Why is The Eras Tour such a cultural phenomenon?

Yet more records tumbled as Taylor Swift officially closed the book on the European leg of The Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium last night.

The singer welcomed surprise guests Florence Welch and Jack Antonoff to the stage for the finale of her five-night Wembley stint, which brought her total number of Eras gigs at the London venue to eight – more than any other city in the world.

Swift also played three shows at Wembley in June, and the completion of the run sees her crowned as the biggest-selling female artist to ever perform at England’s national stadium, in addition to setting a new bar for the longest residency of a solo artist at Wembley and equalling the overall record set by Take That’s 2011 Progress Live.

Produced by Taylor Swift Touring and promoted by AEG Presents and Messina Touring Group, Eras last year became the first tour in history to surpass $1 billion in revenue – a feat achieved before it had even left North America. Swift took in an estimated ticket gross of $1.04bn, with 4.35 million tickets sold from 60 shows. The 2023 run was calculated to have generated an additional $200 million in merchandise sales.

And despite playing for more than three hours on each date, the 34-year-old has still left fans wanting more, with Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert movie earning $267.7m globally, according to Box Office Mojo, to become the highest-grossing concert/documentary film in box office history.

Her previous global outing, the Reputation Stadium Tour, was the second highest-grossing of 2018, behind Ed Sheeran’s ÷, after netting $345.1m from 2,89m ticket sales across 53 shows. In the intervening years, she has released five new studio albums, as well as four re-recorded LPs, while her planned 2020 Lover Fest tour, which was to have included multiple European festival headline slots, was cancelled due to the pandemic.

“She has become multi-generational, appealing to fans of hers from her earlier eras, to younger fans who have discovered her music in recent years”

So why exactly has Eras captured the zeitgeist to such an extraordinary extent? International Artist Group EVP and head of global music Jarred Arfa, who previously described the trek as “like a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon”, suggests it is easy to overlook Swift’s longevity.

“Of course there are many reasons [for the success],” Arfa tells IQ. “But one that doesn’t get discussed often is despite the fact that she is only 34, she has now had hits for 18-plus years. She has become multi-generational, appealing to fans of hers from her earlier eras, to younger fans who have discovered her music in recent years.”

Marie Lindqvist, SVP operations at ASM Global Europe, credits Swift’s ability to foster a uniquely devoted fanbase.

“Taylor Swift has developed a community of fans that are kind, generous, inclusive and colourful,” she says. “I think that is what the world needs with so much polarisation, war and stress around.”

Referencing the American hitmaker’s three-night stand at the ASM-operated Friends Arena (now Strawberry Arena) in Sweden in May, Lindqvist adds: “Stockholm was a bubble of joy and positivity with Swifties from all over the world for a week. According to a recent study by the Stockholm School of Economics, the people of Stockholm were happier during that week and felt a sense of community. That is unique and resonates on a global scale.”

Theo Quiblier of CTS Eventim-backed TAKK, which worked on Swift’s Zurich double-header in June alongside AEG, Gadget abc Entertainment Group and Taylor Swift Touring, dubs the Swiftie movement a “cultural phenomenon”.

“The show itself is almost secondary,” he says. “All these young women coming together as one as a community is really bigger than everything else. One day everyone is talking about it and then you’re part of what is now a society.”

“The level of demand and hyperbole surrounding the Eras tour is completely detached from the rest of the live music market”

The tour format – a setlist of around 45 songs split into 10 acts representing each of Swift’s studio albums – is another clear USP.

“The scale and ambition of these shows feels quite unusual in this day and age – especially the intensity of the execution, the length of the performances and the global nature of the tour,” reflects David Martin, CEO of the UK’s Featured Artists Coalition. “Essentially, you’re talking about a genuine global superstar at the peak point of their career. We’ve seen similar cultural phenomenon before with the likes of Michael Jackson, Coldplay and Beyoncé.

“Taylor Swift is the most popular artist in the world right now, and the level of demand and hyperbole surrounding the Eras tour is completely detached from the rest of the live music market.”

Matt Kaplan, head of UK/EU at resale marketplace Tixel, notes the concerts’ cross-generational appeal.

“It’s really been a perfect storm,” he says. “The media headlines of her personal life aside which have fuelled the lore, we’ve seen a social currency in attending Eras shows that transcends generations — rare for any artist or even for a festival with dozens of artists.

“I think that Taylor’s secret is in having a very wide wingspan combined with nearly two decades of wild success – she’s spanned country and pop; young, raw songwriting to polished pop gold; her songs speak to today’s anguished teen just as much as they speak to the 20-something heartbreak of someone in their 40s; personas like ‘Swiftie Dad’ have been fuelled, creating a parent-child bonding moment.

“She’s wholesome, talent-filled and intelligently outspoken and the kind of character that parents want their daughters to look up to, which easily translates into funding an expensive ticket. And all the while, Taylor keeps herself relevant, visible, and above all else stays directly intertwined with her fanbase through surprise and delight moments and clues that fans delight in deciphering. There’s no wonder there’s university courses studying Taylor’s business and brand.”

Indeed, Swift’s cultural impact as led at least 30 education establishments to offer courses focused on the singer, while London’s V&A Museum recently hired four superfans as advisors about her fan culture.

The Eras Tour will now take a two-month break before restarting in the US at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium on 18 October. As things stand, it is set to wrap up in Vancouver, Canada on 8 December.

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