Curated playlist
21st-century American songwriters
- Michael JacksonMichael Jackson bought a music catalog with most of the Beatles's material in 1985. He paid 47.5 million dollars.
- Bob DylanAt a 1966 Manchester concert, Bob Dylan told his band to play loud after a heckler called him Judas.
- Taylor SwiftEvery record label in Nashville turned Taylor Swift away when she was 11. She kept going and began writing songs.
- EminemEminem performed with Elton John at the 43rd Grammy Awards while GLAAD protested outside.
- Katy PerryKaty Perry grew up in a home where the word "luck" was banned. Her pastor mother said it reminded her of Lucifer.
- Demi LovatoDemi Lovato, an American singer, songwriter and actress, sang the national anthem at Super Bowl LIV in 2020. Eighteen years earlier, in 2002, Lovato was a child playing a character named Angela on the children's series Barney & Friends.…
- Joan BaezJoan Baez was singing at a music festival called Bratislavská lýra in Communist Czechoslovakia in May 1989 when someone cut off her microphone. From the stage, she had just greeted members of Charter 77, a dissident human-rights group.…
- Benny BlancoBenny Blanco walked onstage on the 13th of June 2013 at the 44th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony. The award in his hands was the Hal David Starlight Award, given to young artists who have already made an impression on the music…
- John Hinckley Jr.John Hinckley Jr. stood among several hundred onlookers outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C., at 2:27 in the afternoon on the 30th of March 1981, carrying a revolver. Ronald Reagan had been president for only two months. When…
- Bobby BrownBobby Brown once summed up his years on the road with New Edition in a single bitter line: "The most I saw from all the tours and all of the records we sold was $500 and a VCR." Soon after, he walked away from the group. Born on the 5th of…
- Lisa Marie PresleyLisa Marie Presley was nine years old in August 1977 when her father, Elvis, died and left her a share of his estate. The will made her a joint heir beside two much older relatives: her 61-year-old grandfather, Vernon, and her 87-year-old…