The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters

155 snips

May 3, 2026

Guest

Sasha Weiss, New York Times Magazine deputy editor, joins Joe Coscarelli, culture reporter and pop writer, and Jody Rosen, music critic and author. They unpack the fierce ballot debates behind a list of top living American songwriters. Taylor Swift’s craft, Jay-Z’s wordplay, Nile Rodgers’s dance-floor genius, and Billy Joel’s surprising omission keep the conversation lively.

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INSIGHT

Why Billy Joel Missed The Final 30

Billy Joel missing the list reflects the project’s criteria, not a claim that he lacks greatness.
Sasha Weiss says his catalog faced pressure against Dylan and Springsteen, while the list still tried to represent the broader "Piano Man schmaltz tradition."

INSIGHT

Taylor Swift Turns The Song Into The Plot

Joe Coscarelli argues Taylor Swift’s enduring songwriting trick is the self-revealing twist that makes the song’s creation part of the plot.
He traces it from "Tim McGraw" and "Our Song" to "The Last Great American Dynasty," where the narrator’s identity flips at the end.

INSIGHT

Taylor Swift Learned Wordplay From Emo Lyrics

Taylor Swift links her phrasing style to emo, where writers bend familiar expressions until they sting.
She says she loves polarity in a line and even rewrites for sound, changing "talk real low" to "talk real slow."

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Roughly a year ago, a team at The New York Times Magazine set about tackling a nearly impossible task: creating a list of the greatest living American songwriters. But how to take the tens of thousands of songwriters working in this country and narrow them down to a digestible list? The answer involved thousands of voting ballots, hundreds of music industry insiders and a series of closed-door meetings among a small group of music experts. The result, The Times’s list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters, was published this week.

Today, Michael Barbaro talks with Sasha Weiss, a deputy editor of The Times Magazine, who oversaw the project, as well as Joe Coscarelli and Jody Rosen, two members of the cadre of critics assigned with compiling the final list. They discuss the list-making process, what defines a great songwriter and why Billy Joel didn’t make the final cut.

We also hear from some of the songwriters featured on the list, including Taylor Swift, Nile Rodgers and the songwriting team of Brandy Clark, Shane McAnally and Josh Osborne.

On Today's Episode:

Sasha Weiss is a deputy editor of The New York Times Magazine.

Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter for The Times. He is a co-host of “Popcast,” a producer of the “Song of the Week” video series and the author of “Rap Capital: An Atlanta Story.”

Jody Rosen is a contributing writer for the magazine and the author of “Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle.”

Background Reading:

The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters

Cast Your Vote for the Greatest Living American Songwriters

Photo credit: Stefan Ruiz for The New York Times

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