Setting the "cool kid angst" aside, most art forms and especially song composition is a rather repetitive task where you compose certain rigid templates (tunes and chords) into a passable song according to demands and structure of current society, make your record company listen, have them edit the song, repeatedly master it until they are satisfied. My point is, however boring and repetitive, you still have some room to think, tinker and choose just like composing.
That's the point. The main difference here is getting told what to do. Even a song writer can get told what to do. Write a song about politics, or injustice or love, write a screenplay of x talking to y about z, paint using x color with y shape communicating z values.
