Taylor Swift’s highly acclaimed “The Eras Tour” has officially come to an end. The tour kicked off in Glendale, Arizona, on March 17 and concluded on Dec. 8 in Vancouver, BC.
The tour encapsulated all of Swift’s musical eras from her self-titled debut album “Taylor Swift” to her most recent 2024 release “The Tortured Poets Department.” The tour consisted of multiple legs: the U.S. leg, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Canada and the final North American leg.
Each show stop is over three and a half hours long, with thirty minutes of openers and Swift performing for the other three hours. The set list included 44 songs that were divided between the 10 acts, representing her albums.
The show is full of outfit changes, large moving sets, detailed introduction videos and theatrical performances by Swift and her dancers. When Swift first kicked off her tour back in 2023, she garnered many new fans, due to the drop of her 2022 “Midnights” album a month previous and also due to curiosity about the performance of the concert itself.
“I think that level of production drew outsiders in and made them fans,” said Lauren Colby, a sophomore mass communication major. “I also think that since most of the songs played are the classic Taylor songs pretty much everyone knows, fan or not, the show felt accessible. You don’t need to know every single song on every single album to have a good time and sing along.”
The hype and excitement around each show brought about new trends that continued for the entirety of the tour, like fans dressing up as something or someone related to an era of their choosing. One of the most well-known trends, the friendship bracelet, brought about by the tour came from Swift’s song “You’re on Your Own Kid” from her “Midnights” album. Since then, the friendship bracelet has become a marker of a “Swiftie” or of Swift herself.
Along with exchanging friendship bracelets and the countless fans dressed up as different versions of Swif and her references, the popstar re-created memorable fan moments like the “Fearless” heart hand and the passing of the “22” hat to a fan. New moments like the specific surprise songs segment, which consisted of an acoustic set of two full songs or mashups of songs, and the outstanding dance choreography to songs like “Bejeweled,” “Willow” or “Karma.”
The tour has presented fans across many generations to experience albums they love and may not have been able to see when they were growing up. It has opened up interest in those who would not consider themselves die-hard fans in their teens but maybe where their younger self was.
“I think a lot of people associate Taylor Swift with their childhood, which makes them reminisce on childhood memories,” said Milly Peta, a sophomore economics major. “Also, perhaps some people went because of the sheer size of the concert and FOMO (fear of missing out).”
The Eras Tour included many different openers for each of the legs including artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Sabrina Carpenter, Gracie Abrams, Muna, Beabadobee, Paramore, Benson Boone, Griff, etc. The tour has helped many artists, both new and old, gain either new fan attraction or expand their already large fanbases.
Artists like Carpenter and Abrams have become much more mainstream artists since their opening legs for The Eras Tour. Since being openers they have both been nominated for a Grammy.
Since The Eras Tour began, Swift has released two re-recorded albums, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” Additionally, in 2024 Swift announced and released her eleventh studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” which mixed up her setlist adding songs like “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” and “So, High School.”
On top of the tour, Swift also released “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour”, which is an immersive recording of the concert that premiered in theatres on Oct. 13, 2023. Swift also came out with “The Official Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour Book”, which released Nov. 30 as a Target exclusive and provides a detailed description of the tour and provided pictures.
Over the length of the tour, Swift has received both praise and backlash for the amount of exposure she receives. Swift’s booked and busy schedule has caused many music fans and fandoms to express a feeling of oversaturation within the media.
Colby, who considers herself a Swiftie, shows an appreciation for Swift and the tour but feels glad that the tour is ending and believes that Swift deserves a break.
The tour positively impacted each city it came to, it boosted local economies around the world and concluded its run making a little more than two billion dollars total in ticket sales, according to The New York Times.
With the unmatched success of The Eras Tour and Swift’s number of releases within a short span, the way the music industry functions is sure to change. Swift’s re-recorded albums have changed the way musicians have thought about owning their music.
Despite the positive impacts, the production value and quantity of music Swift has released has affected the idea fans have when it comes to how long the time between album releases.
“This may be a hot take but I think that The Eras Tour has a negative impact on what fans expected from artists,” Colby said. “I think fans have come to expect that they’ll get two or more albums per year, and I think other artists are beginning to feel pressure to put out music more frequently.”
Swift’s discography and commitment to her fans have contributed to her ability to produce the immense production that is The Eras Tour. Swifties and non-Swifties alike cannot deny the tour’s domination.
