Depends what you mean by "real stuff" I guess. You could just as easily argue that musicians consider themselves composers because they read Fux. Counterpoint i

Depends what you mean by "real stuff" I guess. You could just as easily argue that musicians consider themselves composers because they read Fux. Counterpoint is important for certain styles of composition and irrelevant for others. At its most basic, composition is the creation of a musical score. What form the score takes, what genre the piece is in, the method of composition, the evaluation of the resulting work, are all flexible depending on the style of music and the quirks of the particular composer and audience. Whether something qualifies as "art" is almost entirely subjective -- if it speaks to an audience (including the composer!) it's worth something.