Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour
The “shimmering beautiful” female experience
Though I admire Taylor Swift as an artist and songwriter, her current “Eras” tour has elevated her fame, stature, and influence attained by only a few: Elvis Presley, the Beatles, possibly the concert experience of Bruce Springsteen. But no woman in recent pop culture memory has crashed this ceiling with the audacity and power of Taylor Swift. So I asked a writer of Generation T (for Taylor) to write about the experience in this guest appearance on Critical Conditions.
By Maria Villarroel
Every few decades, there comes an artist that completely revolutionizes any preconceived notion on what it means to be a performer in the music industry. Such artists lend a mighty voice to a generation who otherwise might have been voiceless. They take common experiences, turn it into something beautiful and proceed to pass it along to others, in hopes of providing some sort of clarity on what it means to be, for instance, a woman, a member of the LGBTQ community, an immigrant, a person, at their given moment in time.
For much of the last 15 years, that person is Taylor Swift.
Amid the release of her 10th studio album, “Midnights,” Swift announced via her social media that she would embark on a new tour, the first one since her voyage to promote her album “Reputation” back in 2018. “The Eras Tour” as Swift titled it, would celebrate the different stages in her decade-long career, from her country roots, to her pop anthems, and her newly alternative and folk ego. Since the announcement of the tour, fans have arduously fought The Great War to get their hands on tickets. A botched rollout by Ticketmaster left Swifties across the United States waiting for hours in the presale queue, constant error screens, and heightened prices. But they persisted, and The Eras Tour kicked off.
Somehow, I was able to get tickets for her first night in Tampa, Fla., marking a reward for years of loyal service in the Taylor Nation battlefields. If you have spent more than 20 minutes with me, then there is a high chance I have managed to bring Swift into the conversation, whether that is as a discrete reference to her discography, or just explicitly embarking on a monologue about the genius of this body of work and the evolution of her career. Either way, it is safe to say that I was elated to have the chance to be in her presence, in what promised to be one of the most ambitious shows in recent history.
Two nights before the concert, I caught a plane from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, to my hometown Orlando, where I would patiently count down the hours for me to put on my glittery red dress and gloves (allusive to the “Red” era, of course) and dance in the Holy Ground, for all that we’ve been through. And so the evening of April 13, the day of my concert, arrived, and my boyfriend and I drove to Tampa, a city that almost collapsed from the collective mass of fans who had made the pilgrimage to catch Swift in all of her glory during the three Florida shows. What is usually an hour ride from Orlando to Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., turned into a two-and-a-half hour journey filled with traffic, accidents, and the sight of other Swifties glimmering through the windows of the car in a similar sparkly dress, almost the dress code of the tour.
Despite a bumpy ride, the entrance to the stadium was smooth. After all, the audience was comprised of around 75,000 people eager to get to their seats. And as the clock struck 8 p.m., the pink skies from Florida’s sunset led the way to the first few words of the night, “it’s been a long time coming,” a lyric from “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” which would open the show, and kick off the “Lover” era. Adrenaline reached a higher level, however, as the notes for “Cruel Summer” started playing, and the singer invited fans to cross the first energetic bridge of the night with her.
For the next three hours, the singer-songwriter took spectators through a victory lap of her career. Transporting them to the mysterious and lonesome woods, during the “folklore” and “evermore” eras, or to an enchanting, mystical fairytale during the short “Speak Now” setlist.
Much praise has been written about The Eras Tour. In one instance, The New Yorker focused on the ability to turn a stadium tour into an intimate showcase of her deeply emotional and personal tunes. On another, Rolling Stone noted her stamina to be able to put on a highly produced show for three hours, and never dropping an ounce of energy. While all of this is accurate, there is one thing that is missing from these think-pieces: The young female’s perspective, a point of view which undeniably, Swift caters to.
Back in June, The New York Times published an opinion piece written by Dr. Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell, a psychiatrist. In it, she explained how The Eras Tour has “rocked” her practice. Her young patients would emphasize their simultaneous stress, anxiety and anticipation to see the 33-year-old singer. While initially, she was confused on the frequency in which Swift was mentioned in her conversations, after some research and even attending the tour herself, Dr. Garfinkle-Crowell, began to understand the nature of Taypocalypse.
“She [Swift] says: Borrow my strength; embrace your pain; make something beautiful with it— and then you can shake it off,” the doctor writes.
This statement perfectly encapsulates the importance of Swift in the music industry and pop culture. Through her poetic lyrics, her soft voice and her signature certainty, the singer becomes a companion, a shoulder to cry on for her fans. She recognizes that, while she may not resolve all problems, she, through her music, will stay by the listener’s side until the passage of time does its tricks and heals all wounds.
I remember when I made the move to The Big Apple. An insecure 18-year-old girl fresh out of high school— and a global pandemic— ready to take on college. Feeling my “1989” era, I would walk through the streets of New York, reassuring myself that the city has been waiting for me. I also remember my first crush, my first heartbreak, missing my family as tears rolled down my face, feeling confused about where I was heading— all the signs of growing pains. Through all these milestones, indirectly, Taylor stood by me, shaping any of her songs to any sort of scenario I found myself in, making me feel seen and safe, and giving me the strength to pick myself up.
Throughout her career, Swift has been one of the youngest people in the industry to achieve her level of success. Despite being constantly criticized for her emotions, with the media and the general public, often cataloging her as a serial dater, a calculated snake, and any other misogynistic insult your mind can come up with, Swift took the comments and turned herself into a better artist, or as she calls herself, a “mirrorball.” We can leave the discourse on whether this is a healthy or rational response for another time, but whatever the consensus on that debate may be, I believe this is one of the main reasons why Swift has presented herself as a force to be reckoned with, and an avid representative for younger and growing women out there.
Part of womanhood is realizing the world will most likely not be by your side, realizing that you may often be called “overly emotional” for speaking out your thoughts, realizing you’re on your own. Another part of womanhood, one that comes with maturity and patience, is finding other women to rely on, who share similar experiences as you do. For Swifties, the Grammy-award winner is that friend, that partner.
As Dr. Garfinkle-Crowell described, it is confusing to be human and to be female. I would like to add that it is even more confusing to be a woman in your early 20s. Deciding the course of your life, who your friends will be, and defining yourself are enormous tasks that society places upon young people. This may not change, and it is even part of the contract you sign to check-in to adulthood. Yet I could not be more glad my generation, and all the young women to come, have Taylor Swift to let them realize the happy, free, confused and lonely experience that is life and that is coming-of-age.
Maria Villarroel, a 2023 graduate of St. John's University, is a former entertainment editor of the Torch, the independent student newspaper. An upcoming graduate student in International Communications at SJU, she writes about music and entertainment for Game Rant. She also maintains her own blog, Mava’s Multiverse.