Before Dylan and the Beatles, nobody wrote their own lyrics? Like who? Sometime SOMEONE must have written those lyrics. As for jazz musicians not playing their own music, I think I would have to disagree with you. Isn't the essence of jazz improvisation anyway? As for classical, yes classical is based around written stuff and isn't intended to stray very far from what the sheet music says, but I think we're getting a little bit off topic here when we get into classical.