Artists who had been primarily songwriters, notably [[Carole King]], [[Townes Van Zandt]], and [[Neil Diamond]], 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 singer-songwriter style.[[File:Joan Baez Bob Dylan crop.jpg|thumb|[[Bob Dylan]], 1963]]
[[File:Carole King.jpg|thumb|left|Carole King performing aboard [[USS Harry S. Truman|USS ''Harry S. Truman'']] in the Mediterranean in 2000]]
In the [[rock band]] era, members were not technically singer-songwriters as solo acts. However, many were singer-songwriters who created songs with other band members. Examples include [[Paul McCartney]], [[John Lennon]], [[George Harrison]], [[Ringo Starr]], [[Brian Wilson]], [[Mick Jagger]], [[Keith Richards]], [[Jerry Garcia]] and [[Bob Weir]], [[Elton John]] (with [[Bernie Taupin]]), [[Justin Hayward]], [[John Lodge (musician)|John Lodge]], [[Robbie Robertson]], [[Ian Anderson]], [[Phil Collins]], [[Peter Gabriel]], [[Peter Frampton]], [[Don Henley]], [[Glenn Frey]], [[Country Joe McDonald]], and [[Barry Melton]]. Many others like [[Eric Clapton]] found success as singer-songwriters in their later careers.

The scene that had developed out of the [[American folk music revival]], pioneered by [[Woody Guthrie]] and [[Pete Seeger]] had grown to a major movement in the early 1960s, popularized by [[Joan Baez]] and her protégée, [[Bob Dylan]], who had started reaching a mainstream audience with his hit, [[Blowin' in the Wind]]" (1963) bringing "[[protest song]]s" to a wider audience.<ref>J. E. Perone, ''Music of the Counterculture Era American History Through Music'' (Westwood, CT: Greenwood, 2004), {{ISBN|0-313-32689-4}}, p. 37.</ref> There were hints of cross-pollination, but rock and folk music had remained largely separate genres, often with different audiences.<ref name=Bogdanov2002FolkRock>{{cite book|last1=Bogdanov |first1= Vladimir|last2=Woodstra |first2= Chris|last3=Erlewine |first3 = Stephen Thomas|date = 2002 |pages=1308–09|title = All Music Guide to Rock: The Definitive Guide to Rock, Pop, and Soul|isbn = 9780879306533|publisher = Hal Leonard Corporation}}</ref> An early attempt at fusing elements of folk and rock was highlighted in the Animals "[[House of the Rising Sun]]" (1964), a folk song, recorded with rock and roll instrumentation.<ref name="marsh1001">{{Cite web|url=https://www.lexjansen.com/cgi-bin/marsh_xml.php?fn=87|title=The Heart of Rock and Soul by Dave Marsh – 1001 greatest singles|website=Lexjansen.com|access-date=30 May 2021}}</ref>

By the mid-1960s [[Bob Dylan]] took the lead in merging folk and rock, and in July 1965, released "[[Like a Rolling Stone]]", with a revolutionary rock sound, steeped in tawdry urban imagery, followed by an electric performance later that month at the Newport Folk Festival. Dylan plugged an entire generation into the milieu of the singer-songwriter. Often writing from an urban point of view, with poetry punctuated by rock rhythms and electric power, Dylan's fusing of folk and rock freed up emerging singer-songwriters to use elements of both traditions to tell their stories. In the mid- to late 1960s, bands and singer-songwriters began to proliferate the underground New York art/music scene. The release of ''[[The Velvet Underground & Nico]]'' in 1967, featuring singer-songwriter [[Lou Reed]] and German singer and collaborator [[Nico]] was described as the "most prophetic rock album ever made" by ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' in 2003.<ref>{{Cite magazine |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ |title=Poker's New World Order : Rolling Stone |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=30 May 2021 |archive-date=13 April 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090413022906/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7371959/pokers_new_world_order |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6597640/13_the_velvet_underground |title=13) The Velvet Underground|magazine=Rolling Stone|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060316135338/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6597640/13_the_velvet_underground/|archive-date = 16 March 2006|url-status=dead |date = 1 November 2003}}</ref>

In the late '60s a new wave of female singer-songwriters broke from the confines of pop, using the urban landscape as their canvas for lyrics in the confessional style of poets like [[Anne Sexton]] and [[Sylvia Plath]]. These pioneering women, appeared in a feature in ''[[Newsweek]]'', July 1969, "The Girls: Letting Go: 'What is common to them – to [[Joni Mitchell]] and [[Lotti Golden]], to [[Laura Nyro]], [[Melanie Safka|Melanie]], and to [[Elyse Weinberg]], are the personalised songs they write, like voyages of self-discovery, brimming with keen observation and startling in the impact of their poetry."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2664&from=search|title=Joni Mitchell Library – THE GIRLS—LETTING GO: Newsweek, July 14, 1969|website=Jonimitchell.com|access-date=30 May 2021}}</ref> In ''[[The Guardian]]'', author [[Laura Barton]] describes the radical shift in subject matter—they sang about politics, love affairs, the urban landscape, drugs, disappointment, and the life and loneliness of the itinerant performer.<ref name="auto">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/26/from-joni-mitchell-to-laura-marling-how-female-troubadours-changed-music |title=From Joni Mitchell to Laura Marling: how female troubadours changed music |first=Laura |last=Barton |author-link=Laura Barton |date=26 January 2017 |access-date=2021-05-06 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|location=London}}</ref> [[Lotti Golden]], in her Atlantic debut album ''[[Motor-Cycle (album)|Motor-Cycle]]'', chronicled her life in NYC's East Village in the late 1960s counterculture, visiting subjects such as gender identity (The Space Queens-Silky is Sad) and excessive drug use (Gonna Fay's). The women in the 1969 Newsweek article ushered in a new age of the contemporary female singer-songwriter that has informed generations of women singer-songwriters into the 21st century,<ref name="auto"/> with poet [[Warsan Shire]] as the muse for [[Beyoncé]]'s 2016 album [[Lemonade (Beyoncé album)|''Lemonade'']].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/27/475872852/beyonces-lemonade-turns-a-somali-brit-poet-into-a-global-star|title=Beyonce's 'Lemonade' Turns A Somali-Brit Poet into A Global Star|publisher=NPR}}</ref>
 
By the mid-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 [[Billy Joel]], [[Stevie Wonder]], [[Gilbert O'Sullivan]], [[Bruce Springsteen]], [[Tom Petty]], [[Jackson Browne]], [[Chris Isaak]], [[Victoria Williams]], [[John Mellencamp]], and [[Warren Zevon]]) continued to emerge, and in other cases rock and even [[punk rock]] artists such as [[Peter Case]], [[Paul Collins (musician)|Paul Collins]], and [[Paul Westerberg]] transitioned to careers as solo singer-songwriters. [[Kate Bush]] remained distinctive throughout with her idiosyncratic style.

In the late 1980s, the term was applied to a group of predominantly female U.S. artists, beginning with [[Suzanne Vega]] whose first album sold unexpectedly well, followed by the likes of [[Tracy Chapman]], [[Melissa Etheridge]], [[Nanci Griffith]], [[k.d. lang]], [[Mariah Carey]], [[Shania Twain]], [[Sarah McLachlan]], [[Shawn Colvin]], [[Sheryl Crow]], [[Lisa Loeb]], [[Joan Osborne]], [[Indigo Girls]], and [[Tori Amos]], who found success first in the United Kingdom, then in her home market. In the early 1990s, female artists also began to emerge in new styles, including [[Courtney Love]] and [[PJ Harvey]]. Later in the mid-1990s, the term was revived again with the success of Canada's [[Alanis Morissette]] and her breakthrough album ''[[Jagged Little Pill]].''

Also in the 1980s and 1990s, artists such as [[Bono]], [[the Edge]], [[Dave Matthews]], [[Jeff Buckley]], [[Richard Barone]], [[Duncan Sheik]], and [[Elliott Smith]] borrowed from the singer-songwriter tradition to create new acoustic-based rock styles. In the 2000s, a quieter style emerged, with largely impressionistic lyrics, from artists such as [[Norah Jones]], [[Conor Oberst]], [[Sufjan Stevens]], [[David Bazan]], [[South San Gabriel (band)|South San Gabriel]], [[Iron & Wine]], [[David Gray (British musician)|David Gray]], [[Ray LaMontagne]], [[Meg Hutchinson]], [[Darden Smith]], [[Josh Rouse]], Steve Millar, [[Jolie Holland]], [[Patrick Duff]], [[Richard Buckner (musician)|Richard Buckner]], [[Jewel (singer)|Jewel]], [[Jack Savoretti]], [[Richard Shindell]], [[John Gorka]], and [[Antje Duvekot]]. Some started to branch out in new genres such as [[Kurt Cobain]], [[Noel Gallagher]], [[T Bone Burnett]], [[Eddie Vedder]], and [[Pete Yorn]]. Others used [[Recreational drug use|drugs]] as a mind-altering way to boost creativity; for example, Emil Amos of [[Holy Sons (band)|Holy Sons]] took drugs daily from age sixteen on, wrote over 1,000 songs, and landed a record contract with an [[indie music|indie label]].<ref name=twsAprZB11>{{cite news |first=Chris|last=Martins |title=Sober People Scare the Shit Out of Me |work=LA Weekly |date=10 March 2011|url=http://www.laweekly.com/2011-03-10/music/sober-people-scare-the-shit-out-of-me/ |access-date=28 April 2011}}</ref>

Recording on the professional-grade systems became affordable for individuals in the late 1990s. This created opportunities for people to independently record and sell their music. Such artists are known as "indies" because they release their records on independent, often self-owned record labels, or no label at all. Additionally the Internet has provided a means for indies to get their music heard by a wider audience.

{|style="margin: 0 auto;"
| [[File:David Crosby in 1976.jpg|thumb|upright|[[David Crosby]], (of [[the Byrds]] and [[Crosby, Stills & Nash]]) is one of the singer-songwriters who crossed over into mainstream rock, seen here in 1976 backstage of the Frost Amphitheater, Stanford University.]]
| [[File:Tracy Chapman at TED conference 2007 by jurvetson.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Tracy Chapman]] began singing about social issues in American society in the 1980s.]]
| [[File:Norahjonesongma.jpg|thumb|[[Norah Jones]] performing on an electric piano in 2010. Jones is the daughter of [[Ravi Shankar]].|201x201px]]
| [[File:Taylor Swift 008 (17684337073).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Taylor Swift]] is a contemporary singer-songwriter (pictured in 2015)]]
|[[File: Matty Healy at Open'er Festival (48687418182).jpg|thumb|220x220px|[[Matty Healy]] is a British singer-songwriter who fronts the indie art pop band [[the 1975]] (pictured in 2019)]]
|}