Popstar Factory -- Vice News Tonight (HBO), 2017, 6:14 -- https://youtu.be/avp4a-WKIRU?t=16m43s

Capitalism has a peculiar way of stripping meaning from cultural arts. Here we see a rationalized process to produce musical icons where the music is the least important thing. It's almost genius-- if you can build up enough buzz around a "product" by appealing to popular trends (i.e., tennis, genderless) then you're likely to make a profit from merchandising and the initial hype.

Max Weber would lose it if he saw this. The dream of becoming a popstar is now disenchanted and the popstars themselves are now trapped in the iron cage.

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