In my Eras era

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, are you ready for it?

SATVIKA NITYA / ASST. A&C EDITOR / THE USD VISTA

It came to no one’s surprise that after five years of not touring, globally renowned singer-songwriter Taylor Swift finally taking up the stage on her current Eras Tour would be a smashing success. With over a three-hour-long setlist containing 44 songs across her discography, Swift managed to take over the internet, break records left and right and once again prove that she can be the king of people’s hearts.

As the title of the tour suggested, Swift’s concert was aimed at covering music she’s made over the last 17 years of her career, a long-awaited tour by millions. 

With opening night based in Glendale, Arizona — which was temporarily renamed ‘Swift City’ to honor the singer’s arrival — Swift broke the record for the most attended concert by a female artist, surpassing Madonna with a whopping number of 69,000 attendees. 

With her weekend performances at Arlington, Texas, Swift also became the first artist to headline three nights in a row at the AT&T Stadium.

Following the tradition of Swift’s tours, people were dressed in outfits based on the singer’s lyrics, songs and albums as they traveled across the country and continents to see her. 

Another thing the fans knew all too well was that Swift always carries her concerts with huge production values, choreographies and iconic introductions to songs; thankfully, fans received all of the above.

Though the concert had 10 albums to cover, Swift focused a majority of her set on the four albums she released after her last tour in 2018: “Lover,” “folklore,” “evermore” and “Midnights.” She opened with “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince” from her album “Lover” and revealed to her fans that she would be taking them on a journey across her music from one era to another.

USD sophomore Diana Smith has been a Swiftie since 2008 and attended the Eras tour concert on the opening weekend. 

“It’s so easy to know what’s going to happen with other concerts but going to Taylor’s concerts, you can’t explain the feeling,” Smith said. “Especially with the different eras, you never knew what to expect and part of the fun was that you were constantly trying to figure out what was coming next. I teared up a couple of times. I’ve listened to her almost my entire life, I grew up with her and seeing everything in one go was overwhelming.”

Swift had a mix of genres paired with over 10 costume changes, full-blown props, mics designed for each era, a dance team with a well-rehearsed choreography, incredible stamina and a lot of style. However, some fans were upset over the lack of attention to Swift’s first two albums: “Taylor Swift” and “Speak Now.” With only one song performed from each respective album on opening night, fans were confused over the choices Swift made.

Another criticism that surfaced after opening night was the long intervals in the concert dedicated to the singer’s more acoustic, slow indie folk albums: “folklore” and “evermore”. Many in the audience were seen sitting down during the songs played from these albums, with some fans leaving the stadium to use the bathroom, get food or buy merchandise during these sequences.

But these critiques were driven out of the woods by fans who defended the singer and her albums. Comments over how real fans who listened to Swift were the ones who loved and appreciated the songwriting in these albums quickly arose, with some major critics also pointing out that Swift knew what her real fans wanted, and she made sure they got it. 

Media hubs like the Rolling Stone and the Guardian pointed out that Swift took songs that would never ordinarily work in a stadium full of people and made them a success anyway.

With the onset of such a major tour, videos from Swift’s concerts took over the internet; some fans who are attending shows later in the summer felt they were robbed of the chance to be enchanted. 

USD sophomore Sky Johnson, who has tickets for Swift’s tour in August, talked about her experience dealing with spoilers.

“It’s definitely hard to watch and see what it’s going to be like,” Johnson said. “I knew I couldn’t avoid all content related to the tour, and I do think the surprise element would’ve been so fun. So now I know what the tour is going to look like for the most part. But I’m still super excited because she’s doing so many things to keep it new for fans who are going to see her later.”

Swift’s set list consists of two spots that are reserved for acoustic surprise songs that change every concert, one played on the guitar and one on the piano. This keeps the element of surprise alive for fans attending her concert in the summer. And just as fans were catching on to predicting what the surprise songs could be, Swift threw another twist in, as she swapped one of the songs from her permanent set list, followed by an announcement to her fans that they can never come prepared and should always bring their wildest dreams to her tour. 

For those outside the realm of Swift’s music, the best way to explain her work is that it goes beyond the songs and is an actual cinematic universe. Swift attempts to play the role of a mastermind as she hides easter eggs in lyrics, numbers, costumes and tour visuals, hinting at what’s to come next or at past events symbolic to her career. In the first three weeks of the Eras tour, fans have caught on to a lot of them, but the excitement of the tour has also left those without tickets awaiting a really cruel summer.

USD junior Mackenzie Guy lost the great war against Ticketmaster while trying to secure tickets and talked about her experience watching people attend the tour.

“It was so stressful and anxiety-inducing to get tickets and I’m still frustrated at the whole process,” Guy said. “I know a lot of people who’ve already gone and just hearing their amazing stories of how cool it was has made me sad. And I’ve seen people who aren’t big fans get to go to the show and I was just thinking of how there should be a fan quiz in order to get a ticket. But I guess that’s life and they were just lucky to be able to get tickets.”

Swift acknowledged the effort taken by those who were able to make it to her concert, very subtly acknowledging the scandal over her tickets — saying she knows the time, energy and effort her fans have put in to get to her concert. 

At the end of the day, Swift made sure those who were able to attend got a show of a lifetime. Call it what you want, but the Eras Tour is bound to go down in history because of its record breaking highs and reviews, leaving those who attended with core memories they will cherish, forever and always.