Where in the Actual Hell Is Randy Newman? And Other Questions Raised by the New York Times’ Greatest Living American Songwriters List
Plus Icon
Chris Willman
Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic
ChrisWillman See All
“Who’s Madeline?” is still the year’s preeminent pop-music question. But coming up close behind that: “Where the eff is Randy Newman on the New York Times’ list of the 30 greatest living American songwriters?” Or, you can fill in that blank with some other name of your chagrined choosing, like Tom Waits, Patti Smith, Billy Joel, Jimmy Webb, Jackson Browne, Stephen Schwartz, Beyonce or James Taylor.
There are several likely answers to that. One is that lists like this exist as rage-bait, deliberately or otherwise. (We here at Variety are inveterate listmakers… we are not unfamiliar with a good backlash.) Another is that representation is important, and lists like this easily drift toward whatever the opposite of recency bias is, if their curators aren’t careful. A list comprised almost entirely of 1970s veterans would earn more groans, justifiably, than this one is. So if a few white men over 70 have to be sacrificed to include a Bad Bunny or Mariah, so be it.
Popular on Variety
Related Stories
Where in the Actual Hell Is Randy Newman? And Other Questions Raised by the New York Times' Greatest Living American Songwriters List
Схожі новини
Стало известно, почему Хелена Бонэм Картер покинула четвертый сезон сериала Белый лотос — ее заменит оскароносная Лора Дерн
Масштаб, який важко уявити: яка частина маси Сонячної системи зосереджена в нашій зорі
Поховали у вирві від ракети, під двома вишнями: спогади про Сергія Кандибу з "Азовсталі", якого шукали 2 роки
