“Nobody can see into the future, but this could go down in history [as the biggest tour of our lives].”
While Swift has always been extraordinarily successful, Carroll points out there were several unique factors that made this a particularly “magic moment”. The biggest: the disruptions caused by COVID.
“This wouldn’t have happened without the pandemic,” she says. “Swift hadn’t toured since Reputation in 2018, and fans hadn’t had a chance to see her in four or five years. She released three albums and two re-releases with vault tracks by the start of this tour. So there was just all of this content that fans wanted to see.
“It was also a post-lockdown period where fans wanted joy and excitement in their lives.”
The Eras Tour became a moment of mass communion, especially for women in their 20s and 30s who grew up with Swift’s music. And the hype around the event created a “snowball effect”, where even non-fans wanted to witness the spectacle.
“I think it’s going to be hard [to replicate this kind of success] because nobody can ultimately put on the show that Eras was,” Carroll says.
“Even if they try some of the same marketing and encourage the same kind of fan behaviours, it’s not going to be that 3½-hour journey through a decade-and-a-half of somebody’s career.”
Swifties outside Sydney’s Accor Stadium before Swift’s show earlier this year.Credit: Getty
She argues that this has actually “changed what it means to go to a concert” for some younger fans.
“You see people paying ‘Eras money’ for concerts [as ticket prices have recently skyrocketed], but not getting that same over-the-top show. I think it’s going to be interesting how consumers’ expectations come down and whether there will be that pressure on celebrities to try and replicate it.”
Fans of much newer pop stars such as Sabrina Carpenter, for example, have complained on social media about shows running for about 90 minutes (despite the fact she’s touring an album just 36 minutes long). And 22-year-old artist Billie Eilish has responded to the idea directly, reportedly telling fans earlier this year: “I’m not doing a three-hour show, that’s literally psychotic.”
Swift might even face similar expectations – to perform so much of her back catalogue – the next time she launches a tour. “But that’s not realistic for her, as a human,” Carroll says. (At roughly 210 minutes a show, Taylor Swift has now performed the incredibly physically demanding Eras Tour for a total of 521 hours – which equates to 69 full working days.)