You would have to be living under a rock to not know the impact Taylor Swift has been making in the entertainment industry lately. From The Eras tour, AMC concert movie, taking home nine 2023 MTV Video Music Awards, to the re-recordings of her previous albums, there seems to be no slowing down for Ms. Swift. The tour has grossed over one billion dollars, and her earnings alone from it have been a whopping 300 million dollars. Her influence over the world is shown in more ways than one and is a phenomenon that only increases since we’re glued to her every move.
The timeline of her career began in 2006 as a high school girl who played guitar and wrote songs in her room. The combination of her relatability mixed with songwriting talent created an unstoppable force of fans (known as “Swifties”) who have remained loyal. This loyalty comes in the form of buying tickets to the shows, purchasing only the “new” old songs that she officially owns now, and not giving up even when they witnessed the road get rocky.
The Ticketmaster controversy was simply because so many people wanted to see her perform live. The website in November crashed from overload during an event for presale tickets. As a result, millions of fans unfortunately lost tickets after waiting for such a long time online for them. There was even a lawsuit filed by more than twenty fans against Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company. Three and a half million users had preregistered for the sale, making it the biggest registration Ticketmaster had ever seen.
The unconditional love that makes up this fandom ranges from young people and adults to both parents and grandparents. All ages and genders can appreciate the sensation that is the one and only Taylor Swift. Two of my coworkers, Laura Butterfield and Kristin Huey, attended the shows on different nights at the SoFi Stadium in California. Each show is unique because Swift and her team choose special surprise songs, so no one knows what they will be until she starts to sing them. Though that part is always random, there are certain rituals that have developed and stayed consistent. In the bridge part of the song titled, “You’re on Your Own Kid” she tells us to “make the friendship bracelets”, so of course this concept was bound to take off and become a major trend.
“My favorite part of the Eras concert tradition was exchanging friendship bracelets. My youngest daughter and I made over twenty of them from beads and string we had at home,” recalled Butterfield.
She and her two daughters brought the bracelets in a zip lock bag. They handed them out to people before the show started, while the headline acts (HAIM and Gracie Abrams) were getting the crowd warmed up.
She admitted that some of the younger fans were shy but still looked willing to talk, so that’s when she knew she would have to be the one to make the first move and approach them.
“I gave the sweetest girl who was there celebrating her 10th birthday one that read ‘angels roll their eyes’, and she gave me one that had ‘Anti-Hero’ written on it,” said Butterfield about two popular hit singles off the albums Lover and Midnights. By the end of the night fans had completely covered their arms with bracelets from strangers, uniting everyone in a magical way that made for heartwarming memories. It seemed to remind everyone that though they may not have known each other individually, they all got to share the sacred bond of loving the same music and artist.
Aside from the social aspect, another fun way to celebrate was to wear sparkly dresses or something homemade to save money (since we all know the tickets were beyond worth it but NOT cheap). This meant dressing in iconic award show getups or specific attire Swift once wore, choosing certain colors for the different eras (such as black for Reputation), or just being creative with glitter and shimmery- looking pieces. This had excited fans planning months in preparation about what their Eras outfits would entail, almost like the obsession with envisioning the best Halloween costume well before the end of October.
“I wore a dark blue dress similar to what was worn in the Delicate music video from 2018,” said Huey with a proud smile. “Over that I had on a dark sequin jacket that matched the vibe perfectly.” She attended the show alone and sat in the back row of the stadium. However, this did not stop her from having the absolute time of her life. She filmed most of the concert on her phone so she can look back and relive those moments whenever she pleases.
“I got to shout every word at the top of my lungs and have no one get in the way of me enjoying myself. My boyfriend picked me up once it was over and was supportive of me going; he just didn’t want to have to sit through hours of screaming girls and I understood. He’s just grateful I didn’t force him to go with me,” laughed Huey. In addition to the digital recollections, she purchased a T-shirt with the concert dates and cities, as well as a tote bag with colored pictures of blondie on the front.
It is no surprise that Swift’s influence, once again, does not just affect the musical realm. There is an online learning marketplace called Outschool where teachers create classes on subjects from art to algebra, to writing and music. From the creativity, it’s clear these teachers have put on their thinking caps to get the juices flowing. For example, Mr. Lewinter conducts a ukulele class that meets for twenty minutes and costs fifteen dollars. Eight to twelve-year-olds will learn the chords to a Taylor Swift song, and the site conveniently gives the next available days and times to enroll. Secondly, Mrs. Holmes teaches a forty-five-minute class for eleven to fifteen-year-olds how to draw Swift from the Lover CD cover. It costs seventeen dollars and can have up to eight people per class. An outline sketch is first done in pencil while the last ten minutes consist of outlining and coloring. There is also a class that analyzes the songs by looking into lyrics to figure out themes, and it’s taught at a seventh-grade curriculum by an English teacher named Mrs. Mohammed. This class meets once a week for two weeks and each class is forty-five minutes. Lastly, there is a social group that meets once a week for ten dollars to stay connected and interact with fellow mega-fans.
Whether she is dominating venues that fill over 50,000 seats or providing content used to fuel discussions in academic environments, Miss Taylor is just going to keep impressing us left and right. There is no one quite like her and it is refreshing to have such a role model who happens to also be an incredibly genuine human being. I’m certain that the ‘easter eggs’ she likes to surprise us with in her videos and social media posts will remain intriguing and thought-provoking. I know I speak for others when I say we can’t wait to see what she’s up to next.
Taylor’s official website is: TaylorSwift.com
Concert photos submitted by Kristin Huey and Melissa Cronin-Brown.
Website photo credit: Taylor Swift’s official website