Marje, you said "just because I don't write songs - not serious ones, anyway - I don't see that this prohibits me from expressing opinions on songs I hear, or trying to explain what's appealing or cring-making about them".

Quite right, too. Of course everyone can have an opinion, a view about what works and what doesn't, and they should be free to express them. But that is short of offering "advice", as if from a position of absolute knowledge. It is that high-and-mighty tone that objected to, in the earlier post, as well as to the aphorisms about songwriters gathering in "little mutual appreciation societies", as if we spend our time patting each other on the back and feeding each other's egos. That is pure poppycock and belies a down-one's-nose and derogatory perspective with which I will have no truck.

Expressing opinions and criticism on the other hand, is not only perfectly fine, any songwriter who is at all engaged with the world around them would welcome it.