«Today’s Lyrics Are Pathetically Bad» Rick Beato

"As for the 21st century, I'm hard pressed to think of anyone who deserves to be mentioned or compared to any of the above songwriters."

Totally agree. Most of the best songwriters of the 21st century got started in the 20th century. Try to name a dozen great songwriters of today who are under 30,or even 40. I think most would be hard pressed to do so. I can go back to the 1960's > 1980's and just off the top of my head name dozens of songs that have become classics that people still listen to today.

But I can't think of a truly memorable song that will become a classic that was written in the last 20 years by someone who wasn't around before that. As far as the next Dylan, Cohen, Simon, Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson....I could go on and on.....there's no modern songwriter under 40 that's even close to that stature. Do a Google search for best songwriters of the 21st century. You'll get some lists and some forum discussions and 90% of the artists named will be in their 40s or older, many much older.

Does this mean there are no decent modern songwriters? Of course not; but they're few and far between and even fewer of them would arguably deserve being called great.

Well, if one is stuck on listening to the oldies stations, I can see how one might feel that way.  

Maybe people who listen to the radio wouldn't listen to oldies stations if there was anything better on the new music stations.

In your previous comment you mentioned Lucinda, Timmins, and Earle, but as great as the are they're all in their 60s. I don't think they're the ones we're talking about when we discuss modern songwriters.

An era cannot be defined by his geniuses nor his geniuses can be explained by the era where they are born...

I believe in a synchronisation between the genius and his era...

Bob Dylan was made by his era and he contribute to his era make-off , they were synchronised...

It is well explained by Richard Tarnas in "Cosmos and Psyche" ...

Our era is an era of corporates control to a level never seen in human history, than education, medias, arts, are conditioned at birth and all along to satisfy "the owners" and we are not these owners...

It is no surprize that for the last decades the spirit of the era was the mechanization of the minds...

How can a poet sing against A.I. as Dylan did against vietnam and the Beatles ?

Is there no motives to sing a rebel song now ?

The social fabric has been pulverized to pieces. Protestations are now expressions of divisions and not a union against our masters ...

Music, lyrics, cannot go where our mind did not go... They comply ...

And a cry which cannot be heard is never launched...

A cry can made a beautiful poetical moving lyric if it is not just a refusal cry but a cry of hope too...

I dont see much hope ...

We dont lack geniuses , in music or poetry, we lack the grip on our own destiny and in our social fabric...

 There is nowhere in history great works of art without a firm grip by man in his social fabric...

Technocracy is not expression of a firm grip on the social fabric by the people but by very few  and not to serve people but their own survival...

Maybe people who listen to the radio wouldn’t listen to oldies stations if there was anything better on the new music stations.

Maybe. However, although I don’t listen to the radio much at all these days, going back a few (or even several) years when I did, but still in the 2000s, I remember that I thought that Brandi Carlile and Ryan Bingham and Josh Ritter and Justin Townes Earle were writing some good stuff. I realize that they are probably all in their 40s now (and I think Justin Earle would be in his 40s if he were still alive) but it is 2025 after all, meaning that they were probably in their 20s at the turn of the century.

But still, it’s hard to compete with the likes of ". . . hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on . . .".