Here's the contradiction here though. She's not any of these people, but she is infinitely more successful than these people. I think these people are extremely talented - I think Taylor Swift is also a bit talented, what I cannot square is why Taylor Swift's relative talent offers a return in audience/financial compensation magnitudes higher than these people.

I'm not anti Taylor Swift per se, as I've said... I don't really care that much about her as a person. I just don't get the degree to which she is so dominant on a mediocre. I get Meatloaf and Steinman isn't to everyone's taste - and you've bashed them based on opinion, but I don't really see any difference between Meatloaf and Taylor Swift. Both great performers, he came out of Musical Theatre, she came out of country. They both played guitar. They both put out wildly popular songs that aren't to everyone's taste - and a few songs people have as guilty pleasures.

What's the difference here? What I'm interested in (rather than being anti-TS) is the mechanisms by which we've ended up with her as an all encompassing phenomenon - could it have been Meatloaf? And if not, why not?