McCartney Times

AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS: Joni Mitchell posed in Amsterdam, Netherlands in 1972 (Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns)

Much like Bob Dylan’s surprise Nobel Prize win for Literature in 2016, Kendrick Lamar’s unexpected Pulitzer win for Music this week for DAMN is monumental in many respects, as many have already said. Maybe the biggest reason though both wins were so significant is each opened the door for other artists to take home the prizes.

It’s highly unlikely that the Nobel will start going to songwriters regularly or all of a sudden the Pulitzer will go to artists outside of the jazz and classical fields on an annual basis, but there is precedent now for other pop, rock, hip-hop or country artists to take home these prestigious honors.

So, will other artists follow in the footsteps of Lamar and Dylan? If so, following the reasons they each were awarded a place in history — Dylan was awarded Nobel Prize “For having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition” and Lamar received the Pulitzer for “A virtuosic song collection unified by its vernacular authenticity and rhythmic dynamism that offers affecting vignettes capturing the complexity of modern African-American life” — here are 11 other artists who should have a good shot or are deserving of these awards.

By no means is this a comprehensive list — since Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder and Willie Nelson, to name just four — are all very worthy of a Nobel for Literature by the same criteria as Dylan. But these are the 11, from Bruce Springsteen to Kanye West (Pulitzer) that stand out for different reasons.

Bruce Springsteen

An Oscar winner, Grammy winner and soon potentially a Tony nominee and winner, as well as a member of both the Rock And Roll and Songwriters’ Hall Of Fames, Springsteen has already won virtually major accolade there is for a singer. So why not a Nobel or a Pulitzer or both? At first glance, when you look at the Nobel as the career award, that seems the more likely choice for his iconic catalog, as deep as any in music by anyone not named McCartney. But as one of the great chroniclers of our times, The Rising was the definitive post-9/11 album, Springsteen still could pull off a Pulitzer in music.

Joni Mitchell

Source: After Kendrick Lamar And Bob Dylan, Who Else Can Make History With A Nobel or Pulitzer Prize