Taylor Swift hit back at a music industry peer for claiming she doesn't write her own songs, dismissing her contributions to her music as "co-writing."
Damon Albarn, songwriter and frontman for the band Blur, told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published Sunday that much of modern music is popular because of the "sound and the attitude" behind it rather than the songs being "good."
When the interviewer mentioned Swift as an example of an "excellent songwriter," Albarn responded that "she doesn't write her own songs."
"I know what co-writing is," Albarn said. "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."
Swift, who has been credited as a songwriter on all of her studio albums, responded to his comment on Twitter. She said she was once a fan of Albarn, but even if he didn't like her songs, he didn't have to discredit her work.
"I write ALL of my own songs," Swift said. "Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging."
Albarn replied to Swift on Twitter, saying the greater conversation he had with the interviewer was "reduced to clickbait."
"I apologise unreservedly and unconditionally," Albarn wrote. "The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand."
In 2010, Swift released her third album, "Speak Now," as the sole credited songwriter. It was nominated for a Grammy Award for best country album, and her song "Mean" won best country song and best country solo performance.
Swift told Rolling Stone in 2019 that she took on the entire album specifically as a reaction to comments about whether she wrote her own music.
She also addressed those who doubted her songwriting success in her 2019 acceptance speech for Billboard's Woman of the Decade Award. Swift said she saw how people tried to "explain away" a woman's success.
"I saw as a female in this industry, some people will always have slight reservations about you," Swift said. "Whether you deserve to be there, whether a male producer or co-writer is the reason for your success, or whether it was a savvy record label.
"It wasn't."
CORRECTION (Jan. 24, 2022, 5:51 p.m. ET): A previous version of this article misstated when the Los Angeles Times interview was published. It was Sunday, not Monday.