Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour
A Moment of Glory, Peak Pride, and Bad-Ass Girl Power
December 23, 2024
Dear Friends,
I’ve been very busy lately, working on a couple of science papers and preparations for the writing of a major book (or two!) Hence, my silence. But I did take time out two weeks ago to attend one of Taylor Swift’s final concerts of her Eras Tour and thought perhaps some of you ... those who are fans as well as those unfamiliar with Swift and wondering why she generates so much attention ... might be interested in a post about her.
Some of you may also be wondering ‘What does Taylor Swift have to do with our coming of age in the solar system?’
Well, a lot.
Never before has there been a woman who has achieved such an extreme level of global acclaim or commercial success in the realms of music and popular culture, all the while being a perfectly lovely individual. As a result, she has been winning awards and breaking records all her professional career, beginning from the time she was 17 years old, continuing to TIME magazine’s choice of Swift as 2023 Person of the Year, and extending to her now-completed, 2-year long, record-breaking Eras Tour.
It was her recognition by TIME that landed her on my radar screen, and I was fascinated enough to begin a deep-dive into her life. (My previous one, which lasted about a year and ended only after I had read and seen on the internet about everything there was to read and see, was Elvis Presley.) My dive into Swift's life and music made me realize that I did not want to miss the opportunity to see her Eras Tour concert.
So, at great expense, I purchased a $2700 ticket, dragged along with me the 23-year old daughter of a friend of mine, and we both headed off to see Swift's next-to-the-last show in Vancouver, Canada.
Caption: Image from Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour show, Vancouver, CA, Dec 7, 2024 (Image Credit: Carolyn Porco)
Swift is singular in every way, and her Eras Tour was no exception. Much press has been devoted to her and her tour, and analyses are easy to find. Here are some basic facts about her phenomenal success, gleaned from various sources: the Wikipedia entries on both Swift and the Eras Tour, an NPR piece devoted to the Tour’s statistics, a Swift interview with TIME, and articles on the websites of Q30TV, People magazine, Billboard magazine and elsewhere. [At the end of this essay, I include a link to my YouTube channel where I've posted 8 brief videos that I personally took during the Vancouver show. In this way, you can see for yourself what all the fuss has been about.]
"The tour recorded unprecedented public demand, ticket sales and attendances, bolstering economies, businesses, and tourism worldwide, dominating social media and the 24-hour news cycle, and garnering tributes and accolades from governments and organizations."
"Critics praised the Eras Tour for its concept, production, and immersive ambience, as well as Swift's vocals, stage presence, and versatile showmanship."
The Wall Street Journal called the tour one of the most expensive and "technically ambitious" productions of the 21st century.
“The Eras Tour staging is expansive, made of digital displays. It consists of three separate stages connected by a broad ramp. ... the stages feature various visuals and effects throughout the show. The tour's main artistic concept is world-building, featuring a diverse set of props and performing styles to convey the varying moods and aesthetics of Swift's albums.”
“The tour's massive production is heavily inspired by Broadway theatre. It was described as a 4D cognitive experience, featuring pyrotechnics, laser lights, smoke machines, fire cannons, indoor fireworks, PixMob LED bracelets, and image projection technology, such as projection mapping.”
Swift performed 149 shows in 51 cities across 21 countries on 5 continents between March 2023 and December 2024.
By its completion in Vancouver, Canada, on December 8, 2024 (the day after the concert I attended), the Eras Tour had sold a total of $2,077,618,725 in tickets to 10,168,008 people, breaking the previous record by a wide margin. And those numbers do not include a secondary market of ticket sellers, sales of merchandise ($200M in 2023 alone), earnings of $262M from the highest-grossing concert film of all time, and more. No other concert tour has come close.
She headlined a record 8 shows at Wembley Stadium, London ... a venue that holds 90,000 people.
A typical Eras show featured 44-46 songs and ran for 3 hours and 15 minutes. Swift sang every song, with no lip-synching.
In an interview with TIME, Swift revealed that, prior to the tour, she trained by singing the entire 40+ songlist every day for 6 months, while running on a treadmill. [I wouldn't wanna meet this woman down a dark alley!]
In July 2023, Seattle fans danced so hard that they created the seismic equivalent of a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.
Swift's biggest crowd (of both the tour and her entire career) was 96,000 people at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia, at which she performed 3 shows in February 2024.
She released 3 albums while on tour: She re-recorded "Taylor's Version" of Speak Now and 1989 in 2023, and wrote new songs for, and released, The Tortured Poets Department in April 2024 (which also yielded 4 music videos). That's all in addition to her concert film and book.
Swift was Spotify's most-streamed artist for 2 years in a row, driving 26.6 billion global streams in 2024 alone.
She has also excelled in video and film production, winning numerous awards and critical acclaim for music videos and short films that she has written and/or directed.
She holds 118 Guinness World Records.
Swift's storytelling, lyricism, cultural impact, and entrepreneurship have been the subject of entire courses at various colleges across the US. Some examples are: Harvard University, University of Texas at Austin, Stanford University, University of California - Berkeley, New York University, Arizona State University, Northeastern University, University of South Carolina, University of Florida, Colorado State University, University of Miami, University of Tennessee, American University, Pennsylvania State University, Brigham Young University, Duke University.
She is the first musician to achieve billionaire status predominantly through her musical achievements.
She is extremely generous. People magazine reports that over the past 2 years, Swift gave out $197 million in bonuses to everyone working on her Eras Tour, including truck drivers, caterers, dancers and musicians. And the Billboard magazine website documented on December 12, 2024 some of her notable gifts between October 2011 and December 2024 to charitable organizations as well as individuals whose pleas for help she had seen on social media.
Attending the Eras Tour and seeing it live was an experience I will not forget. It was a 60,000 person lovefest and a glorious, unmistakable display of bad-ass girl power. Despite it being her next-to-last, 148th show in a nearly 2-year tour, she was in top spirited form, completely engaged with her audience, obviously enjoying every minute of it, as were we.
I feel blessed to have lived long enough to see a woman single-handedly achieve the highest rank in pop culture and musical influence ... up there with Elvis, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson. How did she do it? Through sheer talent, resolve, confidence, a stoic work ethic, sufficient self-respect to ignore her critics, and the brains to outsmart those with plans to exploit her.
And she did it through love. Paul McCartney has remarked admiringly on the intimate relationship that Swift has developed and nurtured with her fans. She is famous for her generosity towards them and actively interacting with them through social media, concerts, and even surprise visits to their homes. And she consistently credits and thanks them for her success. One of my concert videos captures her speech to all of us describing her gratitude. It’s obvious she meant it.
Of course, one must give huge kudos to her parents, who showered this girl with love all her life, and recognized and nurtured her young talent from the start. They've been active in promoting her career since she was 11 years old, even leaving their home in Pennsylvania when she was just 14 and moving to Nashville, Tennessee in an effort to assist her entrance into the country music scene. It worked! They have been literally by her side every step of the way, and often with her on tour. It is clear that their devotion to her and the extraordinary grounding she received from them, and still does, have been big contributors to the mental and emotional stamina she has displayed in the face of all that very famous people have to endure.
One cannot deny that she comes from a wealthy, privileged family. But love, kindness and comfort in difficult times can be freely given by anyone. The Taylor Swift story exemplifies what a loving and supportive family can do, at least in kind if not to the same degree, for any child. I would love to read a future book written by her parents, perhaps called Raising a Star, on how they guided their daughter through the various stages of her extraordinary life. I bet it would be a best-seller.
Maybe not surprisingly, by every account, Swift has remained through it all remarkably down to Earth ... authentic, free of artifice, full of good will, kindness, and compassion, with no scandalous, self-destructive behaviors or abusive relationships in her background. She is the opposite of a tragic figure, examples of which abound throughout the history of entertainment. She’s simply a well-adjusted, big-hearted, admirable individual … an excellent role-model for young women. If I had a daughter, I'd be deliriously happy to know she was a Swiftie, and I’d be sure to be there with her and her friends, making friendship bracelets and loudly singing “I’d be the man!”.
In the end, this is why Swift and her accomplishments indeed deserve an entry in the tale of our coming of age in the solar system ...
It is the 21st century in this very developed country we call ‘the land of the free’ and we have yet to reach the point where the notion that women should be accorded the same rights and societal status as men would not encounter axe-wielding opposition by a not insignificant segment of the voting public. (See the US election, November 5, 2024.) When examined against today's political backdrop of unrepentant misogyny and ugly, bold rejection of age-old, legitimate concerns about sexual violence, reproductive and maternal health, economic and legal inequality, all of which now make women in America and many places around the world more vulnerable than we have been for decades, the global phenomenon that is Taylor Swift, in stark contrast, makes patently clear that women are in fact more than capable of serving as the architects of our own spectacular success. Taylor Swift has become girl power incarnate and, even in this particularly dark time, her rise signals the coming of age of women … a moment of glory and peak pride in our evolution.
So, do I consider myself a Swiftie? You bet! And I am here to proclaim ... pass around the friendship bracelets and Long Live Taylor Swift!
Now, take a look at my videos and glimpse the Eras Tour for yourself: The Great Taylor Swift, Eras Tour, Vancouver, Canada, December 7, 2024
I wish you all a splendid, holiday season and a peaceful, happy start to the New Year.
Carolyn Porco
That’s an excellent summary. I have not been privileged to be able to attend one of her concerts. What is certain is she is a remarkable individual and rightly deserves the praise that she receives, it’s a pity more individuals who are in a position of power and influence do not have the same generosity, humility and openness.
eye roll