Now I don’t normally do something like this on the site but this topic is something I feel I must speak up on. By now most of you have already heard about Damon Albarn’s interview with the Los Angeles Times but if not here is what he stated in the interview:

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.

Los Angeles Times

Now as all Swifties know if you look at the liner notes of all Swift’s albums she has released to date, you will see she is listed as the main songwriter of all her songs that are on the albums, with the exception of Speak Now, where she wrote the entire album by herself minus the deluxe bonus track “If This Was a Movie”. Swift of course made it publicly known in 2019 interview with Rolling Stones that she intentionally did this as she was hounded by critics for not writing her own songs and Speak Now was a reaction to that.

So of course, when this interview with Damon Albarn by the Los Angeles Times was published and he stated that she didn’t write her own songs, of course Swift fought back.

@DamonAlbarn 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. https://t.co/t6GyXBU2Jd

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) January 24, 2022

And I give kudos to Swift for standing up for herself but Albarn’s reply to her is absolutely appalling.

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. – Damon

— Damon Albarn (@Damonalbarn) January 24, 2022

While the Tweet Swift quoted was indeed put up for click-baiting purposes what is appalling is Albarn’s response completely shifts the blame to the Tweet by the Los Angeles Times and takes no responsibility for what he said in the interview. This is the very definition of gaslighting. As Taylor Swift says in “Mr. Perfectly Fine”:

Mr. “Insincere apology so he doesn’t look like the bad guy”

– Taylor Swift “Mr. Perfectly Fine” lyrics

And that’s exactly what Albarn has done here is try and gaslight the situation to click-baiting instead of taking responsibility for what he said in the interview. I’m sorry but as someone who has dealt with gaslighting before for wrongs done to me, I cannot be silent on this, not just as a Swiftie and standing up for Taylor as a fan but for all people who are wronged by someone in this world and are just told to sit there and take it and gaslit into submission by a morally corrupt society. What Albarn has stated in his “apology” is typical of cisgender white males and that’s to shift the blame elsewhere, usually the blame falls upon the victims, but in this instance, he decided to shift the blame to the Twitter account of the Los Angeles Times. Typical cisgender white male behavior and not a surprise coming from a guy who is from the UK, as my own personal interactions with white males in the UK is to shift blame onto the victims or somewhere else, as most UK males (not all) tend to have no self-respect or morals, so they just take to blaming it on their victims or people of other nations or shifting the blame elsewhere, which is just plain awful.

I applaud Taylor Swift for standing up for herself and speaking out on this sexist attack towards her to discredit her for the work she does writing songs for her albums. As a Swiftie, I appreciate her songwriting talent as it is the relatability to her lyrics as to why I am a fan of hers and support her and have run this fan site for over 13 years now. That being said, this gaslighting needs to stop and people need to take responsibility for this shit they do as it’s pretty fucked up to shift blame elsewhere to avoid accountability.

Taylor Swift Music World