The Eras Tour, as Swift's first tour following the
COVID-19 lockdowns, caused an economic
demand shock fueled by the public's increased affinity for entertainment. It recorded unprecedented ticket sale registrations across the globe, such as over 22 million customers virtually queueing for the Singapore tickets. The first sale in the United States
crashed controversially, drawing censure from
bipartisan lawmakers, who proposed implementation of price regulation and anti-
scalping laws at
state and
federal levels. Legal scholar
William Kovacic called it the "Taylor Swift policy adjustment".[2]Price gouging due to the tour was highlighted in the national legislatures of Brazil, Ireland, and the UK.
Beyond sold-out stadiums, the tour attracted large crowds of ticketless spectators
tailgating outside the venues, such as over 60,000 people in
Philadelphia, and was a ubiquitous subject in
news cycles and social media content, receiving constant press coverage to the point some journalists considered it omnipresent television. On record charts,
Swift's discography experienced surges in album sales and streams; she became the first living artist to have seven albums in the top 40 of the
Billboard 200 and the first to chart six albums in the top 10 of the
ARIA Albums Chart. Her 2019 song "
Cruel Summer" achieved a newfound popularity and became one of
her most successful singles. The
accompanying concert film of the tour, which became the highest-grossing
concert film of all time, featured an atypical
film distribution strategy that bypassed
major film studios to directly partner with movie theaters and caused a number of other films to shift their release dates. A range of publications dubbed Swift the cultural highlight of 2023; Time picked Swift as the
Person of the Year—the first and only person from
the arts to achieve the honor.
The first United States leg of the tour was announced in November 2022, with 27 concerts across 20 cities.[6] The
Latin American, European, Australian and Asian dates were announced in June 2023, visiting 26 cities; popular demand led Swift to increase the number of tour dates in all the continents multiple times.[7][8] In the end, the Eras Tour became the most expansive tour of Swift's career domestically and globally, with 62 US shows and 89 international shows, for a total of 151 shows.[9]
World leaders such as
Gabriel Boric (left) and
Justin Trudeau (right) openly requested Swift to bring the Eras Tour to their countries.[10][11]
Some countries that were expected to receive dates for the tour were absent in Swift's announcements in June 2023, drawing dismay and demands from
Swifties and officials in those territories. As such, the tour had a political impact.[12]Billboard reported that politicians and government officials were "clamoring for a glimpse of the Eras Tour":[13]
In Australia, the Eras Tour is set to stop at Sydney and Melbourne for seven dates in total; fans and politicians in the excluded
Australian states (
Queensland,
South Australia, and
Western Australia) expressed their dismay at the tour not visiting their major cities (
Brisbane,
Adelaide, and
Perth, respectively).[16]ABC News journalist Antonia O'Flaherty reported that Brisbane was "definitely holding dates" for the tour at
Lang Park but was dropped after finalized Asian and European dates left only two weeks for Australia.[17]
New Zealand finance minister
Grant Robertson stated, although he was disappointed and despite Swift's popularity and the potential economic boom, he would not spend public money on campaigning for the tour. Nick Sautner, CEO of Auckland's
Eden Park, claimed he could not compete with the funding of Australia's Eras Tour campaign.[18]
Indonesia and the Philippines were not included on the Eras Tour, despite much anticipation.[25][26] Media outlets had reported large crowds of fans gathered in various Philippine malls to watch recreations of the Eras Tour by
Taylor Sheesh, a Filipino
drag queen and Swift impersonator.[25]Quartz reported that the Indonesian
minister of tourism and creative economy,
Sandiaga Uno, had taken note of the Eras Tour skipping Indonesia,
Southeast Asia's largest economy, and decided to ease the permit process for international touring acts.[26]
Unprecedented demand for the Eras Tour tickets were further reported in countries such as Argentina (three million customers),[27] Australia (four million),[28] Canada (31 million),[29] France (one million),[30] and Singapore (22 million).[31]
Price regulation
In the US, inefficient presale of the Eras Tour tickets by
Ticketmaster on November 15, 2022, resulted in
a highly publicized controversy.[32] Before the presale, Ticketmaster reported that it received a record-breaking 3.5 million registrations.[33]CNN Business stated that the "astronomical" demand indicated Swift's popularity.[34] On the presale day, Ticketmaster's website crashed and froze due to "historically unprecedented demand".[35]Greg Maffei, chairman of
Live Nation Entertainment, said Ticketmaster prepared for 1.5 million verified fans, but 14 million showed up.[36] Ticketmaster also cancelled the November 18 sale due to their inability to meet demand.[37] Swift's fans, upset and enraged with the debacle, accused Ticketmaster of deceit and poor
customer service.[38][39][40] The topic soon became a subject of public criticism and political scrutiny, as
consumer groups criticized Ticketmaster for its allegedly flawed and incompetent systems.[41][42] US lawmakers, including
attorneys general and members of the
Congress, took notice of the issue,[43] which became a subject of multiple congressional inquiries.[44] The
US Department of Justice opened an
antitrust investigation into Live Nation Entertainment and Ticketmaster.[45]
Media publications deemed the controversy a testament to Swift's influence and said it could bode well for the music industry by propelling conversations about economic inequality and antitrust laws in the US.[47][48] Inspired by the fiasco, various US Congress and
state legislature members proposed and enacted
a string of bills to ban scalping bots and regulate pricing model.[49][50] The US
Federal Trade Commission proposed to outlaw
junk fees in the country following the controversy, and the
National Economic Council, headed by American
President Joe Biden, pressed platforms to abandon junk fees in all prices—not just event tickets but for resort bookings and rental costs as well.[46] American legal scholar
William Kovacic called the move "the Taylor Swift policy adjustment."[2] According to Carolyn Sloane, assistant professor of economics at the
University of California, Riverside, the tour's fiasco spurred mass political action as Swift "has scaled her talent through demographic technology".[49] Following the
bipartisan censure of Ticketmaster at a
US Senate hearing, Billboard opined that Ticketmaster had the public's despise and thus made an "easy target for rare bipartisan political action".[50]The Washington Post stated the tour fiasco "was so bad it united the parties",[51] whereas
CNN, in an article titled "One Nation, Under Swift", said that Swift's fans united the
two parties in a way "the
Founding Fathers failed to anticipate".[52]
The tour's difficult ticket sales garnered international political attention as well. Forbes reported widespread scalping of the tickets in the United Kingdom, with immediate re-listing on sites like
StubHub and Viagogo for extortionate prices.[53][54] Viagogo responded that "the European leg of Taylor Swift's Eras tour has been long anticipated. We've not seen anything like this since
the Beatles and with tickets having only just gone on sale, demand is at its peak right now".[55]Reuters reported that the resale prices of Eras Tour tickets were US$1000 more than other touring acts.[56]Kevin Brennan, a
Member of Parliament from
Cardiff, demanded a debate in the UK
House of Commons on ticket scalpers and the
government's plans to tackle them.[57] In Ireland, politician
Thomas Pringle spoke in the
Dáil Éireann, the
lower house of the
Irish Parliament, criticizing the "rampant
price gouging" in Dublin during the tour's stop in the city as "disgraceful display of greed" by local hotels.[58] William Watson, writing for the Financial Post, opined that the lawmakers from the
Liberal Party of Canada, including Trudeau, will attempt to "
nationalize" the distribution of the tour's tickets in Canada in an attempt to win over Swift's fans for
the upcoming elections.[59] In Brazil, more than 10 scalpers were arrested for trying to resell tickets originally priced at around
R$6,000 (US$1,250) at significantly higher prices. Simone Marquetto, a member of the
Brazilian Chamber of Deputies for
São Paulo, proposed increasing the maximum prison sentence for scalping from to four years and
fines up to 100 times the price set by scalpers.[60]
The Eras Tour fueled the commerce and economies of various cities and territories.[61][62][63] According to Billboard, "the arrival of Eras in a new town every weekend brought with it not only an avalanche of hype, media attention and near-groveling from the host cities, but enough traveling business to give local economies a notable boost."[64] Financial analysts called it the "TSwift Lift" to the economy after the
COVID-19 recession.[65]The Wall Street Journal coined the term "Taylornomics" to explain the economics involved in and around the Eras Tour. Economist Mara Klaunig stated that "people are willing to travel far and wide to see [Swift]", making the tour a unique case of economic study.[66] A number of business executives reported the tour's favourable impact on their companies' performance.[67]
Local business
The
Federal Reserve credited Swift with boosting the US economy at large.[68] In urban areas, the tour boosted the
hospitality industry,[69] including hotels,[70] local businesses and tourism revenues by millions of dollars.[71][72][73] The Robb Report, citing analysis by
Mastercard, reported an extra $100 million in sales by restaurants in the US in 2023.[74] Various restaurants, bars, parks and other businesses organized Swift-themed activities and events, as well as special menus.[75][76] Such Swift-themed eatables and articles quickly ran out of stock in various food outlets and retailers.[66][77] The economic impact of Swift's Eras tour has been compared to sporting events such as the
Olympic Games,
Super Bowl, and
FIFA World Cup.[77][62]
Reports from some cities and regions are listed below:
The first shows in Glendale were more profitable for local businesses than
Super Bowl LVII.[62]
The three-day stop in
Tampa caused a huge increase in demand for hotel rooms, car-parking services and clothing stores;[79][80] the concerts generated US$730,000 in taxes for the city.[81][72]
All hotel rooms, restaurant reservations, and train tickets were sold out in
Boston days before the Eras Tour shows in nearby
Foxborough, Massachusetts.[84]
Chicago's Eras Tour dates marked the highest hotel occupancy in the city's history,[85] contributing to the state of
Illinois recording its highest hotel revenue ever in a
fiscal year.[86]
Eras Tour-related consumer spending in
Cincinnati was estimated to be $48 million.[66]
The tour's two nights in
Denver was predicted to add $140 million into
Colorado's economy.[88]
In
Seattle, downtown hotels reported a record-breaking $7.4 million in revenue, $2 million more than the record set by a
Major League Baseball All-Star Game earlier in the same month.[88]
Hotel occupancy rates in
Santa Clara were at least 98% weeks before the tour arrived to the city.[89] The tour's two nights generated an estimated $33.5 million in economic impact to
Santa Clara County, comparable to
National Football League matches.[90]
A
labor union representing hotel workers from 60 hotels in
Los Angeles and
Orange counties were at strike since their contracts with the hotels expired on June 30, 2023. One week before the Eras Tour's six Los Angeles concerts, the union protested outside the
Hyatt Regency LAX with posters inspired by the Eras Tour aesthetics and an open letter to Swift, which claimed that her concerts make the hotels "a lot of money" and urged her to postpone the concerts in solidarity with the strike.[91][92] A dozen Californian politicians, including
Eleni Kounalakis, the
Lieutenant Governor of California, signed a petition asking Swift to postpone the concerts.[93] The tour in Los Angeles generated a $320 million boost to the county's gross domestic product (GDP).[94]
Swift's shows in Mexico City generated an estimated
Mex$1,000,000,000 (US$59 million) in revenue across the city.[96]
Veja estimated a "tremendous"
R$400,000,000 (US$74 million) economic boost for Brazil during the tour.[97]
Mitsumasa Etou, professor from
Tokyo City University, projected an economic boost of up to
¥34,100,000,000 (US$229.6 million) in Japan, making the tour "Japan's biggest ever musical event", surpassing the
Fuji Rock Festival.[98]
Swift's seven concerts in Australia are expected to generate
A$140,000,000 (US$91 million) in economic activity.[99]
Evening Standard reported that, according to data from
Barclays, presales for the Eras Tour boosted consumer spending in the UK in July 2023.[100] For the June 2024 dates of the UK leg, hotels in
Edinburgh,
Liverpool and Cardiff sold out by August 2023.[101]
Civil transport
CNN labeled Swift a "
public transit savior", reporting that transit agencies received a "much-needed" post-pandemic boost, thanks to concert-goers commuting via subways, buses, and trains to and from the Eras Tour venues.[103] The Los Angeles Times reported cities across the US saw "ridership surge" from the Eras Tour attendees who chose to take transit. In
Atlanta, around 140,000 fans took transit to reach the
Mercedes-Benz Stadium, tripling the usual ridership. In Chicago, the tour generated 43,000 bus and train trips, resulting in the highest weekly ridership for the transit system since 2019.[104] In cases of inadequacy, special trains were announced for concertgoers with extended service in places such as Minneapolis,[102]Sacramento,[105]Greater Los Angeles,[104] and
Mexico City.[106]
Flight bookings to and within Australia peaked around the tour dates, especially arrivals from New Zealand and South Korea.[107] A number of
airlines facilitated special arrangements for Eras Tour attendees, such as:
Air New Zealand experienced what it dubbed the "Swift surge"—people rushing to book flights to Australia, where Swift was announced to perform in February 2023. The airline added 14 more flights from Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch to Sydney and Melbourne.[108][66]
After Swift postponed her second Buenos Aires show by two days due to inclement weather,
LATAM Airlines,
Sky Airline and
JetSmart Argentina allowed fans to rebook flight tickets at no cost.[110][111] Industry executives called the move "highly unusual".[112]
LATAM would continue with their flexibility policy and waived all the fees or any differences in fare for ticket-holders who would book return flights from
Rio de Janeiro following the postponement of the second date from November 18 to November 20 due to extreme heat and
the death of a fan, with
Gol Linhas Aéreas, and
Azul Brazilian Airlines following suit.[113][114]
Economic theory
The economics of Taylor Swift, including her impact on the economy, has been termed "Swiftonomics" by economists and journalists.[58] It was first coined by economic analyst Augusta Saraiva, who stated that the Eras Tour's unprecedented ticket sales represented a "post-COVID
demand shock" in the US, with consumers prioritizing entertainment over an imminent recession. Economics academic Melissa Kearney wrote that COVID-19 affected the public's views about "what's really important to them, and what brings them joy." Los Angeles Times defined Swiftonomics as a
microeconomic theory that explains Swift's supply and demand, and political impact following the COVID-19 pandemic.[115][116] The
Chair of the Federal Reserve,
Jerome Powell, stated "it's good to see" the Eras Tour helping the American economy but cautioned "stronger growth could lead over time to higher inflation and that would require an appropriate response from
monetary policy... So we'll be watching that carefully and seeing how it evolves over time."[117]
The demand shock was also further reported in Argentina and Australia.[120][121] Economists who observed the inflation in Southeast Asia termed it "Swiftflation".[122] Marketing professor Seshan Ramaswami wrote that the Eras Tour is one of the significant steps in a movement involving the
Government of Singapore's conscious attempts to expand the demographic reach of the city-state's cultural tourism "to young music fans... From all over Asia and perhaps even the Middle East".[118][123] Following the tour's tie-up with the
United Overseas Bank for premium tickets in Singapore, the bank reported a record
S$104 million (US$76 million) in income from credit card fees, an 89% increase from the previous year in the quarter.[124]Irish Examiner said that concert spending improved by 88% in Ireland thanks to Swift.[125]
According to a survey by online research company QuestionPro, 58% of the Eras Tour attendees were between ages 35 and 64, 37% between ages 18 and 34, and less than 5% under age 18. The tour's economic valuation was also estimated to be $5 billion, higher than the GDP of 50 countries.[126] QuestionPro later increased the estimate to $6.3 billion in the US and Canada. Other economic agencies projected an impact as high as $80 billion globally.[127] According to Insider, one movie studio marketing team found that attendees of the Eras Tour spent an average of $300 per concert.[128] Business magazine Fortune reported that fans spent an average of $1,300 on tickets, travel, and clothes to attend the tour, implying that the Eras Tour could raise $4.6 billion in consumer spending in the US,[85] and consequently "save" the US from recession.[129]
MarketWatch named Swift one of the most influential persons in the
stock market, reporting that "vigorous consumer spending epitomized by the Eras Tour helped the U.S. avert a widely predicted summer recession."[130] Similar sentiments were raised by journalists in other countries. The Guardian business columnist
Greg Jericho opined that the Eras Tour could save Australia from recession as well.[131] Journalist Swati Pandey wrote, "as recession risks in Australia mount, one unexpected factor could deliver a boost to the economy just when it's under maximum pressure from the
Reserve Bank's aggressive interest rate increases: Taylor Swift."[132] The Reserve Bank governor,
Michele Bullock, affirmed that "the Taylor Swift inflation effect has forced some spending adjustments" but it would not lead to a detrimental inflation.[133]The Globe and Mail's Tony Keller claimed Swift is the solution to the issues in the Canadian economy.[134]
Maria Psyllou, economics professor from the
University of Birmingham, called the Eras Tour a "complex economic environment". She wrote that the consumers' readiness to spend their money on the tour despite an ongoing global economic deceleration is an example of the
trickle-down effect, an economic principle explaining the success of high-income individuals benefitting lower sectors of society, stimulating
economic growth and opportunities for a wider spectrum of businesses in turn. Pysllou stated, the Eras Tour shows "the audience's willingness to
allocate their resources to experiences they have missed—travel, entertainment, leisure—during the pandemic" and is "a testament to the potent interplay between culture, economics, and
human behavior."[94] Anne Steele and Sarah Krouse from The Wall Street Journal opined that the Eras Tour is an example of "women's
multiplier effect", showing how women's entertainment can impact the economy.[135]
Mass media
"[Swift's] Eras Tour, which launched in Glendale, Arizona on March 17, hasn't launched a viral moment so much as the tour itself has gone viral, further spreading to every corner of the internet with every successive date. Each stop has dominated the news cycle for days, whether due to its special guests, its surprise songs, its celebrity attendees, its
Easter eggs, or its volcanic fan response—even the introduction of a new outfit to Swift's rotation can be headline-worthy."
The Eras Tour was a phenomenon in
mass media, especially on social media.[137] Various moments and events of and during the tour became topics of news coverage and wide social media engagement, both domestically and internationally.[138][139] To Horton, it grew into a "mass cultural moment", generating "unceasing buzz" and "a vast, ever-expanding digital world of clips, reactions, live-streams, dissections and analysis"; hence, apart from just Swift's performances, the mythology, celebrity gossip and fan culture surrounding the tour drove
news cycles, expanding the "Swiftverse and dissolving its borders with everything else even further." She described the Eras Tour as "not so much as a series of concerts, but as an ongoing, sprawling, interactive and ever-mutating reality show, with new chapters every week."[140] Media outlets reported on the numerous fan-run livestreams of each tour show, viewed by thousands of people on TikTok nightly.[141][142][143] According to telecommunications company
AT&T, fans set data usage records on the company's network in numerous stadiums.[144] Various brands, celebrities and companies posted parodies of the Eras Tour poster on social media.[145][146]
A topic of constant media coverage, a large number of celebrities across various fields such as
cinema,
television,
music and
sports attended the Eras Tour, leading to Billboard described the Eras Tour as a "genuinely epic event".[147][148][149]Billboard wrote "none of Swift's peers has enjoyed the kind of cultural cachet she has attained."[150] Culture journalist Kate Lindsay dubbed the tour "post-reality TV" in her Substacknewsletter.[151] According to Tyler Foggatt of The New Yorker, Swift "has done to stadium shows what
Beyoncé did to
Coachella, and to
millennials what
Bruce Springsteen did to
baby boomers. She has crafted a spectacle—a long-form, real-life experience in an age that is otherwise dominated by
short-form online content—though the tour is also perfectly designed to be consumed online."[152]Billboard critics agreed that Swift has dominated 2023 commercially and culturally, and some of them opined that the persisting success of Midnights, followed by the Eras Tour, and Swift's release of Speak Now (Taylor's Version) in July 2023 could "overexpose" Swift once again.[153]Glamour raised the same concern, stating Swift has dominated all aspects of popular culture in 2023, resulting in a "Swift monoculture".[154]The Hollywood Reporter opined, Swift became a "queen of all media" with the tour, dominating the concert, streaming and film spheres;[30]Deadline Hollywood referred to Swift as "The Monarch of All Media".[155] Following the media frenzy surrounding Swift in
Brazil, Vulture opined Swift "might actually be more popular than
Jesus in the country."[156]
Dictionary.com named the word "Era" the "Vibe of the Year" of 2023. Grant Barrett, head of
lexicography at the firm, opined that they "saw a real surge in the use of eras across popular culture" in 2023, owing to the Eras Tour, "the year's most high-profile, record-setting, impossible-to-ignore cultural phenomenon".[157] Mary Kate Carr of The A.V. Club wrote "From her tabloid-famous romances to the blockbuster success of her re-recordings to the incredible economic impact of Eras Tour, there wasn't a facet of
pop culture that Swift's influence didn't reach".[158]
Fanaticism
The only thing I can compare [the Eras Tour] to is the phenomenon of
Beatlemania.
The fan frenzy associated with the tour has been dubbed "Swiftmania" or similar terms.[160][161][162][163]The Irish Times held it responsible for "pushing up prices", leading to the Swiftflation phenomenon.[164] Journalists considered Swiftmania as the 21st-century equivalent to
Beatlemania, a 1960s cultural phenomenon owing to the fanaticism surrounding the English rock band
the Beatles. Jon Bream of Star Tribune opined that Swift has achieved "a once unthinkable monoculture, a zeitgeistian redux of Beatlemania".[165][166][167]
Media outlets have noted the extensive audience participation on the Eras Tour, particularly the various "inside joke" chants and rituals that the crowds performed together at each show.[168][169][170] Outlets also reported that many fans experienced a "post-concert
amnesia", struggling to remember the concert after attending it. Psychologists explained that intensely happy emotions have the same effect on the brain as
traumatic events, and can lead to loss of memory, as the "highly stimulating environment" of the show overwhelms the amount of information the brain can handle at a time.[171][172][173]
Tailgating
Large numbers of fans who did not have tickets to the Eras Tour gathered outside the venues in various cities to listen to Swift performing,[174][175] a
tailgate party phenomenon media outlets and fans termed "Taylor-gating".[176][177] According to
NBC News, such gatherings in open spaces outside the stadium premises have been attributed to a sense or experience of community within Swift's fandom. Thousands gathered in Tampa, Philadelphia and Nashville, among other cities, following which people "shared positive experiences" about Taylor-gating via TikTok, leading to growing crowds at subsequent shows.[178] The Philadelphia shows attracted around 20,000 ticketless fans every night.[179][180][181] In Chicago, fans occupied the public parks outside
Soldier Field, where the concert was "clearly" audible.[178] Cincinnati allocated adjacent park areas for the 41,000 Taylor-gaters.[182][66] In Mexico City, stands outside the venue
Foro Sol were opened for tailgaters.[183]
As the practice grew in popularity, some cities and stadium authorities prohibited tailgating due to security reasons.
New Jersey State Police issued a warning on May 26, 2023, asking those without tickets not to gather outside the concert venue in East Rutherford.[184]Levi's Stadium, the venue for the
Santa Clara concerts, similarly prohibited tailgating and asked fans not to congregate in the parking lots or nearby streets.[185] Other cities that banned tailgating include
Kansas City and
Inglewood.[186][187]
Some companies hiring
temporary workers or volunteers to work at venues reported a surge in applications from fans who could not get tickets to the Eras Tour, with one company receiving over 1,000 applications for 65 positions.[188] In
Buenos Aires, Argentina, fans with general admission tickets camped outside the concert venue,
Estadio River Plate, in tents for five months in order to secure front-row positions on the floor during the shows.[189]
Merchandise
Some of the friendship bracelets circulated at the Eras Tour and the screenings of
its concert film.
Concert attendees and Taylor-gating fans made
friendship bracelets, carrying song titles or references to Swift's music and
colloquialisms, to trade with each other or give to celebrity attendees, inspired by lyrics in Swift's 2022 song "
You're on Your Own, Kid".[190][191][192] The trend also grew amongst celebrities, such as Kenyan-Mexican actress
Lupita Nyong'o, who made and shared bracelets at the tour.[193] Swift herself commented on the making and sharing of bracelets,[194] which The New York Times dubbed the "badge of the Swiftie fandom".[139]
The bracelets became a significant business for shops online;[195]The Washington Post reported $3 million of bracelets were sold on
e-commerce website
Etsy between the months of April and August in 2023.[88] Some
bead shops saw a record-setting surge in sales;[196][135] arts and crafts supply store
Michaels reported a chain-wide increase in sales of more than 40% on their jewelry range, and up to 500% in locations that the tour visited.[197] Shortages in beads and sequins supply were also reported.[192] Stores selling bracelet supplies in Australia also reported large increases in sales.[198]
Portions of the long queues formed for the Eras Tour merchandise truck in the stadium premises in
Seattle(top) and
Minneapolis(below)
The Eras Tour merchandise trucks drew uncommonly long queues at all stops of the tour.[160][199][200]The New York Times reported that hundreds of fans waited outside the
Raymond James Stadium in
Tampa, Florida, overnight in the rain to purchase the merchandise before it sold out.[161] In Los Angeles, more than 3,000 fans queued for the merchandise stands outside
SoFi Stadium.[201]The Wall Street Journal estimated that $3 million worth of merchandise is sold at every stop of the tour.[202] According to
Universal Music Group (UMG), the success of tour helped boost merchandising revenue by 12 percent, compensating the decline in touring revenue during the pandemic.[203]Pollstar estimated the first 60 shows in 2023 collected $200 million in revenue from merchandise sales.[204]
The Messenger reported that the confetti gathered from the Eras Tour evolved into its own
niche market—being sold online at prices ranging from $10 to $200 on
eBay and
Facebook Marketplace—with some fans recouping full costs of their tickets in the process. Journalist Julia Gray wrote, "Confetti is like an extension of Swift's sought-after,
limited-release merch. There's an element of
scarcity and exclusivity."[205]
Fashion
According to fashion critic
Vanessa Friedman, Swift's wardrobe for the Eras Tour received wide press coverage.[206] Tailors reported an increased demand for replicas of Swift's tour outfits.[207] The tour increased the demand in sales of apparel like metallic
boots and sequin dresses. According to CNN, fashion and clothing retailers across the US are "carefully" marketing their products to actively target attendees of the Eras Tour. Companies such as Altar'd State, Bipty, and Hazel & Olive created a separate section of items inspired by Swift and her eras. Sales of
rhinestone boots and cowboy hats also spiked, helping Hazel & Olive achieve its "biggest sales year yet."[208][209]Vogue further noted the tour's impact on
social media fashion, which used to only be a phenomenon of music festivals such as Coachella;[210] many fans wore replicas of Swift's outfits or costumes based on her music to the concert.[211][212] Shannon Aducci of Footwear News opined that Swifties at the Eras Tour shaped the direction of 2023 summer fashion.[213]
This is the part about Taylor Swift's career that is unprecedented. She has, rather brilliantly, convinced the public that her past and present coexist right now. She's dismantled the former "new work vs. old work" binary for artists and replaced it with the "Eras" paradigm, where her songs are parceled into different concurrent channels that are equally accessible... Swift has figured out how to reprogram the public's internal algorithm better than any of her competitors, so that her historical fame doesn't count against her contemporary fame. She gets to be a "legacy act" and a "relevant pop act" simultaneously.
Swift's discography gained in sales and streams following the Eras Tour. Billboard reported that Swift's entire discography rose in daily streams, especially the songs on the setlist.[217] She ultimately became the year-end top artist of 2023 on the
Billboard charts—the first-ever act to become the year-end top artist in three different decades (after 2009 and 2015).[218] Swift was 2023's most streamed artist on
Apple Music and
Spotify; on Apple Music, she set an all-time record for the most listeners for any artist in a year.[219][220]
Seven of Swift's albums charted in the top 40 regions of the US
Billboard 200, making Swift the first living artist to do so. Midnights charted at number 3, Lover at number 13, Folklore at number 14, 1989 at number 19, Red (Taylor's Version) at number 22, Reputation at number 26, and Evermore at number 31.
Whitney Houston was the first artist to chart seven albums in the top 40, but she did so posthumously.[221] Several weeks later, Swift became the first artist to simultaneously chart eight albums in the top 40 and nine albums in the top 50,[222] and after the release of Speak Now (Taylor's Version), became the first woman to chart four albums in the top 10 and 11 albums overall in a single week.[223][224] Later in 2023, after the release of 1989 (Taylor's Version), she surpassed her own record by charting five albums in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, becoming the first living artist to achieve the feat.[225]Luminate Data reports accounted 1.79 percent of the US music market in 2023 to Swift alone—the largest annual share for an artist. The report claimed that if Swift were a genre, she would be the 9th most consumed genre of 2023, bigger than
jazz entirely and trailing only behind
Christian music.[226]
Following the Australian ticket sales in June 2023, Swift charted six albums in the
ARIA Albums Chart top 10, becoming the first artist to occupy the entire top five.[227] Following the opening shows of the Eras Tour, five of Swift's albums entered the top 40 of the
UK Albums Chart.[228]
Swift's 2019 song "
Cruel Summer" achieved resurgent success in 2023. The Eras Tour concerts begin with the Lover act, in which "Cruel Summer" is the second song performed.[229] The song resurged in popularity and streaming after it became viral on social media, re-entering the top 50 in the US and the top 40 in the UK.[230][231] Therefore, Swift's label
Republic Records released the song as the fifth single from Lover, her seventh studio album from 2019, to US
contemporary hit radio on June 20, 2023.[229] "Cruel Summer" entered the
singles charts for the first time in various countries and reached new peaks in the Philippines (1),[232] Singapore (1),[233] the US (1),[234] Japan (2),[235] Australia (3),[236] the UK (3),[237] Indonesia (5),[238] New Zealand (5),[239] Canada (6),[240] Malaysia (8),[241] Ireland (12),[242] and Brazil (54).[243] On
Spotify, "Cruel Summer" was the sixth most-streamed song globally in 2023, and Lover was the seventh most-streamed album globally in 2023.[220]
Swift's 2014 single "
Blank Space" re-entered the US Hot 100 (49),[244] and the singles chart in the Netherlands (17).[245] It debuted and reached new peaks in Singapore (13),[246] the Philippines (25),[247] Vietnam (57),[248] and the
Billboard Global 200 chart (40) that was inaugurated in 2020.[240]
Billboard's Andrew Unterberger wrote, the "really unprecedented thing" about the Eras Tour's streaming impact is that "the initial bump did not start receding back to its usual sea after a week or two [as with the case of artists than Swift]—it continued to grow. And grow." He reported that even at the tenth week of the tour, Swift's discography showed a 79% increase in streams from where it was pre-tour, amassing "hundreds of millions more streams" weekly.[249] Commenting on the resurgent success of "Cruel Summer", Billboard editor Jason Lipshutz stated, "a Lover track organically rising to new heights at the same time simply demonstrates Swift's current ubiquity, unprecedented in the modern music era."[250]
Swift announced the tour's accompanying
concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, on August 31, 2023. North American tickets went on sale immediately, and despite
AMC Theatres, the film's official distributor, upgrading its online infrastructure in anticipation of high demand for
presale tickets, the app crashed, forcing customers into queues.[251] The film collected $37 million in first-day presales in the US and earned $123 million globally in its opening week, a record among concert films.[252][253][254]IMAX Corporation CEO
Richard Gelfond told
CNBC that the presale figures were comparable to those of a "
blockbustertentpole feature".[255] The film was released on October 13, 2023, and several films that shared the same release date moved out of it to avoid competing with The Eras Tour, including The Exorcist: Believer.[256]
The film became
the highest-grossing concert film of all time.[257][258] Various journalists opined that it was released in a crucial time for
movie theaters and would boost their earnings after the business was widely affected by
the then-ongoing Writers Guild of America and
SAG-AFTRA strikes.[259][260][261] Michael O'Leary, president of the
National Association of Theatre Owners, believed the success of The Eras Tour was a testament to the unrealized potential of concert films in theaters.[261] It was reported that Hollywood executives were irked with Swift's surprise announcement of the film as she had directly and secretly negotiated with AMC to distribute the film in theaters, bypassing
major film studios and their streaming services.[262]The Daily Telegraph's Ed Power praised Swift's business sense and decision to release the film to the fury of the studios, writing: "
Barbenheimer showed people will go to the cinema if they feel they are participating in a
communal experience. Hollywood refused to take advantage of this. So Swift has instead."[262]Inc. columnist Jason Aten said Swift could be "the world's saviest marketer" as she "seems to have figured out [release strategies] far better than most studio executives".[263] Others opined The Eras Tour's success could affect the conventional
producer–
distributor–
exhibitor structure of film releases.[264][265]
Las Vegas displayed light shows inspired by the color palettes of the Eras Tour every night through March 25 at the Gateway Arches on
Las Vegas Boulevard.[267]
Arlington, Texas renamed Randol Mill Road, a street outside
AT&T Stadium, to Taylor Swift Way on March 30. Mayor Jim Ross declared March 31 through April 2 "Taylor Swift Weekend", during which the steel sculptures outside the City Hall were lit red in reference to Red; Swift was also presented with a
key to the city.[272][273][274]
Houston illuminated
its city hall lavender as a nod to "Lavender Haze",[279] celebrated "The Eras Tour weekend", and renamed
NRG Stadium to NRG Stadium (Taylor's Version) from April 21 to 23, per a proclamation by
Harris County judge
Lina Hidalgo.[267][280]
Nashville mayor
John Cooper recognized May 5 to 7 as "Taylor Swift
Homecoming Weekend" and placed an "honorary bench" at
Centennial Park as a monument dedicated to "Nashville and Swift's long-standing relationship", in reference to lyrics in "Invisible String".[282][283]
Massachusetts governor
Maura Healey conferred a "Governor's Citation" upon Swift ahead of the
Foxborough shows.[285]
New Jersey governor
Phil Murphy declared the "Taylor Swift ham, egg, and cheese" as the state's official sandwich on May 25, referencing the cultural debate about
Taylor ham and pork roll.[267]
Michigan governor
Gretchen Whitmer welcomed Swift to the state for the Detroit shows by posting a video speech on Twitter referencing several of her songs.[286]
Minneapolis mayor
Jacob Frey temporarily renamed the city Swiftieapolis. Minnesota governor
Tim Walz proclaimed June 23 and 24 as "Taylor Swift Days" in the state.[267]
Rio de Janeiro mayor
Eduardo Paes sanctioned an homage to Swift—the phrase "Welcome to Brasil" and the names of all
26 Brazilian states on a t-shirt similar to the one she wore in the music video for "
You Belong with Me" (2009)—to be projected on the statue of
Christ the Redeemer after fans donated 20,000 units of
panettone and water bottles as part of a fundraiser to support local charities.[298]
The
Arlington Museum of Art announced an exhibit exploring Swift's "evolving, boundary-pushing" artistry, featuring costumes, photographs, and concert videos from her album eras. Titled The Eras Tour Collection, the exhibit will run from June 2 to September 24, 2023.[303][304]
Chicago's
Willis Tower lit up its antennas in the colors of the Eras Tour.[267]
The
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum opened an exhibit titled Through Taylor Swift's Eras, displaying original outfits from every album era, throughout May 2023.[305] Over 114,000 people bought tickets to the exhibit in May alone—the highest monthly attendance in the museum's 65-year history.[66]
Radio station 96.5
WTDY-FM temporarily renamed itself to "Ninety-Swift-Five T-A-Y".[267]
In Los Angeles, the
Grammy Museum at L.A. Live opened a pop-up exhibit from August 2 to September 18, featuring 13 costumes and instruments from Swift's original Speak Now era and later seen in the "
I Can See You" music video.[311]
Spotify launched a feature that uses listener's streaming data to list their "top five Taylor Swift eras".[312] Recognizing Swift's singular achievements, the
Apple Music Awards honored with a special event called Taylor Swift's Eras: The Experience.[313]
In honor of the completion of the first US leg of the Eras Tour,
Starbucks stores across the US played her music all day during the last day of the leg (August 9, 2023).[314]
Air New Zealand added special seats for those attending the tour in Australia, renaming one of the flights "NZ1989" in reference to
the album of the same name.[315]
A
Royal Caribbean International cruise trip from
Miami to the Bahamas, titled In My Era Cruise, has been scheduled on October 21, a day after the tour's final date in Miami.[308]
A number of media publications bestowed Swift with year-end honorifics. Time named Swift their 2023
Person of the Year, an annual title given to a person, group, object, or idea that dominated the year culturally.[316]Consequence named her their 2023 Artist of the Year,[317] while The New York Times and The Guardian declared 2023 "the year of Taylor Swift".[318][319]Billboard placed her atop their list of the greatest pop stars of 2023.[64]
In
Tokyo,
Center Gai, a commercial street in
Shibuya, temporarily renamed itself Shibuya Center Gai (Taylor's Version) from February 7 to 20, displaying flags featuring Swift's albums and playing her music.[320]
Critical analyses
It will take some time before all the implications of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour are fully understood. Her epochal trek is a potent multifaceted symbol for our times rife with social, political, economic and cultural meaning, which we'll leave to cultural theorists and pundits to deconstruct. From a live industry standpoint, however, her stadium tour is both qualitatively and quantitatively a high-water mark that left the showgoer completely agog.
Publications unanimously described the Eras Tour as a cultural phenomenon.
The Recording Academy published, the tour is "the most legendary of [Swift's] generation", emphasizing it is "hard to imagine that any other tour this year will have a cultural impact as big".[321]USA Today described the tour as a "historically monumental event".[322]The Guardian said the tour is 2023's "single most significant pop culture phenomenon".[12] Many critics also opined that the tour marked the greatest moment in Swift's career.[323][12]
Many critics considered the "cultural domination" of the Eras Tour a rarity. Time journalists called it an "unmatched success" and a "in a league of its own".[192]Amanda Petrusich wrote, despite the noted decline of
monocultural affairs in contemporary popular culture as consumers "no longer consume the same cultural objects at the same time or in the same way", the Eras Tour is an exception, achieving a rare, "mind-boggling inescapability".[324] According to Pollstar, the tour "[did not just enter] the broader discourse but, in so many ways, its gravity is so formidable that the tour and everything that's fallen into its orbit drives the discourse."[61] Shirley McMarlin of Pittsburgh Tribune-Review wrote, "Taylor Swift is the biggest thing going in the entertainment industry. Turn on the TV or radio, scroll social media, listen to talk on the street, and there she is."[166] Ryan Faughnder of the Los Angeles Times felt that the Eras Tour turned into a "the ultimate
FOMO-inducing event".[325] In the opinion of
Vogue's Megan Angelo, the Eras Tour "cemented
Woodstock-level status in American musical history" and the "last bastion of monoculture".[326] As per Billboard, "it would be no exaggeration to call the Eras Tour the single most anticipated live trek of the century."[64]
Mikael Wood and August Brown of the Los Angeles Times wrote, the tour remained "atop the cultural conversation virtually nonstop" since it started. According to Bill Werde, professor of music and entertainment industries in
Syracuse University, "the last artist who could effortlessly sell out stadiums and was simultaneously on top of their game in terms of the
zeitgeist of popular music—the name that comes to my mind is Michael Jackson. This is really like the Thriller era."[327]The New York Times author
Ben Sisario opined, the tour showed that Swift has a "white-hot demand and media saturation" unseen since Jackson and
Madonna in the 1980s, and that she stood above artists that toured concurrently, such as
Beyoncé,
Bruce Springsteen, and
Drake, in terms of success and "media noise".[159]Variety critic Chris Willman said the Eras Tour is like a "career-capping
Beatles tour that never happened", surpassing all the tours of the past in terms of business and cultural significance.[328]
Journalists credited the Eras Tour with popularizing and legitimizing the notion and concept of "eras" in terms of a music career. The A.V. Club opined that the concept is one of Swift's signatures.[329][330][216]The Guardian journalist Dave Simpson wrote that the 44-song set list of the Eras Tour might increase the demand for "longer" concerts and may "trigger a set list
arms race as artists battle to play longer than each other." He opined that the
It's All a Blur Tour, an upcoming co-headlining tour by
Drake and
21 Savage, was inspired by the concept of the Eras Tour, with the former's promotional poster depicting a "career
retrospective" similar to the latter.[331]Rolling Stone further noted the influence of Swift's tour on the
Jonas Brothers' 2023–2024 tour, the
Five Albums. One Night. The World Tour, on which they performed songs from "five albums every night".[332]
Feminist perspectives
A number of culture critics examined the tour's impact in a
feminist lens. Tyler Foggatt wrote, the Eras Tour transformed "a football stadium, typically a center of male aggression, into a sanctum of gleeful
femininity." She compared it to the
2017 Women's March, though mentioned there were
sequins instead of
pussyhats, and the tour included "probably the same number of male allies."[152] In The New York Times, American author
Michelle Goldberg compared the cultural impact of the Eras Tour to that of Barbie (2023), a
fantasy comedy film, and dubbed them both 2023 summer's biggest entertainment phenomena celebrating mainstream femininity but also "beneath their slick, exuberant pop surfaces, tell female
coming-of-age stories marked by
existential crises and bitter confrontations with
sexism." Goldberg opined that the "gargantuan" success of both the works prove there "is a huge, underserved market for entertainment that takes the feelings of girls and women seriously."[333]
Talia Lakritz of Insider said both the Eras Tour and Barbie are inspiring a movement among women "to reclaim girlhood without rescinding power." Lakritz added that being at an Eras Tour concert and a movie theater playing Barbie gave her the same feeling—"the collective joy of femininity".[334] Sisario considered both works as critiques of
patriarchy that showed women's control over pop culture.[159] In a similar view, Willman said that the two works of entertainment use patriarchy as a subject of
irony "while being utterly friendly to and welcoming of men as much as anybody" and became billion-dollar-earning phenomena.[328]Jess Cartner-Morley of The Guardian opined that the Eras Tour and Barbie are "at heart, about celebrating and questioning what it means to be a girl."[335]Taffy Brodesser-Akner of The New York Times wrote that the tour and its wider phenomenon can be seen as Swift "free[ing] women to celebrate their girlhood, to understand that their womanhood is made up of... microchapters of change... the acknowledgment of girls as people to memorialize, of who we are and who we were, all existing in the same body, on the same timeline."[336]
Many journalists considered the Eras Tour, Barbie and
Beyoncé's
Renaissance World Tour as triumphant works of women's creativity. Larry Vincent,
marketing professor from the
USC Marshall School of Business, said the Eras Tour and Barbie were two summer phenomena that showed a "really strong ritual dimension of [women-driven] consumer behavior".[337][325] According to author Katherine Wintsch, "It's a sense of solidarity that women are willing to pay good money for."[135] Mary Siroky of Consequence opined that the tour proves "centering women in entertainment isn't just smart, it's necessary."[317]
Bloomberg News reported that, in China, the themes celebrated in the film "stand in stark contrast to
PresidentXi Jinping's increasingly
conservative vision for women, providing a rare outlet for young women rejecting ever-tighter social control and the
Communist Party's rigid expectations."[338]
Year-end retrospectives
In placing Swift as the first and only entertainer ever in the top five of their annual "
World's Most Powerful Women" in 2023, Forbes claimed that "17 years into her remarkable career, Swift has never had more economic, cultural and political clout."[339] Swift also topped People's "25 Most Intriguing People of the Year" (2023) list; journalist Jeff Nelson opined that Swift, as a 33-year-old female popstar, "has taken a hammer to that
glass ceiling, shattering expectations—and blazing a path for the next generation of female artists."[340] The Eras Tour also lead
CNN to name Swift "The businessperson of the year";[341] Natasha Aaron of The Washington Post listed Swift as one of 2023's trailblazers, for having "shifted the economic plate tectonics of the entertainment industry."[342]
Many publications considered the Eras Tour the highlight of 2023 and named Swift's 2023 as one of the best years for a career. The Hollywood Reporter opined "Arguably, Taylor Swift had one of the best years for a person working in the entertainment industry ever."[343]Billboard published, "Swift's 2023 will now be the year that all future pop stars will be measured against."[64]The A.V. Club opined "Swift was pop culture's undisputed champion of 2023, and no one has ever had a year like hers".[158] Writing for MSNBC,
Michael A. Cohen also remarked that "When the history books are written, 2023 will be remembered as the year of Swift."[344] Ethan Millman of Rolling Stone said "by any metric, Swift's 2023 was one of the most impressive years of all time for a singular pop star."[345]
^Octavio, Miguel (April 12, 2023).
"Taylor Swift projected to bring millions of dollars to Tampa Bay-area economy".
WTSP.
Archived from the original on April 18, 2023. Retrieved April 13, 2023. Visit Tampa Bay states the concerts will project $730,000 in taxes into the area's economy alone, but that doesn't include money spent on dining out, shopping, hotels and other amenities offered in the area.
^
abcBhattarai, Abha; Lerman, Rachel; Sabens, Emily (October 13, 2023).
"The Economy (Taylor's Version)". The Washington Post.
Archived from the original on October 20, 2023. Retrieved October 26, 2023.