Why Wasn’t Beyoncé on Our ‘Greatest Songwriters’ List?

“Can you read this comment from Craig?” “So this is Craig. Craig wrote, ‘Beyoncé left off because? Did her style of, parentheses, genius collaborative songwriting count her out? Her last three albums, (“Lemonade,” “Renaissance” and “Cowboy Carter”) are genre-bending American classics. Referencing “American Requiem” at this point would seem appropriate. Be interested in the thought process of the judges, please, period.’” “Those old ideas —” “I can tell you mine.” “— are buried here. Yeah.” “I think of Beyoncé as a curator and an executive producer. I have heard —” “And performer.” “Of course, the performer.” “Obvious, like the ur-performer.” “The performer —” “The up — yes.” “— of the moment. I agree with most of this comment. I think I’ve heard demos that Beyoncé has sang. I see what she adds to them. She is Frank Sinatra. She is Frank Sinatra plus Quincy Jones plus Kanye West, another person I would put in this camp. Kanye West famously, infamously, uses ghostwriters, uses ghost producers. He is the magician who can put all that stuff together. He can record a session with Justin Vernon, a session with Chief Keef, a Mike Dean guitar solo, put it all together. He is the maestro. He’s a modern-day composer. I’m open to the argument that that’s another sort of postmodern songwriting. But that would have been expanding the definition for me one click further. And we didn’t take it there.”