I was once at a pub in St Ives where the guy running the open mic night kept banging on about "no one singing covers original material only", in fairness he was not unpleasant but most, if not all, of the rest was dross and grated so much I had to leave. The "snigger snogwriter" thing surely came about when the companies could own the performers soul as well as the rights to whatever they wrote and recorded. I fancy people who made their living from just writing songs were more savvy about signing their lives away and were sidelined by big business and performers were maybe discouraged from using songwriters by stigmatising performers who did, a bit like the way socialism has been treated over the years, as a model for living it is quite equitable and morally more robust than the rabid capitalist system we have rammed down our throats but big business and rich people managed to make it into "THE" bogey man..... Now that is what I call magic!