There isn't really a main person leading the singer songwriter genre.
but there are many artist both recent and not recent that have helped shape the idea of what a singer Songwriter is, those people include Adele, Tracey Chapman, Amy winehouse, Ellie Goulding, Sinéad O'Connor, Kate Bush, Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders), Johnny Cash, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Jake Bugg, Bruce Springsteen, Iron and wine. What i have noticed is the majority of singer songwriters either come from the UK or the US
What is the history of this Genre?
The Singer songwriter genre began through Bardic Poetry which was taught in Ireland and parts of Scotland. The genre really started from the folk genre and from that it evolved and merged with other singing culture.
What other genres does it connect with?
The genre works with many genres such as Folk, indie, alternative, Indie, Country.
It can work with rock and pop but not very often. Most singer/songwriters tend to write lyrics and music for other artist.
What types of music video would be typical of the genre?
In the singer songwriter genre its can be all three but its mostly performance or narratives and sometimes they combine the two. (it seems it become more common to make performance and narrative video now than it was 20 years ago). There are many examples of this
Performance and Narrative:
Ellie Goulding - How long will i love you - the music video follows the story of the two lovers/friends but in between cuts to Ellie singing.
Sam Smith - I'm Not the only one - in this music video it follows the story of married couple and it flips between The cheating husband and the wife breaking down. Sam smith is performing at the bar in which the husband is cheating on his wife.
Performance:
Peter Gabriel - Don't Give up - This is a performance video because the two artist are singing the song to each other.
Adele - Someone like you - in this video adele just walks the street and performs to the camera.
Concept:
Ellie Goulding - Figure 8 - the video overall doesn't really follow a story but instead uses different effects and location to show the meaning of the song but there isn't a clear link. - it is also a performance video.
How do artist from the genre represent themselves?
They don't tend to wear over exposing clothing whereas popular music artists do e.g. Lady Gaga, Katy Perry etc. they is a sort of comfort but also very particular e.g. adele is know for wearing black dresses. Their dressing style has been said to be hipster/casual (Most of the time they have freedom to wear what they like but the record company have a slight say in what they look like.)
When lana is performing she is known to dress up but when she is off stage she dresses casually - there is a lot more attention on women and how they dress compared to the men in the industry.
Make artist in the genre are known for having a vecausal/hispter look and tend to dress that way at their concert but at big events they dress in suits or more formal wear.
Who is the audience and what do they expect/want?
The audience can vary, there isn't a real set age group that this type of music can go to.
I would say the audience age starts from about 15 onwards. Most people expect the music and lyrics to be slow and meaningful and that their music relates to their life and experiences. Audiences expects the artist to be down to earth and not big headed as many popular artists. Each artist has their own fan base that want them to maintain a particular image.
Is there iconography, design, lighting which is typical of the genre?
In a lot of music that i have seen, the videos were a mixture of Black and White and Colour but also they tend to have a dark feel to them whether that is done through the lighting and the empty space.
The video's tend to have a sort of haunting feeling to them. They music video works closely to the lyrics of the song and portray the story of the song through the video.
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