Taylor Swift felt fatigue setting in at the end of her 1989 tour. “I think I should take some time off,” the singer-songwriter said a few weeks before wrapping up the 53-show international tour in December 2015.
“I think people might need a break from me.” By the time this tour began in May, 1989 had already been out for seven months. Swift had three number one singles that spent a combined 12 weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. She was more famous than ever before. Their pop songs were undeniably great. Last year, Swift referred to the 1989 era as the “imperial phase.” A time that at the time seemed like an impossible pinnacle of success.
More than just an Imperial phase
She said this in a rare interview as she was named Time’s Person of the Year for 2023, almost a year before the final show of the Eras Tour. “Eras” spanned almost two years. And included 149 shows attended by more than 10 million people around the world. It wasn’t just Swift’s biggest live tour of all time. It was the largest live tour of all time, grossing more than $2 billion in ticket sales. The focus was not on a single album. But Swift’s entire music catalog, which has expanded to include 80 original and newly recorded songs since the tour began in March 2023. This was their final Imperial phase. But the term feels insignificant after the Eras Tour.
Can something so far-reaching be called a phase?
“Nothing is permanent,” Swift told Time. “That’s why I’m very careful. Grateful for every second I can do this at this level. Because it has already been taken away from me once.’ The break she thought people might need from her after “1989” never fully materialized. Swift disappeared for a while. But not quite according to their own ideas. She essentially went into hiding after a fight with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian that manipulated public opinion. And the fan base on both sides incited. “I thought this moment of backlash would negatively define me for the rest of my life,” Swift said. She later added: “Make no mistake. My career was taken away from me.”
Even “Don’t Blame Me” is a hit
After a year in which she lived largely in isolation in a rented house abroad, Swift returned in 2017. But it wasn’t a timid comeback. She set the tone with “Look What You Made Me Do,” the lead single from “Reputation,” which broke records on streaming services and YouTube within hours of its release. The album itself was at number one for four weeks. Almost three million people attended the 53-date “Reputation Tour,” during which the musician sold out stadiums for the first time. Still, this particular era felt rather limited. In retrospect, calling it a devastating revenge album did the album a disservice.
The songs weren’t as culturally pervasive, and Swift was particularly disappointed when “Reputation” was excluded from the Grammy Awards’ major categories. It seemed like the Eras Tour was necessary for people to understand. The devotional deep cut “Don’t Blame Me,” for example, never appeared on the Hot 100 but currently has more than a billion streams on Spotify – twice as many as when the tour began.
“Loverfest”
The reorientation of Swift’s catalog was perhaps the greatest triumph of the Eras Tour. The casual fans Swift had lost between “1989” and “Reputation” became aware of the Greatest Hits tour, which dwarfs all Greatest Hits tours, and immediately flocked back. During the tour, Swift’s Instagram followers increased by more than 30 million users. Now the anticipation is building even more for the release of Reputation (Taylor’s Version), the fifth album in their series of new recordings.
It’s impossible to imagine that the response to this record will be as muted as the original. As with her re-recordings, “Eras” took something that on paper would appeal primarily to someone already familiar with it and turned it into a shiny new thing for a whole new audience.
Before “Eras,” Swift had other plans to reach listeners who were either unfamiliar with her art or had a complicated relationship with her due to the extra-musical narrative that followed her. She set new social standards with the 2020 documentary “Miss Americana,” in which she emphasized her political standpoint. A few months later, she was scheduled to begin “Lover Fest,” a 16-date tour that was ultimately canceled due to the pandemic. The tour consisted almost entirely of festival sets at major events such as Glastonbury and BST Hyde Park. Four of those were headlining stadium shows, her first since Reputation. The other twelve would have placed them in front of casual festival goers who might not otherwise have seen them live.
Arms full of friendship bracelets
With the Eras Tour, Swift got them to come to her instead. The pre-sale demand alone made the live show an event of a lifetime. There were unsuspecting attendees who knew the hits and left with arms full of friendship bracelets and the surprise song they had on “Repeat.” She released an accompanying feature-length concert film, which played first in theaters and later on Disney+. It’s never been easier to gain access to Swift based on her artistry alone. The scale of the tour dwarfed any criticism she faced during the tour, including the backlash from her own fans over her controversial 1975s association with Matty Healy. None of it was loud enough to penetrate the volume of the crowd.
Now, for the first time in more than two years, Taylor Swift is nowhere to be found on the charts
Swift has never performed at this level before. It’s a level of celebrity that provides a sense of permanence from which she can’t return. Her position there became crystallized when she released “The Tortured Poets Department” in the middle of the “Eras” tour and incorporated it into the set list, including a prime spot for the hit that never was: “I Can Do It With.” a Broken Heart.” It was the longest-running song on the album, spending 31 weeks on the Hot 100, including two weeks in the top 10.
Now, for the first time in more than two years, Swift is nowhere to be found on the charts. None of their songs, single or not, were as popular as their “Midnights Run.” And yet the entire 31-song collection charted for at least a week, and the album itself spent 17 weeks at the top of the Billboard 200. She no longer needs to break through to be the dominant force in pop.
It’s a parallel to her transition from “1989” to “Reputation,” only this time she’s not running from anything or anyone. When Swift previously rejected the idea that something like this could last forever, it was on the basis that she had previously lost everything – especially the false and conditional price of adoration from the general public. Still, their core base of fans never wavered. The stadiums were still filling up, the albums were still selling. But the feeling remained that she longed for greater recognition. With the “Eras Tour” she harnessed the power of her own fan base. The level of their support was enough to convince anyone who wasn’t already convinced.
For them it’s not a phase
Those on the outside, who may feel exhausted by Swift’s overwhelming presence or completely indifferent to her, are unable to take everything away from her. This power is in the hands of the Swifties and they are too beholden to it to ever consider doing such a thing. The music is too deeply woven into her being. And frankly, there are too many of them now – the OG Swifties have oversold the “Eras” experience and new ones are being added at a record pace. “Everything that happens is a direct reflection of the passion you show,” she told her audience in Toronto last month, shortly after receiving six Grammy nominations. Collectively, they have little to do with the Recording Academy’s voting habits, but there is strength (and influence) in numbers.
Their victories have become their victories and the Eras Tour is their biggest yet. For them it’s not a phase.