Singer-songwriter

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Singer-songwriter is a term which refers to performers who write, compose, and sing their own material including lyrics, melodies and often the accompaniment and entire composition or song. This form of artistic expression is very common among performers of songs that are less well-known than pop artists, and thus depend on word of mouth and extensive touring to garner a fan base and commonly appear at house concerts, coffee houses, folk clubs, and festivals.

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[edit] North America and the United Kingdom

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, Leadbelly 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, Fred Neil, Cat Stevens, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton, and Harry Chapin.

The first popular recognition of the singer-songwriter 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, John Denver, Gene Clark, Jackson Browne, Dave Mason, Jim Croce, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Randy Newman, Gordon Lightfoot, Nick Drake, Fred Neil, Tom Rush, Phil Ochs, Eric Andersen, 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 worth noting 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 Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks, Cheryl Wheeler, 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 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, who started the Lilith Fair, along with other artists associated with that event, such as American artists Sheryl Crow, Victoria Williams, Patty Griffin, Jewel, Lisa Loeb, Natalie Merchant, and Joan Osborne. 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 2000s, a quieter style emerged, with largely impressionistic lyrics, from artists such as Iron and Wine (a solo artist), Ray LaMontagne, Jolie Holland, and Richard Buckner.

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. Examples are: Jann Arden, 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 Todd Snider, Josh Ritter, John Francis, Bill Mallonee, David Wolfenberger, Zach Ashton and Amos Lee.

[edit] Germany

Liedermacher is a German term for a writer who sings his own songs. The word "Liedermacher" is a combination of the word "Lieder" (pronunciation like the English word "leader"), meaning "songs," and the word "macher" for "maker" or "writer."

Liedermacher songs have sophisticated lyrics and are usually accompanied by only a few instruments, such as acoustic guitar. Some lyrics are very political in nature. The style is related to American folk/Americana and French chanson styles.

Famous German Liedermacher include Wolf Biermann, Reinhard Mey, Franz Josef Degenhardt, Hannes Wader, Gerhard Schöne and Barbara Thalheim. Herman van Veen from the Netherlands is also very popular in Germany.

As with some American folk singers, many Liedermacher make special recordings for children.

[edit] Latin traditions

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.

[edit] Soviet Union and Russia

Main article: Bard (Soviet Union)

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.

[edit] Hong Kong

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 (側田), Ivana Wong (王菀之), and Rosemary Vandenbroucke, who is also a supermodel.

[edit] World folk

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.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  • Alarik, Scott, Deep Community, (2003), Black Wolf Press. [2]
  • DiMartino, Dave Singer-songwriters:pop music's performer-composers from A to Zevon (1994), Billboard Books.
  • Rodgers, Jeffrey P., The complete singer-songwriter: a troubadour's guide to writing, performing, recording & business, (2003) Backbeat Books.
  • Singer-songwriters of the rock era, (1996), Hal Leonard (sheet music).

[edit] External links

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