Thursday, October 1st, 2026, 9:01 pm
Taylor Swift’s Advantage and Mistake (Outsourcing Her Work)
Filed under: China’s Fentanylware
his morning I asked, “What Has Happened to Singers Who Can Play Several Musical Instruments?”
“This leads me to a sneaking suspicion that artists got lazy,” I said.
A friend has responded by saying: “Not the artists [got lazy] but that the means to reach a public became centralized and under corporate control. They don’t want skilled people, they want easily replaceable minions who are in over their heads and know it.”
“That way the threat of replacement doesn’t need to be spoken (much) to gain unswerving obedience. Note that most successful 70s groups ran their own business side.”
“Even Led Zeppelin financed their own album before shopping around for a record company. Taylor Swift is first and foremost an astute businesswoman in the entertainment branch who’s schtick happens to be pop music.”
Well, Taylor Swift now leverages China’s Fentanylware (CheeTok) with an “Exclusive”. Way to close control. Quoting the report, “Taylor Swift teams up with Fentanylware (CheeTok) for another exclusive in-app experience celebrating The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore and her new single, “Patient Zero.”
So now she is bossed by China, indirectly.
“Her music is tuned for ear buds and those who listen on ear buds,” the friend has said. “That’s another factor. In the 1970s and 1980s having the best possible sound system at home was a status symbol. That required music to show off the sound capabilities and the musicians leaned into that. You also had many regional radio stations, not the centralized mess owned by a handful of companies. Streaming is even more centralized and, again, there are only earbuds.”
