Are You a Hack?

Someone recently said to me that the reason they listen to foreign music, is so they can enjoy the song without thinking about the insipid lyrics. Twice the melodic enjoyment, half the soulless writing. That being said, is it actually the novelty of sound that entrances aforementioned person? Is it actually nothing to do with the words, just the expression of so-called "angst" and a momentary "catharsis" that entices them into the music? Essentially, the exoticism of the experience is actually what you crave, yet its exoticism is balanced by an idea that you are familiar with -- in this case a particular musical motif. The song construction is the same, it's just the words that provide that extra jolt of excitement. (I would have hurt myself if I wrote "je ne sais quoi" there -- it's such a cheap out for writers when they actually can't think of something. Try not to call me out for it when I actually use it in my writing since I couldn't think of something.)

So, here is the question: in appealing to the exoticism inherent in the story I'm being asked to tell, to the "extra something different and special," does that, in fact, make me a sell-out? Okay, okay, it has been pointed out that I'm not actually a "sell-out" because I make the grand sum of 0 dollars, therefore I can't technically sell-out. But, still --

am I basically exposing my writing "special parts" just to catch a break?