Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan Among 30 ‘Greatest Living American Songwriters’

Congratulations are in order for Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan, who have been named among the musicians recognized by The New York Times Magazine in the outlet's tally of the 30 greatest living American songwriters.

As for methodology, according to the publication, they put together the tally using research and feedback from more than 250 music insiders and six New York Times critics. In a message on their official website, they state that when selecting the picks, they centered on "contemporary practitioners working in the ever-evolving tradition of the great American songbook."

In the piece, they debate the idea of calling him the "“greatest songwriter of them all," adding that he's "pushed back the horizons of popular music, expanding the limits of what a song could say and how it could say."

For Springsteen, the outlet says that he's "continued to believe in songwriting as a tool to hold his bruised, beloved country accountable." The feature adds that Springsteen "takes seriously his self-appointed role as America's conscience, its cultural ambassador and its chief firefighter, and he knows that these jobs are never done."

The magazine also recognized Paul Simon as one of the greatest songwriters still living, calling his music "musically voracious, an almost obscenely gifted crafter of melodies and chord progressions and — surprisingly, perhaps — a beatmaster supreme, forever seeking new ways to syncopate his songs."

Of course, other songwriters got props, too, including Mariah Carey, Dolly Parton, Carole King, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson, Nile Rodgers, Lana Del Rey, Fiona Apple, Diane Warren, Willie Nelson and Taylor Swift. Congratulation to these deserving artists.