Michael Barbaro

Joe, a final question.

Maybe even a curveball.

Did you vote for or against Billy Joel?

Thanks for all the hate mail, Michael, in advance.

Thank you for most of this conversation.

Maybe not the very end.

We'll be right back.

Jody Rosen, welcome to the Sunday Daily.

Thanks, Michael.

Great to be here.

You're one of the esteemed critics, I would argue.

Shucks.

Deeply involved in this songwriting project.

And we just spoke to Joe Coscarelli about his conversation with Taylor Swift, just so you know where you're entering here.

That's one kind of songwriting tradition.

When it comes to this list, that wasn't the tradition you focused on.

No, I actually wrote about, had conversations with songwriters who represented a bunch of different other styles, idioms, traditions, vibes, if you will.

Well, let's start with rap, with hip-hop, and who you focused on first.

Yeah, so I went out to Los Angeles and had a conversation with a New Yorker.

That is, with arguably the New Yorker, or at least one of them, Jay-Z, who, of course, is Brooklyn born and bred.