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Greatest Living Rock Songwriters
Who is the best songwriter alive today? The musician responsible for the lyrics and music that's the most memorable, significant and lasting in all of rock history, who is still with us today. We're talking, over the course of an entire career, the person who has written the most great songs. A few things to keep in mind: (1) Songwriting teams are acceptable if they truly worked together (for example, Elton John writing music to Bernie Taupin's lyrics). When possible, as in the case of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, separate them and focus on individual songwriting. (2) LIVING songwriters. Living. (3) I think the ratio of "great songs" to "not good songs" is important to consider. If someone has 2 classic albums of great songs and then 5 albums worth of garbage, that impacts the overall view of the career, no matter how good the original work was. Something to keep in mind.
Add your own selections below and vote up the people you feel are worthy of the title of Greatest Living Rock Songwriter. PLUS, if you have Spotify, you can listen to full songs from each of the listed songwriters on our Ranker playlist!
Add your own selections below and vote up the people you feel are worthy of the title of Greatest Living Rock Songwriter. PLUS, if you have Spotify, you can listen to full songs from each of the listed songwriters on our Ranker playlist!
- 1Up 190Down 86Classical music, Rock music, Hard rock More
- 2Up 160Down 93Folk music, Rock music, Hard rock More
- 3Up 132Down 78Rock music, Hard rock, Progressive rock More
- 4Up 142Down 89Rock music, Hard rock, Folk rock More
- 5Up 129Down 80Rock music, Hard rock, Heavy metal Moreadded by: Randolph
- 6Up 117Down 76added by: Mark
- 7Up 95Down 60
Elton John and Bernie Taupin
added by: Ron Mexico - 8Up 171Down 121Folk music, Rock music, Folk rock Moreadded by: Benjamin Dunn
- 9Up 98Down 68Rock music, Hard rock, Progressive rock Moreadded by: Randolph
- 10Up 91Down 65Hard rock, Progressive rock, Folk rock Moreadded by: Pallknowing1
- 11Up 104Down 78Rock music, Hard rock, New Wave More
- 12Up 69Down 51Rock music, Hard rock, Progressive rock Moreadded by: TVs Frank
- 13Up 86Down 71Rock music, Pop music, Experimental rock More
- 14Up 73Down 63Film score, Alternative rock, New Wave More
- 15Up 25Down 18Rock music, Progressive rock, Jazz fusion Moreadded by: ohnoitsmanasco
- 16Up 62Down 58Rock music, Blues-rock, Alternative country Moreadded by: Ariel Kana
- 17Up 16Down 12Rock music, Progressive rock, Pop rock Moreadded by: ohnoitsmanasco“ Electric Light Orchestra founder and excellent producer. „
- 18Up 73Down 70Alternative rock, Rock music, Pop rock Moreadded by: Ron Mexico
- 19Up 30Down 27Rock music, Rhythm and blues, Rock and roll Moreadded by: KirkSaw
- 20Up 46Down 44Rock music, Hard rock, Pop rock More
- 21Up 26Down 24Rock music, Soft rock, Folk rock Moreadded by: KirkSaw
- 22Up 16Down 14Rock music, Hard rock, Progressive rock Moreadded by: couchlock420
- 23Up 23Down 22Alternative rock, Rock music, Blues-rock Moreadded by: couchlock420
- 24Up 3Down 1Folk music, Rock music, Country Moreadded by: danmedsker
- 25Up 66Down 68Alternative rock, Progressive rock, Electronic music Moreadded by: Ariel Kana
- 26Up 49Down 50Alternative rock, Rock music, Hard rock Moreadded by: Clark Benson
- 27Up 55Down 57Alternative rock, Pop rock, Rockabilly Moreadded by: LaurieM
- 28Up 45Down 47Alternative rock, Punk rockadded by: Clark Benson
- 29Up 17Down 17Rhythm and blues, Soul music, Pop music Moreadded by: KirkSaw
- 30Up 50Down 53Alternative rock, Hard rock, Folk rock Moreadded by: Pallknowing1
- 31Up 50Down 54Folk music, Rock music, Jazz fusion Moreadded by: jdbranded
- 32Up 5Down 5Alternative rock, Hard rock, Alternative metal Moreadded by: richerb
- 33Up 22Down 24Rock music, Hard rock, Progressive rock Moreadded by: KirkSaw
- 34Up 14Down 16Film score, Rock music, Soft rock Moreadded by: KirkSaw
- 35Up 82Down 92Folk music, Rock music, Soft rock More
- 36Up 72Down 81Rhythm and blues, Soul music, Pop music Moreadded by: Ron Mexico
- 37Up 3Down 4Alternative rock, Rock music, Progressive rock Moreadded by: CourtneySchumm
- 38Up 2Down 3Progressive rock, Neo-progressive rockadded by: mrblond
- 39Up 41Down 47
Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan
added by: Kel Varnsen - 40Up 47Down 54Rock music, Hard rock, Heavy metal Moreadded by: Clark Benson“ Young/Young/Johnson „
- 41Up 45Down 52Alternative rock, Rock music, World musicadded by: TVs Frank
- 42Up 51Down 59Rock music, Pop rock, New Wave Moreadded by: Mark
- 43Up 40Down 47Alternative rock, Hard rock, Alternative metal Moreadded by: thejaybravo
- 44Up 9Down 12Classical music, Rock music, Progressive rock Moreadded by: ohnoitsmanasco“ Keyboardist for Genesis „
- 45Up 1Down 3
John Frusciante and Josh Klinghoffer
Alternative rock, Rock music, Progressive rock Moreadded by: CourtneySchumm - 46Up 35Down 43Alternative rock, Hard rock, Post-punk Moreadded by: jdbranded
- 47Up 38Down 47Indie rockadded by: Mark
- 48Up 43Down 53Alternative rock, Folk rock, Alternative country Moreadded by: Randolph
- 49Up 6Down 10
Jack White III
added by: cheeseburger - 50Up 0Down 3
Ben Gibbard
Alternative rock, Indie rock, Emoadded by: KodyBjork -
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Greatest Living Rock Songwriters at 12/13/2012 10:30 PM
Greatest Living Rock Songwriters at 10/05/2012 7:30 AM
Greatest Living Rock Songwriters at 7/15/2012 2:30 AM
Greatest Living Rock Songwriters at 4/02/2012 6:14 AM
Greatest Living Rock Songwriters at 2/24/2012 3:31 PM
Greatest Living Rock Songwriters at 2/18/2012 8:21 AM