American male songwriters

Shannon Leto (born March 9, 1970) is an American musician and songwriter best known as the drummer of rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars. He co-founded the group in 1998 in Los Angeles, California, with his younger brother Jared. Their debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars (2002), was released to positive reviews but only to limited success. The band achieved worldwide fame with the release of their second album A Beautiful Lie (2005). Their following releases, This Is War (2009) and Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013), received further critical and commercial success. As of September 2014, the band has sold over 15 million albums worldwide.

Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in Middle America and is often regarded as one of the greatest rappers ever. Eminem's global success and acclaimed works are widely regarded as having broken racial barriers for the acceptance of white rappers in popular music. While much of his transgressive work during the late 1990s and early 2000s made him a controversial figure, he came to be a representation of popular angst of the American underclass and has been cited as an influence by and upon many artists working in various genres.

Usher Raymond IV (born October 14, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, businessman, and dancer. He was born in Dallas, Texas, but raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee until moving to Atlanta, Georgia. At the age of 12, his mother put him in local singing competitions before catching the attention of a music A&R from LaFace Records. He released his self-titled debut album Usher (1994), and rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way (1997). It spawned his first U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "Nice & Slow", and the top-two singles "You Make Me Wanna..." and "My Way". His third album, 8701 (2001), produced the number-one singles "U Remind Me" and "U Got It Bad", as well as the top-three single "U Don't Have to Call". It sold eight million copies worldwide and won his first two Grammy Awards as Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2002 and 2003.

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Known as the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. During his four-decade career, his contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture. Jackson influenced artists across many music genres. Through stage and video performances, he popularized complicated street dance moves such as the moonwalk, which he named, as well as the robot.

Adam Noah Levine (born March 18, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and the lead singer and occasional rhythm guitarist of the pop rock band Maroon 5. Levine began his musical career in 1994 with the band Kara's Flowers, of which he was the lead vocalist and guitarist. The band split up in 1997 after the commercial failure of their only album, The Fourth World. In 2001, the group was reformed as Maroon 5 – with James Valentine replacing Levine as guitarist- and released their first album, Songs About Jane, which went multi-platinum in the US. Since then, they have released five more albums: It Won't Be Soon Before Long (2007), Hands All Over (2010), Overexposed (2012), V (pronounced: "five") (2014), and Red Pill Blues (2017). As part of Maroon 5, Levine has received three Grammy Awards, three American Music Awards, an MTV Video Music Award, and a World Music Award.

Willard Carroll Smith Jr. (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, rapper, and film producer. Smith has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards.

Tyrese Darnell Gibson (born December 30, 1978) is an American singer, songwriter, author, rapper, actor, model, VJ, and screenwriter. After releasing several albums, he transitioned into films, with lead roles in several major Hollywood releases. He played Joseph "Jody" Summers in Baby Boy, Angel Mercer in Four Brothers, Roman Pearce in the Fast & Furious films, and Robert Epps in the Transformers film series. According to Billboard, Tyrese has sold 3.69 million albums in the U.S.

Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, actor, and filmmaker. A guitar virtuoso known for his genre-crossing work, wide-ranging singing voice and flamboyant stage appearances, Prince is regarded as one of the greatest musicians of all time. His innovative music integrated a wide variety of styles, including funk, rock, R&B, new wave, soul, psychedelia, and pop. Prince pioneered the late 1970s Minneapolis sound, a funk rock subgenre drawing from synth-pop and new wave.

Brian Hugh Warner (born January 5, 1969), known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American singer, songwriter, actor, painter, and writer. He is known for his controversial stage personality and image as the lead singer of the band of the same name, which he co-founded with guitarist Daisy Berkowitz in 1989 and of which he remains the only constant member. Like the other founding members of the band, his stage name was formed by combining and juxtaposing the names of two opposing American cultural icons: a sex symbol and an infamous criminal; in Manson's case, actress Marilyn Monroe and cult leader Charles Manson.

John Clayton Mayer (born October 16, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but disenrolled and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with Clay Cook. Together, they formed a short-lived two-man band called Lo-Fi Masters. After their split, Mayer continued to play local clubs, refining his skills and gaining a following. After his appearance at the 2001 South by Southwest Festival, he was signed to Aware Records, and then Columbia Records, which released his first EP, Inside Wants Out. His following two full-length albums—Room for Squares (2001) and Heavier Things (2003)—did well commercially, achieving multi-platinum status. In 2003, he won the Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for the single "Your Body Is a Wonderland".