lbr, op's "manufactured" seems like just another way of devaluing and objectifying successful black women, in this case using the industry as a justification. nobody would call an actor "manufactured" if they didn't write their own screenplay; solange wrote her own songs. beyonce could reasonably be analogous to a director. not that this is a 1-1 accurate comparison, of course, but it is completely different to call a person's art trash and to call the artist "manufactured" when they each contributed a substantial amount to the final work, substantial enough that one could call it theirs in the other case, let alone be free from claims of being "manufactured." critiques of a work are fine--but let's not pretend that this language is anything other than demeaning, and probably fueled in part by some sort of sexism (see that left-field rebecca black comment?) & perhaps racism. as well as just a weird way to look at art--is frank sinatra not to be regarded as an acclaimed artist?

and yeah, critical acclaim is a measure of what critics think of a work. "manufactured musician" is a category that suggests an inherent feature of the artist in question. even if one accepts that terminology, they're about two totally separate things that can be used to describe the same person/work.