Back in April, The New York Times published its list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters.
Knowing that these lists are subjective and everyone has an opinion, editors asked their readers to cast their vote and nominate up to 10 songwriters. And of course, knowing it would make for a follow-up story, the Times has just published The Reader Top 100, saying, “As soon as we decided to make a list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters, we could guess how readers would respond to the results: with a combination of enthusiasm and outrage, quickly letting us know which of their favorites we had unconscionably forgotten.”
Over 25,000 ballots were cast and the "nearly 12,000 distinct choices” were narrowed down to 100 artists, which are now ranked, whereas the original list did not.
So, with that, here are the Top 30, 16 of whom were not on the critics' list:
- Bob Dylan
- Paul Simon
- Bruce Springsteen
- Carole King
- Billy Joel
- Stevie Wonder
- Taylor Swift
- Dolly Parton
- James Taylor (not on the critics’ list)
- Willie Nelson
- Jackson Browne (not on the critics’ list)
- Tom Waits (not on the critics’ list)
- Smokey Robinson
- Randy Newman (not on the critics’ list)
- David Byrne (not on the critics’ list)
- Stevie Nicks (not on the critics’ list)
- Kendrick Lamar
- Lucinda Williams
- Jason Isbell (not on the critics’ list)
- Jeff Tweedy (not on the critics’ list)
- Brandi Carlile (not on the critics’ list)
- Donald Fagen (not on the critics’ list)
- Neil Diamond (not on the critics’ list)
- John Fogerty (not on the critics’ list)
- R.E.M. (not on the critics’ list)
- Patti Smith (not on the critics’ list)
- Don Henley (not on the critics’ list)
- Lionel Richie
- Brian & Eddie Holland
- Jimmy Webb (not on the critics’ list)
For the complete list go to NYTimes.com.
The critics' list in alphabetical order by first name:
- Babyface
- Bad Bunny
- Bob Dylan
- Brian & Eddie Holland
- Bruce Springsteen
- Carole King
- Diane Warren
- Dolly Parton
- Fiona Apple
- Jay-Z
- Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis
- Josh Osborne, Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally
- Kendrick Lamar
- Lana Del Rey
- Lionel Richie
- Lucinda Williams
- Mariah Carey
- Missy Elliott
- Nile Rodgers
- Outkast
- Paul Simon
- Romeo Santos
- Smokey Robinson
- Stephin Merritt
- Stevie Wonder
- Taylor Swift
- The-Dream
- Valerie Simpson
- Willie Nelson
- Young Thug