Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose, and perform their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary pop music singers who may write or co-write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the folk-acoustic tradition. Singer-songwriters often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano; both the compositions and the arrangements are written primarily as solo vehicles, with the material angled toward topical issues—sometimes political, sometimes introspective, sensitive, romantic, and confessional.

Often, the songs written by these musicians serve not only as entertainment, but also as tools for political protest, as in the cases of the Almanac Singers, Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie, whose guitar was inscribed with the words, "This machine kills fascists".

Definition and usage

"Singer-songwriter" is used to define popular music artists who write and perform their own material, which is often self-accompanied generally on acoustic guitar or piano. Such an artist performs the roles of composer, lyricist, vocalist, instrumentalist, and often self-manager. Singer-songwriters' lyrics are personal, but veiled by elaborate metaphors and vague imagery, and their creative concern was to place emphasis on the song rather than their performance of it. Most records by such artists have a similarly straightforward and spare sound that placed emphasis on the song itself.