The songwriters are not independent from the works once they are finished rather, they enter into, activate, and authenticate the song texts through their vocal and musical performances. The first aesthetic layer encourages songwriters to sing and perform their own works and to instill their own stylistic flavors into the song texts. According to the Journal of Popular Music Studies, from the folk revival and onward into its permanence in pop music, the role of a singer-songwriter has involved several dimensions of creative identity: Song topics of singer-songwriters from the American folk music revival include political protest, as in the case of Woody Guthrie (1912–1967) and Pete Seeger (1919–2014). According to writer Larry David Smith, because it merged the roles of composer, writer, and singer, the popularity of the singer-songwriter phenomenon reintroduced the Medieval troubadour tradition of 'songs with public personalities' after the Tin Pan Alley era in American popular music. The phrase 'singer-songwriter', recorded from 1949, came into popular usage from the 1960s onwards to describe songwriters who followed particular stylistic and thematic conventions, particularly lyrical introspection, confessional songwriting, mild musical arrangements, and an understated performing style. The term may also characterise songwriters in the rock, folk, country, and pop-music genres – including Henry Russell (1812–1900), Aristide Bruant (1851–1925), Hank Williams (1923–1953), and Buddy Holly (1936–1959). Most records by such artists have a similarly straightforward and spare sound that places emphasis on the song itself. According to AllMusic, singer-songwriters' lyrics are often personal but veiled by elaborate metaphors and vague imagery, and their creative concern is to place emphasis on the song rather than on their performance of it. Such an artist performs the roles of composer, lyricist, vocalist, sometimes instrumentalist, and often self-manager.

The label 'singer-songwriter' (or 'song-writer/singer' ) is used by record labels and critics to define popular-music artists who write and perform their own material, which is often self-accompanied – generally on acoustic guitar or piano. In the early 21st century, digital production tools such as GarageBand began to be used by singer-songwriters to compose their music. Singer-songwriters often provide the sole accompaniment to an entire composition or song, typically using a guitar or piano. In the United States, the category is built on the folk-acoustic tradition, although this role has transmuted through different eras of popular music. A singer-songwriter is a musician who writes, composes, and performs their own musical material, including lyrics and melodies.

Song writer