Talk:List of singer-songwriters
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I've culled a large number of
entries from the UK and US sections of this. The article starts out with a reasonable definition (and one consistent with the singer-songwriter article):
those singers who write their own material, usually perform solo, accompany themselves on guitar or keyboards, and are known as much or more for their songwriting skills as for their performance abilities.
I've removed names which clearly do not meet many (if any) of these criteria: rap artists, rock acts, disco singers, etc. I've left many marginal cases as well as names I'm not familiar with and only looked at UK and US; the list could probably stand more culling. Jgm 14:38, 30 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Contents |
[edit] Split list
It looks like there's no way to keep this list under control or held to the definition given simply by removing names. I've split the list into two: a list of singer-songwriters that meet the definition given in the singer-songwriter article, and a list of others who both sing and write songs -- hopefully this can catch the frontmen, rock/soul/country performers, and singers who wrote one or two of their own songs. I moved the most obvious examples that I am aware of, trying to err on the side of caution; I hope others who are more familiar with some of these acts will move them if appropriate. Jgm 14:42, 19 Dec 2004 (UTC)
- Why doesn't Stevie Wonder belong in the first category? He writes his own songs, accompanies them himself on keyboards with minimal arrangements, and is as know for his songwriting as for his pweformances. --FuriousFreddy 18:34, 8 Apr 2005 (UTC)
(mckyj57) The split list needs extensive cleanup. If Jimi Hendrix "performed alone or with minimal accompaniment" I will eat my hat. Perhaps better yet, we should unsplit or split into country-based pages.
[edit] Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Lightfoot appears as both Canadian and American. While he did spend a brief period in the US in the 50s, he hardly fits into the American category.
- Gordon Lightfoot belongs as much to the U.S. as to Canada (well, fine. Maybe not AS much, but it's close). If you want to split the artists up by birthplace, then that's fine, but trying to separate them by where they're more popular or where they spent more time is going to be an impossible task, particularly with Canadian/American artists. Canadian and American music are nearly impossible to differentiate. Maybe you should merge the Canadian and American lists and just put a (C) or (A) behind the name to denote nationality. --Bayyoc 03:21, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Buckley, father and son
Jeff Buckley but no Tim buckley???
[edit] Question for editors of Singer / Songwriter page
Are singer/songwriters to be included only if they already have a wikipedia article currently in place? --Duke 53 20:30, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
- Hi Duke, consider making a link to your userpage in your signature. My opinion. Yes, I would try to keep it to those who have articles. I would also encourage the use of categories so that lists like this can eventually be deleted. I say this because lists like this tend to grow very quickly attracting all sorts of names and become difficult to maintain this is even more true if red links are allowed to grow. I suppose the flip side is that red links might inspire articles. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to happen enough though. Well, thats my opinion. -MrFizyx 20:49, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
- Also, since you are now an editor of this page, your opinion matters too. -MrFizyx 20:51, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
- Actually I only started adding names of some older performers that the younger folks here may never had the chance to hear, or get to know. --Duke 53 23:13, 24 August 2006 (UTC) User:Duke53
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- how's this? --Duke 53 User_talk:Duke53 23:32, 24 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Alphabetical order
Hi all: I was confused about the order of the entries, as some of the country sections list artists in alphabetical order by first name and others by the last name. Most of the Wikipedia lists I've seen thus far are usually by last name. Banzaiboy 08:38, 23 September 2006 (UTC)
- Feel free to fix this. This is one reason why categories are much better for this sort of thing. -MrFizyx 21:05, 25 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] "Traditional"
What exactly is the distinction between "traditional" and "non-traditional" singer-songwriters? And are there really people who belong in both sections? I see that Ted Nugent is given as "traditional", Phil Ochs as non-traditional; by my intuition they'd be exactly the other way around. Jason Mraz is in both places, as are Fiona Apple, Tori Amos and David Crosby.
I probably have a lot of knowledge I could bring to this article—I'm familiar with the majority of the performers mentioned, and I don't just mean the English-language performers—but I am not sure I understand the principles according to which it is organized, or even whether they are internally consistent. - Jmabel | Talk 08:00, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
- I think the list is a mess. The descriptions are poor and many people are listed in the wrong list or both lists etc. I think the intent may have been to parse out the general definition of singer-songwriter (any performer who writes most of his/her own songs) from what I would call the "contemporary singer-songwriter" which is generally considered to be a sub genre of contemporary folk music--these people are not really "traditional" either, but have their roots in the same types of venues and scenes that sprouted a young Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, etc. (more modern folk festivals, folk clubs etc.). The All Music Guide uses two pages to define the two different definitions of singer-songwriter [1], [2]. You'll notice that the two definitions aren't really all that different, but the lists of "top artist" for each genre are quite different. Our own article on "singer-songwriter" doesn't do a very good job with this problem as of yet either. -MrFizyx 22:32, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
So, in other words, essentially unsourced, and we are using our intuition? Wheee! A great way to get consensus. Well, I guess I'll just wade in. - Jmabel | Talk 06:40, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
- Yeah, I've given up trying to police this page. It is something of a dumping ground used mostly by IP editors. Good luck with it. If you want to merege the lists, or redefine the categories to make things more clear, I doubt anyone would mind at this point. -MrFizyx 19:51, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Awen
Awen is linked as both trad & non-trad U.S. singer-songwriter. The linked article is not even about a person. Any objection to just removing? - Jmabel | Talk 06:44, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
- Yeah feel free to clean-up. I doubt you really need ask. -MrFizyx 19:51, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
