SongSuey

Breaking down who actually writes their music

Try: Kendrick Lamar Who wrote Thriller? Bohemian Rhapsody Who never writes?

425Artists scored

3,802Albums read

47,867Tracks credited

422,976Credits logged

30,624People named

Artist Spotlight

A smaller share of the writing by the last album

A different artist every day, taken from the catalogs deep enough to show a trajectory.

Full breakdown

Duran Duran

New Wave Synth-Pop 16 albums 188 tracks

Duran Duran runs from 100% on Duran Duran in 1981 to 54% on Danse Macabre in 2023. The catalog runs 188 tracks: 103 with no outside writer, 67 co-written. Duran Duran is credited on all 17 of the singles with writers on file.

1981 · Duran Duran · 100%2023 · Danse Macabre · 54%

90%

Authorship

Artist

Holds writing credit on 170 of 188 tracks

Leaderboards

Who writes, who performs

Every artist ranked by how much of their own catalog they wrote. The last three boards cut the same catalog by genre, era, and scoring tier, and each row opens the index with that filter already on.

All leaderboards

The 100% Club

146 artists

1Nas255 tracks across 18 albums100% credited 2R. Kelly230 tracks across 15 albums100% credited 3Eminem201 tracks across 11 albums100% credited 4Weezer186 tracks across 19 albums100% credited 5Green Day185 tracks across 14 albums100% credited

See every Complete Artist

The Other End

lowest scores

1Dean Martin116 tracks across 10 albums0% credited 2Tina Turner94 tracks across 9 albums0% credited 3Aaliyah43 tracks across 3 albums0% credited 4Elvis Presley362 tracks across 32 albums1% credited 5Nat King Cole141 tracks across 12 albums1% credited

Full list

Hired Pens

outside writers

1Pharrell Williams190 tracks across 54 artists54

2Diane Warren94 tracks across 51 artists51

3Ryan Tedder92 tracks across 49 artists49

4Timothy Mosley169 tracks across 37 artists37

5Max Martin172 tracks across 36 artists36

Every songwriter

By Genre

8 genres

1Metal39 artists in the index97% 2Hip-Hop67 artists in the index95% 3Rock185 artists in the index89% 4Electronic94 artists in the index82% 5Pop250 artists in the index79% 6R&B / Soul131 artists in the index77% 7Country44 artists in the index64% 8Jazz22 artists in the index49%

Every genre

By Decade

3,802 albums

12010s77 artists formed in the 2010s886 22000s99 artists formed in the 2000s840 32020s15 artists formed in the 2020s589 41990s110 artists formed in the 1990s564 51980s60 artists formed in the 1980s373 61970s29 artists formed in the 1970s356 71960s27 artists formed in the 1960s160 81950s3 artists formed in the 1950s34

Browse by era

By Tier

425 artists

96-100Complete Artist56% of the index239 81-95Artist20% of the index85 61-80Songwriter7% of the index29 41-60Collaborator6% of the index26 21-40Co-Performer4% of the index16 0-20Singer / Performer7% of the index30

How the score works

The Authorship Spectrum

Every artist lands somewhere on this line

On the left, singers who never wrote a line. On the right, writers who never let anyone else write one. Both ends are real jobs, and the score only says which one. All 425 artists sit somewhere on it; each pin here is one artist from a ten point stretch.

Browse the directory

Elvis Presley 1% Aretha Franklin 14% The Jacksons 24% Britney Spears 32% Rod Stewart 40% Johnny Cash 53% Stevie Wonder 64% Bob Dylan 76% Snoop Dogg 89% Lady Gaga 93% Eminem 100%

Colors match the score tiers used on every artist page. The number is the share of a catalog where the artist is credited as a writer.

Head to Head

Settle it credit by credit

Pick any two artists and put their credits side by side. Every number below is a track count, not an opinion.

Drake

Complete Artist

97%

12Albums

212Tracks

VS

Feud

Kendrick Lamar

Complete Artist

99%

6Albums

88Tracks

97%

Authorship

99%

7%

Wrote alone

0%

90%

Co-written

99%

Compare any two artists

55 arguments the credits can settle

Hometowns

Where the music comes from

424 artists, each pinned to the town they started in and sorted into 65 hometown pages with their own counts and averages. The globe puts all of them on one screen.

Every hometown