ASCAP Honors Film Scores, Swamp Dogg Doc, and Music Writing Across the Board

ASCAP just dropped their annual awards for music writing and broadcasting, and the spread tells you something real about what's happening in music criticism and documentation right now. Film score legends John Williams and Bernard Herrmann both got the biography treatment—makes sense, since their work built the whole language of cinema. But the list goes wider than the usual suspects.

There's a documentary about Swamp Dogg in there, which is exactly the kind of deep-catalog recovery that matters. Frank Zappa's getting honored through archival liner notes. Rick Beato's YouTube podcasts made the cut too, which signals ASCAP recognizing that music education and breakdown happens on the platform now, not just in traditional print.

This year's winners reflect a broader shift: the music writing world isn't just talking about blockbuster releases anymore. It's celebrating the people who dig into history, who preserve forgotten voices, who break down the craft on camera for free. That's where the real work is happening.

Read the full story at Variety → https://variety.com/2026/music/news/ascap-writing-awards-biographies-john-williams-bernard-herrmann-1236922092/