As I said, I'm not interested in Taylor Swift as a person - I'm interested in the psychological phenomenon accompanying her - whereby a critique of her music is seen as a personal attack and viewed as such by her fans.

Whether or not something has artistic merit is entirely subjective. Whether or not something is technically difficult is a matter for experts. So whilst I might compose something that could be more popular than Mozart or Bach, it is unlikely to have as much understanding depth or complexity. One could argue that 'Happy Birthday' is more popular as a song than Ode To Joy, but that doesn't make it 'better'.

And yes, I'm prepared to accept I might not be the target market for Taylor Swift's work, but teenager girls do not have purchasing power or numbers to propel someone to international levels of stardom beyond any musician before. Something is afoot in the nature of capitalism - which is what this article is really about.

Margaret Thatcher is a strong independent woman indeed - but as a fairly committed liberal/socialist, I'm not going to make much of a case for her, or her particular brand of somewhat damaging economic theories. She was also wildly popular in her day, mostly for not very good reasons that should've been unpicked at the time.