Bob Dylan. Bruce Springsteen. Neil Young. John Lennon. Over the years, these names have become synonymous with the notion of "lyrical genius." Quite simply, these cats could pen a fucking song like nobody's business. They are legends, and their words have become timeless. Seriously, it's almost creepy how relevant Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin" still is, even though it was written over 40 years ago. It's this unique attribute that separates the good from the great.

A few weeks ago, I was flipping through my channels, when I landed on this Bob Dylan Concert Special thing. It couldn't have been more than a year old, and I must admit, Bobby-boy wasn't looking so hot. It definitely put everything in perspective for me... as timeless as they may seem, the legends all succumb to that cruel, inevitable fate that awaits us all. They are totally human, and eventually they'll all croak (some sooner than later, obviously).

As the legends slowly begin to fade, it's a given that the clairvoyant human mind will begin to look for replacements. Although the terrible hair-metal and electronic bullshit of the 80's, and the boy bands and MTV garbage of the 90's kind of set the growth of good music back a bit, it's awesome to see quality music making a comeback of late. I don't know exactly what triggered this sonic renaissance, but it's fucking awesome. In my humble opinion, all the assholes out there constantly blabbering about how "modern music sucks," honestly have no goddamned clue whatsoever. It seems to me that there has never been a more vast group of musical virtuosos in their primes than there is right now... you just have to look for them. Even though you won't hear their jams in tha club or on TRL, there are some absolute lyrical geniuses out there. More times than not, their lines are just as, if not more, p0ignant than anything Dylan or the Boss could muster up.

With all that being said, I'd really like to know who my generation views as the absolute best of our time. Who are we going to force our kids to listen to? Who best paints a lyrical interpretation of our zeitgeist? Who's music do you sit in your room and try to analyze? Basically, Who is the next legend?


What we've decided to do is run a little tournament kind of thing. Andrew, Lauren, and I have put together our top 16, and we're going to match them up NCAA style (1 vs. 16, 2 vs. 15, etc...). We took a few factors into consideration, and tried to ask around as much as possible to get our "seeds" as accurate as we could, but it's still obviously a matter of opinion. That's why we want all you beautiful people voting, ya dig? Nonetheless, these are the basic criteria we used to pick our 16, and why we placed them where we placed them:

- They have to be alive, and still active.

- We're looking for someone with enough popularity to actually gain a decent fan base. We know there are some great indie/ underground writers, but that's not what we're looking for.

-We aren't looking for the best music, or the best bands. Although having catchy songs helps, we're more concerned about content here.

-The more songs and albums, the better.

-We're looking for someone that most people can actually relate to. Not everyone cares about bitches and bling. We want someone who can put those previously 'unexplainable' feelings we all have into words.

-We're trying to limit our candidates to the last 15 years or so, and they're basically all 30 or younger (with a few exceptions).

- Only Males. We aren't chauvinist pigs or anything... the ladies will get their turn later.

Without further adieu, here are the top 16 as we see them:

1) Conor Oberst (Bright Eyes)

2) Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse)

3) Thom Yorke (Radiohead)

4) Josh Ritter

5) Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)

6) Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie, the Postal Service)

7Ryan Adams

8) Beck Hansen(Beck)

9) Rufus Wainwright

10) Sufjan Stevens

11) Sam Beam (Iron & Wine)

12) Ben Folds

13) Jeff Mangum (Neutral Milk Hotel)

14) James Mercer (the Shins)

15) Ray LaMontagne

16) Jack White (the White Stripes, the Raconteurs)

Honorable mentions include: Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumkins), Geoff Rickley (Thursday), Chris Conley (Saves the Day), Rivers Cuomo (Weezer), John K. Sampson (the Weakerthans), Zack de la Rocha (Rage Against the Machine), Omar Rodriguez-Lopez/ Cedric Bixler-Zavala (At the Drive-In, the Mars Volta), and Blake Sennet (Rilo Kiley, the Elected)