The singer-songwriter genre research

1. The SINGER
SONGWRITER GENRE
By Chloe Street

2. Resources
The resources that I have found information from
include:
• Wikipedia.org
• Youtube.com
• Theivors.com

3. The singer songwriter
genre
• The singer-songwriter genre is used to define artists
who write and then perform all of their own music,
normally while playing either the acoustic guitar or a
piano.
• Singer-songwriter artists often perform the roles of
the composer, lyricist, performer and it is common
for them to be self managed.
• ‘AllMusic’, an online music guide, says that singer-
songwriter’s lyrics are very often personal to the
artist but with the use of metaphors and imagery, the
song can be easily interpreted by any individual who
listens.

4. History
• The singer-songwriter genre can be traced back to Irish bardic poetry
which ended around the 17th century. The bardic poems would be
performed by the poets and authors in the form of chants and dances with
different instruments.
• After printing was invented, songs were written and performed by the
ballad sellers however the melodies they would normally sing the songs to
were normally already existing tunes.
• Once the singer-songwriter folk culture traditions became popular in the
19th century, performers would travel around Europe performing and
selling prints of their songs.
• If performers had the chance to perform in public venues they would use
the newly invented phonographic recordings and through this some of the
earliest singer-songwriters became celebrities.
• From the 1940s younger performers who were inspired by the earlier
traditional folk music began writing and performing their own songs with
influences from blues, folk, rock ‘n’ roll and pop music.

5. Main SINGER-
SONGWRITER ARTISTS
Buddy Holly
Buddy Holly was a
famous singer-
songwriter in the
1950s for his Rock
n Roll music. He
played the guitar in
his songs and won
the Grammy
Lifetime
Achievement
Award in 1997.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan became
the ‘voice of a
generation’ in the
1960s, specifically
for songs such as
‘Blowin’ in the Wind’.
He performs the
instruments such as
guitar, keyboard and
harmonica and has
won multiple
Grammy’s
John Lennon
John Lennon is most
famous for founding
the band ‘The
Beatles’. Lennon
plays the guitar,
harmonica and the
piano in his songs
and he has won 4
Grammy’s including
the Grammy Lifetime
Achievement Award
in 1991.
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce
Springsteen’s
music has many
influences
including blues
and folk music. He
plays the piano
and guitar in his
music and has
been nominated
for multiple
Grammy’s and an

6. Other Singer-songwriter
artists
Some other famous singer-songwriter artists can
include:
• Michael Jackson
• Jack Johnson
• Neil Young
• John Mayer
• James Bay
• Elvis Presley

7. Evolution of the singer
songwriter
1930s – Billie Holiday: Strange Fruit (jazz)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI
1950s – Johnny B Goode: Chuck Berry (pop rock)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFo8-JqzSCM
1970s – Bruce Springsteen: The Promised Land (rock)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6I9BQzI4WE
2000s – Jack Johnson: Banana Pancakes (singer songwriter/rock)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkyrIRyrRdY
2010s – James Bay: Let It Go (Indie/Alternative/Rock)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsPq9mzFNGY

8. Awards
From research there isn't any significant awards, for
big events like the Grammys, the MTV Music awards,
and the Brit awards, specifically for the singer-
songwriter genre as normally, singer-songwriters can
win general awards for example: the Grammy for
‘Song of the Year’, and ‘Best New Artist’.
The Ivor Novello Awards reward singer-songwriters
and composers with awards including: Best Song
Musically and Lyrically and Best Contemporary Song.

9. Key codes and conventions of a singer-
songwriter video
• Generally, singer-songwriter music videos can be a hybrid and have both
narrative and performance as the artist is normally in the video (due to the
the fact that they wrote ,composed and sung the song). While performing
the song, the artist is often also featured in the narrative part of the video.
Potentially due to the fact that a singer-songwriter song can often have a
personal story within the song.
• There is often long takes of the artist performing in various locations with
the instrument of their choice (however generally this is a piano or guitar).
Close ups of the artists are also common to show the artists emotions at
the beginning of the video which potentially can set the mood for the entire
song.
• As a singer-songwriter song can often be easy to interpret by any
individual, the story line for a narrative singer-songwriter video often has a
clear narrative that is easy to relate to and entertaining for the audience.
• Often, singer-songwriter videos are quite simplistic. There generally isn’t
choreographed back up dancers and expensive sets and locations. The
locations can be simplistic with two or three main actors who feature in the
music video (this often includes the artist as well)

10. An example of a singer songwriter video is John Lennon’s song
‘Imagine’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVg2EJvvlF8
The song features only two people including Lennon himself. For
a main part of the video, the couple are seen walking through
the simplistic location of a forest and then a white room in which
we see Lennon playing the piano. There is also some close up
shots of him lip-syncing to the song.

11. The style, clothing and
attitudes
The style of clothing of most singer-songwriters is
fairly casual. We see most artists of this genre
wearing jeans and a shirt. Example’s being Ed
Sheeran and Tom Speight who are often seen in
this style of clothing.
This is could be because they don’t want their
appearance to distract from the song unlike
eccentric artists like Prince whose appearance
was
part of his act.
The singer-songwriter genre can
often have a positive attitude
with artists giving a message
within the song.