Popular music is ghost written garbage and deserves nothing more than being used as coasters, your not an artist if someone hands you a lyric sheet and you get told what backing your going to be signing on.
Just be careful in reguards to your use of "popular music" as that covers alot of artists. Generally I consider any bands / singers that get high rotation radio play as "popular". But I know what you mean, and I don't consider the use of the word music to describe what they do. Still, alot of highly talented singers / musician still get songs written for them, and that doesn't make them bad, just the song writer good.