I normally don't have any time for the idea that music in the '60s or '70s was SO MUCH BETTER than it is now. Anyone who thinks these decades were devoid of crap can click on any of the words in this sentence. But what those decades (and the 80s, for that matter) did have was a lot of truly great songwriters - Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Prince, Kate Bush, Townes Van Zandt, and so on. People who could win a Nobel Prize for Literature without the entire world collapsing in fits of laughter (as they would for, say, Sting).
I can't think of very many people in the same league who flourished after 1990. It's a period of music I'd like to defend, but in this area I'm struggling. I appreciate that Dylan et al have had a lot longer to establish their reputations, but I'm talking about a period that started 27 years ago. All the greats I listed above were almost universally recognised as greats within a decade or two of breaking out, so I don't think I'm being harsh on the post-1990 era. The only people who come to mind as being in the same category as those above are Tupac and perhaps Eminem.
So are we really in a dark age of songwriting, or are there plenty of greats who I've forgotten? Are there any really contemporary artists who you think will be recognised among the greats in a few years' time? Has the best songwriting now moved to rap?
