Great songwriters of the last 100 years 

This timeline picks out some of the significant movers and shakers of the songwriting world and seeks to highlight some of those who were groundbreaking or whose songs had a significant influence on musical development and change. Some names that pupils/group members might expect to find will not be in this list – for example would they know that the legendary Elvis Presley did not compose any of his own songs?

All dates are approximate. Many of these songwriters' careers span a number of decades, a demonstration of their talent. For example, Elton John, who co-wrote with The Scissor Sisters on their hit song "I Don’t Feel Like Dancin" has been performing hit songs since the 1970s!

Look carefully through the timeline.

• Are there any other significant musical milestones that you want to add to the song timeline?
• Think about the trends for the current decade so far, from 2000 to 2007, and complete the chart with your own suggestions. We have included some examples but you will have your own favourites.
• Compare your chart with others in the class and discuss any differences.
• You can extend this research by adding categories for fashion and art.
• How do these trends reflect changes in music?

More advanced/GSCE/Creative and Media Diploma students could do the following:

• Select one or two decades to research in more detail. 
  
• Research another example/composer for each of the decades.
• You can go to the BBC site on ‘The Seven Ages of Rock’ and access a visual timeline of music from ‘The Birth of Rock’ in 1965: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/sevenages/)
• Listen to some of the music, and use a feature on the site to create your own online timeline of artists, albums and events. You can then either send people a link to your timeline or embed it on your own website, blog or social networking profile pages. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/sevenages/my-timeline/).
• Click through to the Ivors website for examples of current well-known songs and the writer(s) behind them.