You are also welcome to share other stories similar to mine
But here is smthng i found today, I remember I used to watch her videos a few years? Ago, she used to make Q n A videos alongside her song covers and used to talk to her subscribers in her room in Surabaya, she was was very genuine, and made covers with her genuinely gifted talent, however I recently came across her again and she seemed to have completely changed, high pitched, makeup, trendy dresses, standard pop star basically
So anyway I first tried to get to her old videos, she originally hailed from surabaya indonesia, i think from some closely knit christian community, she used to talk a lot about “morals” and “being humble” of her Q n As, i remember watching her silver play button unboxing very recently, but they all have mysteriously disappeared, i couldn’t even find fan channel uploads which is a weird thing since she was quite popular especially in the sinosphere
Anyway my first instinct was maybe she just found a new way to express herself, which was cool, even tho i remember her saying back in those q and as that she “wants to keep herself pure in the industry” but anyway that was fine
But it icked me why would she go out of her way to delete every evidence of her old-self if it was just her growing up, so I went digging suspecting corporate meddling, and boy oh boy
Apparently she had been signed to ostereo (You can find it on its wikipedia page), a big data company from UK “develops” artists using data, which is already a humongous red flag, but. What was weird is that the deal went all the way back to 2021, why did it take so long for her to change and to delete all those videos?
Well after some more digging i found out that ostereo was acquired by create music group, which also own flight-house, basically very smthng smthng tiktok optimization company, you can find it again if u search for it (i am not sure if I can link it here, and im lazy🫣) and specifically names shania yan and few other creators for the reason of acquisition, that well explained everything, the group probably needed her to remove her old personality and put on a more “universal” brand, with high pitched voice, lots of makeup etc etc
Well I found it quite sad, the corporate world is such a bitch, her old genuine videos in surabaya and her silver play button q and a were rlly wholesome and relatable coz she felt like an actual person who enjoyed creating music, talking to her fans, etc. its all gone, deleted by corpos who want to make her more profitable😐, a girl sitting in her bedroom talking about being humble, saying her voice is a “gift” isnt that marketable
She went from a person to a brand