Taylor Swift blasts Damon Albarn: “It’s really fucked up to try and discredit my writing”

Taylor Swift has blasted Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn for saying she doesn't write her own songs. "I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this," she tweeted. "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."

This came from a Los Angeles Times tweet linking to an interview with Albarn that pulled some choice quotes from it:

Taylor then went on to tweet, "PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering."

For more context, here’s the full excerpt:

She may not be to your taste, but Taylor Swift is an excellent songwriter.

She doesn’t write her own songs.

Of course she does. Co-writes some of them.

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. And some of the greatest singers — I mean, Ella Fitzgerald never wrote a song in her life. When I sing, I have to close my eyes and just be in there. I suppose I’m a traditionalist in that sense. A really interesting songwriter is Billie Eilish and her brother. I’m more attracted to that than to Taylor Swift. It’s just darker — less endlessly upbeat. Way more minor and odd. I think she’s exceptional.

Unsurprisingly, Taylor's tweet has been retweeted over 20,000 times, and there are almost as many quote tweets. Also unsurprisingly, Albarn has issued an apology via Twitter, writing, "I totally agree with you. i had a conversation about songwriting and sadly it was reduced to clickbait. I apologise unreservedly and unconditionally. The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand."

Update: SPIN reports that Damon addressed the incident at his show at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, saying that LA Times interviewer Mikael Wood "cast me into the social media abyss" and added "you can judge for yourself" and "I think I’m becoming old fashioned" with regards to the article.

Not all indie rock musicians feel the way Damon does. The National's Aaron Dessner, who co-produced and co-wrote songs for Taylor's Folklore album, told NME recently, "The way she'd respond to music I was making was often leaving me flabbergasted. She can carve into something in such a powerful, beautiful, incisive way that it does kind of give you… her approach to songwriting structurally, you just can't help but be influenced by it because it's so masterful."

If you're wondering, yes, Richard Marx has weighed in:

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