> I feel like this heavily requires “citation needed”.

You might have missed that I was stating my belief. I can only cite myself as the ultimate authority on what beliefs I have or don't have.

If instead of believing something I will know something you will notice from the lack of "I believe" and the appropriate citations. If we would need to provide citations for any belief we could not talk about theories and ideas we have which as of yet lack the sufficient evidentiary backing.

Now of course it sounds like what you are trying to express is that you are disagreeing with my belief. Which is perfectly fine.

> There are plenty of these “inside the studio” type interviews where an artist describes at length their inspirations and the other artists they admired and wanted to mimic in some way.

Yes. Humans are full of contradictions therefore you won't see black-and-white behaviour from them.

I think this is mostly referring to the Blurred Lines verdict. On the other hand, artists have a strong incentive to record their songwriting and recording process, so that they can head off any potential disputes about writing credits from people actually in the studio (this situation is statistically much more likely than somebody not involved suing after the song's release).