I've honestly been surprised by Taylor Swift's popularity and fame. I hadn't heard anything about her for years, then this year she started to show up everywhere I looked. But I'm not in the target demographic for her music so I guess it makes sense.
Don't have much interesting to say about her other than she appears to be a cunning business woman. I've heard a lot of buzz on how she bypassed regular Hollywood protocol and went directly to movie studios to increase her own profits. Kudos for her for going beyond the gatekeepers and toll collectors.
I don't like either type of music that much (if I want to listen to variety/pop, I'd rather listen it in my language), but to me both of them improved the status quo between artists and copyright holders so much they deserve all the love they get.
(because yes, copyright is basically a US extrateritorial law, since EU and other Anglo countries decided to map almost 1:1 with the US laws)
At $2 per 1000 views [1], and assuming ~100 views per day, that would lead to $52 per year, assuming she takes some time off during the weekend.
[1] https://www.thinkific.com/blog/youtube-money-per-view/amp/
Musk gets criticism for the things he does do, not the things he doesn't do. It's pretty rare I see any acknowledgement, especially in the media, of how little he has personally accomplished with Tesla or SpaceX, the focus is always on his next big stunt (twitter buyout, boring company, hyperloop).
Gates was absolutely vilified when he was the active head of Microsoft, essentially seen as the devil incarnate by many. But a few years after he retired and went all-in on philanthropy, he became a saint in the media and the general zeitgeist. Now that he's just making passive billions off his investments, everyone stopped caring how he gets the money and just about what he does with it.