Big call and maybe an early call, but Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is the tour of the generation.
To see literally thousands of people dressed up, singing along and with swags full of merch who weren’t even in the stadium, was genuinely insane. Most would be stoked to have a small portion of the people outside the G show up for their show.
The build up could not have been more perfect in Melbs with the win at the Grammy’s and subsequent surprise album announcement. Taylor’s new flame Travis Kelce and the Chief’s success at the Super Bowl, putting her on-screen front and center at one of the biggest global televised events and just days out from the first show. We even had perfect concert weather on all three nights in Melbs, warm but not too hot, not much wind, no rain. Could anything else go right!?
It’s hard to know where to start with just how impressive the whole juggernaut is in the perfect blend of art, community and commercial success, but here are a few thoughts.
Taylor’s Eras
The whole notion of the eras is just elite-tier branding. We have the mothership of core values, which from my read, is based around community, joy and defiance that ring true through everything, but that then stretches in a myriad of ways through the respective eras/albums. Complete with music, costumes and a different vibe, each having their own appeal to a segment of her legions of fans and giving them a platform to express themselves. Not to mention the Taylor’s Version re-releases will go down in folklore as an all-time masterstroke, nice one Kelly Clarkson. Could write a whole piece just on that to be honest.
Creating scarcity while being generous
The fact that she is only doing a handful of shows in Aus has significantly added to the hype in my opinion. In the lead up, I met a stack of people travelling from interstate and even NZ to get their glimpse of T Swiz live. FOMO was dialed up to 1,000 with a lot of people missing out on tickets, and yet it still had a feeling of generosity with opportunities to engage outside of the concert and moderately priced tickets with obstructed views which actually weren’t that obstructed because of the extended flat stage design.
Swiftenomics
The spending stimulation of the Eras Tour is just mind boggling. I was chatting to a few people during the week who had spent over $800 just on merch. Let alone their ticket to the show, accommodation, food/drinks at the show, other events in the lead up like trivia nights (thank you!) Taylor Swift street performances (also thank you!) and the rest! According to Bloomberg the tour will generate $1.2B for the Melb economy, crazy.
The Show
Fair to say that expectations could not have been higher for this performance. It was a freight train of anticipation and hype and yet she still managed to blow everyone’s socks off with the performance. Surprise songs, pulling people up from the crowd, dancers, outfit changes, fireworks. I love the approach of raising expectations and backing yourself to beat them!
Friendship bracelets
I think this is my favourite element of the whole thing. According to this yarn on the Guardian, the bracelets may have started with Taylor’s album Midnights in 2022. Whether it was a fan origin or a Swift team origin it doesn’t really matter, but it is a magic move. Is there anything more wholesome than sitting around making friendship bracelets and swapping them with fellow fans? My heart exploded when I received one from a 10 year old girl after hosting Swifty Trivia. In a world where we have access to so much entertainment in the palm of our hand, it was amazing to see groups sitting outside the MCG with their bead stations just making things together.
A couple of other notes to the detractors which I’ve heard over the past little while.
She just has a good marketing team and the music is mid
Honestly, not to make light of the marketing work because it is incredible, but selling Taylor is like selling water to someone dying of thirst, doesn’t matter how much it costs, they’re gonna buy it! The product is that good and that valuable to her fans and that is a credit to the whole story, but at the heart of that is her music which is undeniably world class.
Her music is for girls
I feel like this insult gets thrown around at a lot for mega popular artists/bands. I think back to One Direction in their prime and Justin Bieber.
Do girls not deserve great music too? Does the fact that they like it cheapen the value of it? Are they so easily influenced it’s simple to write music for them? Having hosted parties for 12 year old girls I can tell you one thing, they are not an easy audience to engage and anyone who thinks they could just show up and write mega-hit songs for them on a whim is kidding themselves.
I think it would be fair to say Taylor’s audience skews female, but it’s hardly exclusive, coming from your recently converted cis male metalhead turned Swifty.
As a final note.
Perfect is a strong word, but when it comes to arts & entertainment it’s hard not to use it in this instance. There were a lot of uncontrollables which landed serendipitously in favour for Melbourne such as the weather, Super Bowl and Grammy win/announcement, but that’s what you get sometimes when every little detail is so wonderfully planned and executed that you manifest your own luck.
It was truly an honour to be a part of The Great Melbourne Swiftogeddon of 2024, I feel inspired on so many fronts and can already feel the influence of T Swiz and the Eras Tour infiltrating my thinking for all things Yarnberg.
Until next time Tay Tay and Swifties!
Jacob in permanent Red Era
