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Paul Simon
Paul Simon, first as half of Simon & Garfunkel and later as a solo artist, built one of the most critically respected songwriting catalogs in American popular music, and his 1986 solo album Graceland incorporated South African mbaqanga and other regional musical styles, introducing many Western listeners to South African music during the height of the international anti-apartheid movement. Simon's decision to record Graceland with South African musicians during the international cultural boycott of apartheid-era South Africa drew significant controversy, with critics arguing the boycott's spirit had been violated even as Simon and his collaborators defended the album as a genuine artistic and economic partnership with Black South African musicians. His earlier work with Art Garfunkel, including songs like "The Sound of Silence" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water," established Simon as one of the defining songwriters of the 1960s folk-rock movement before the duo's eventual breakup and Simon's subsequent solo career. Simon's combination of melodically sophisticated songwriting, his willingness to incorporate diverse global musical influences into mainstream American pop, and his sustained critical acclaim across both his duo and solo careers have made him one of the most consistently respected songwriters in American popular music history.
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Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen was already an established published poet and novelist in his native Canada before turning to music in his early thirties, and his literary background gave his songwriting a density of language and imagery distinct from most of his singer-songwriter contemporaries. His 1984 song "Hallelujah," largely overlooked upon its original release, became one of the most frequently covered songs in popular music history following later interpretations by Jeff Buckley and other artists, and the song's now-ubiquitous cultural presence stands in stark contrast to its initially modest commercial reception. Cohen's deep, resonant baritone voice, which grew even lower and more weathered across his later career, combined with his consistently dark, spiritually and romantically searching lyrical themes, gave his catalog a distinctive gravity that set him apart from more conventionally melodic singer-songwriters. His final albums, released in his final years including one issued just weeks before his 2016 death, continued directly and unflinchingly addressing mortality, giving Cohen's late-career work an unusually direct meditation on death that critics widely praised as a fitting, deliberate conclusion to his decades-long body of work.
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