Best Pianist in Pop Music – Readers Poll

When you think of pop music, chances are your mind wanders to Auto-tuned vocals, heavy synthesizer and various types of digitally altered tunes. However, there are many pop musicians who make it their business to create and record their own compositions, and there's a small crop of accomplished pianists who do just this. From Alicia Keys' bluesy, R&B piano melodies to Lady Gaga's and Coldplay's rock-inspired keys, who gets your vote for the Best Pianist in Pop Music?

When it comes to pianists, few people have really blown away listeners like Alicia Keys. A classically trained pianist, Keys has used her prowess on the black and whites to create Grammy-winning songs like her epic breakout hit 'Fallin'.' Like Keys, Lady Gaga also grew up learning how to play the classics on piano, and she's incorporated her talents into many tracks, including 'Speechless' and 'You and I.' And although Chris Martin plays pretty much every instrument you can think of, his piano skills are really prevalent in many Coldplay songs, including the hauntingly beautiful 'Clocks' and 'The Scientist.'

The aforementioned artists aren't alone in the world of pop piano, however. Although he's still a young teenager, Greyson Chance earned the title of piano prodigy thanks to his YouTube cover of Gaga's 'Paparazzi' as well as his own original songs. Gavin DeGraw is another standout pianist with songs like 'Sweeter' and 'Chariot,' while Sara Bareilles slays the keys on her bubbly, feel-good songs. Of course, we also had to include Bruno Mars, who plays piano on Grammy-nominated tracks like 'Grenade.'

'A Thousand Years' hitmaker Christina Perri is another outstanding pianist, while 'American Idol' champ Kris Allen, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic and Isaac Slade of piano-rock band the Fray also make our poll for the Best Pianist.

Cast your vote for your favorite piano player below and leave us a comment explaining why they deserve to earn the title of the Best Pianist in Pop Music.