Creativity VS Skills - Which is more valuable?

I am always coming across situations where there are creative and technical abilities involved. I guess a lot of things in life are contrasted by these two things. Based off my observations it seems as though creativity is always much more important than technical ability. You can't really teach creativity, but you can teach skills.

Example - The music industry

Take for instance the music industry. Are people like Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera really that great of artists? Can you even consider them artists? These "artists" are actually quite far from anything artistic. The majority of their time is spent doing something, rather than creating something. It is pretty much always easier to do something, rather than to create something. Don't believe me? Read on...

What's more challenging, creativity or technical skills

Sure there are definitely degrees and both sides have their arguments, but after careful analysis it becomes pretty apparent that writing a song is much more challenging than singing a song.

Creativity is not something you can force. No matter how hard you try, if the right state of mind does not strike you, there will be little creativity that follows. Creativity isn't something you go to college to learn or read books to understand. Creativity is something that you either have or don't. Sure you may be able to improve your creativity and grow as an artist, but creativity is always something that is fresh and new. It hardly ever follows the same pattern as before.

Technical skills on the other hand are rote and are usually the result of simply hard work. Sure, not everyone can sing like Jennifer Lopez or Ricky Martin, but with enough hard work they have a pretty good chance. I would estimate the odds being much more in favor of somebody being the next Rihanna than being the next Beethoven if they gave their whole life to becoming the best musician possible. It is so much easier to practice hard each and every day to get your vocals trained than to practice hard each and every day to create the next Moonlight Sonata.

Technical people are a dime a dozen

Look at the majority of job openings - they're for technical people that pretty much act as robots to replace somebody else's time. If somebody who used to be a web programmer leaves a company they are easily replaced by a new web programmer. In fact, these things are so dialed in that they even have it broken down more into classifications of people such as junior or senior web programmer.

Majority of jobs are task oriented rather than innovation oriented. Most people are much more willing to exchange their time for tasks than for innovation. And why wouldn't they be - people love doing the easy thing.

Contrary to popular belief, it is actually extremely easy to follow the "technical" path of going to college and getting an education to become the next employee of [insert creative innovator's company name here]. There really isn't any gray area. The whole path of going to college, getting a job and collecting a paycheck is a very predictable path.

A different path such as not going to school and simply inventing something or creating something useful is a much different path and generally would produce better results. Why? Simple: it's different. Creativity is different and thus yields better results than the conventional rote model people so gladly accept.

Conclusion

I could go on and on about why it is more beneficial to be creative rather than technical, but I think I have provided enough info. Just remember that pretty much every influential person that has ever existed has been extremely creative and innovative. If you're like everyone else you'll get the same results as everyone else.