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My weird out-of-nowhere bitching has a lot to do with thus tendency I see among people (not necessarily anyone here — I'm actually thinking of some people I know "IRL") to evaluate an artist's "talent" by whether they write their own lyrics or not.
To me, that's only a piece of it. And honestly, kind of a small piece, especially when it comes to pop music. Last year Solange released an album that was positively transcendent and (while not one of my favorite albums of the year) just plain impressive as hell. She wrote virtually none of it, but she left her mark on the music, and the end result is "hers."
I hear some people gush over Taylor Swift, as though the fact that she writes not very good lyrics and knows a few very basic guitar chords makes her the "real deal," as opposed to someone like Solange or Beyoncé. But I'd take well-written songs performed with feeling and character over by someone who didn't write them over poorly written songs that are catchy but ultimately quite empty. Nothing again Swift either. But she's not more talented than Rihanna because she writes (some of) her own lyrics. They're both just talented in different ways, and neither is the whole package.
None of this has to do with Avril really.
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