Taylor Swift is not going to let anyone discredit her as an artist. The singer defended herself Monday, after Damon Albarn claimed she does not write her own music in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Swift, tweeted at the singer directly to let him know she used to be a big fan. Key words- used to be. She went on to blast the “Blur” frontman to her 89.9 million followers calling his “hot take,” “damaging” and “f***ed up.” The “Gorillaz” co-creator has since tried to backtrack from his statements, calling it “clickbait.”
© GETTYIt all started with an interview from the Los Angeles Times, where Albarn is quoted saying, swift “doesn’t write her own songs.” When the journalist told Swift that she “co-writes” some of them, Albarn responded, “That doesn’t count.” “I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very different to writing. I’m not hating on anybody, I’m just saying there’s a big difference between a songwriter and a songwriter who co-writes. Doesn’t mean that the outcome can’t be really great,” he continued, as he praised Billie Eilish’s songwriting skills instead.
Albarn‘s bold claims were not taken lightly and Swift tweeted, “I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this.” “I write all of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and so damaging. You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really fucked up to try and discredit my writing. Wow.” The clever singer wrote in a seperate tweet, “PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering.”
Needless to say, one fandom you don’t want to upset is the Swifties and Albarn caught a lot of heat on Twitter. The 53-year-old responded to Swift’s tweets saying he “totally agreed.” “I had a conversation about songwriting and sadly it was reduced to clickbait,” he said referencing the headline of the article that read, “Damon Albarn sounds off on Taylor Swift, Rolling Stone.” He went on to apologize, “I apologize unreservedly and unconditionally. The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand,” he added.
But of course, Albarn is not getting off easy. Alex Goldshmidt responded back to his apology with a screenshot of the article asking, “What part of this was reduced to clickbait? You said her songwriting doesn‘t count as songwriting and then compared her to another female artist with a completely different style.” “Don’t gaslight and throw someone else under the bus because you never thought she‘d call you out,” he continued.
As noted by Variety, “The Bleachers” frontman Jack Antanoff, who has produced several of Swift’s songs and albums also defended Swift. “I’ve never met Damon Albarn and he’s never been to my studio but apparently he knows more than the rest of us about all those songs Taylor writes and brings in…if you were there, cool go off. If not, maybe shut the f**k up?” He shot back.
