💭 Empowered and empowering: Taylor Swift's Eras Tour film
It's not about who she is as a singer. It's about what she means as a person.
Are you rolling your eyes at the title of this post already? “Oh, another Swiftie” you might be thinking. “Taylor’s not even that good at singing”. Or perhaps “she’s going through guys so fast”.
Put your prejudices to one side and hear me out.
I’m here to explain to you why, in my humble opinion, she matters so much as a person. Beyond any spin that’s been used against her in the past.
And why what she means as a person, to other people, and to this particular time in history, is what I took from the Eras Tour film.
Before you start rolling your eyes at that as well, hear me out a little longer.
We’re all such victims to the press, social media, and their hot (and often loaded) takes. Engaging with any news or media has become a vicious cycle of digesting multitudes of information at high speed, and then being forced to apply critical thought to the source, storyteller, and channel of the communication, before ending up in an echo chamber, or watching people sharpen their keyboards before battling it out online. Rinse and repeat. It’s exhausting, but it should make you question whether that’s really how you feel - or whether that’s how you’ve been told you feel - about any given topic.
And there’s a lot to be dissected when it comes to Taylor Swift. Beyond what the tabloids would have us believe with a strong focus on her dating history, or her friendships, or the feuds.
She’s a record-breaking businesswoman who just so happens to be a fantastic storyteller and musician, and her skill, intelligence, determination, and resilience are to credit for her meteoric rise to fame that’s only accelerated in recent years.
You’d be in awe of someone who could be described as such if they were a friend or family member, no?
🏃♀️ Taylor Swift the athlete
She’s a runner, she’s a track star. (Sorry, had to).
It’s been said before, but the sheer athleticism required to pull off a 3 hour and 15 minute long show - which sometimes lasts as long as 3 hours and 45 minutes - is astounding. You need to be so physically in shape to sing and dance for basically the entire duration of four hours, three nights back-to-back, and still be able to breathe at the end of each song. Or, y’know, just jump straight into the next song.
I want to have her fitness regime. I’m assuming at this point that it includes running on a treadmill and singing at the same time for four hours. I assume I’d die if I even attempted it. I’m already thinking that @roseybeeme on TikTok who started training for attending the tour had the right idea - and I might follow suit for next year when I’m attending in person.
Some people have likened the Eras Tour and the skill required by Swift to perform akin to acting in a musical. But there’s no musical where one person carries the entire show for four whole hours. So then people liken it to being an athlete. The majority of athletes generally perform at their peak for a much shorter period consistently - think of football players, that’s 90 minutes. And yes, I know there are sports and shows and people who really push their bodies to the extreme, I’m not saying she’s the best athlete ever… but what I am saying? Put it this way, Travis Kelce could never.
What she’s doing here is quite literally breaking records.
And if that’s anything? It’s exceptionally inspiring.
✨ Taylor Swift the inspiration
That brings us nicely to the second thing I that personally took from the Eras Tour film; this woman is exceptionally inspiring.
As inspiration is personal, I can only speak to how I personally felt inspired, but given the waves Swift is making globally I’m confident in saying she’s also an inspiration to millions. Which must be pretty mind-blowing for her. It must also be quite unnerving in a lot of ways, something she’s alluded to in some of her interviews and documentaries, given the way people place celebrities on a metaphorical pedestal.
We’ll note that and move on for now though, as what I want to discuss is going to sandwich somewhere between being impressed at her sheer athleticism and the gravitational pull surrounding the tour - it literally seems to have its own orbit at this point, NASA you ready to name it our ninth planet in place of Pluto? Planet Swift? - and how she’s basically raising several generations who have grown up with or after her.
Swift is at least three things that really appeal to me, all of which come across hard in the film as you follow her through her ‘eras’.
One: Resilient. She’s come back so many times, from so many different setbacks in her career and personal life, and yet she continues coming back stronger and more successful no matter how damning or life-changing the setbacks have been. She also doesn’t brag about it. She puts her head down and moves on to the next thing. And she draws a neat line under it by penning a song that succinctly articulates the experience (which must act as a form of cathartic therapy) that then resonates with millions of people globally. The satisfaction of singing these songs to an audience who are screaming all of the lyrics right back at you, full of their own emotion and experiences, must be insane.
‘A nice girl doesn’t force their opinions on people; a nice girl smiles and waves and says thank you.’
-Taylor Swift, (‘Miss Americana’ documentary, Netflix, 2020)
Two: Unapologetically herself. In a world where women are still so far behind men even in first-world countries, Swift is quite literally refusing to be bound by archaic, and yet somehow still contemporary, values (listen to The Man, Mad Woman). She’s also leading the way for other minority and underprivileged groups by acting as a public voice (listen to You Need To Calm Down). As well as this, she’s also full of quirks that shine through on stage and leave you feeling refreshed that you’re watching a down-to-earth human being on stage, not a manufactured pop robot.
Three: Timelessly creative. I’m sure there are far more academic papers written about this topic, but Swift is exceptionally intelligent in her creativity. She is timeless. Hear me out. There have been several ‘Swift or Shakespeare’ challenges popping up over the years in which the user has to guess whether the words are Swift’s lyrics or part of Shakespeare’s works. You might scoff, but it’s truly not as easy as you’d guess. Her lyrics are timeless, they don’t generally discuss the contemporary, and yet somehow they are contemporary. This is a feat and something that has certainly contributed to her success and will continue to do so. It also means that her initial albums and songs are just as pertinent and relatable now as they ever were.
For all these reasons and more, she’s exactly the type of role model young people should be looking to - and are.
🌻Taylor Swift the ‘mother’
The younger generations seem to have now begun calling Taylor ‘mother’, with ‘mother is mothering’ often popping up in comments on videos where she’s being exceptionally sweet or caring towards her fans.
We’ll ignore the fact that my gut reaction to seeing this for the first time made me (a 30-year-old, four years Swift’s junior, also with no children) feel like a fossil, and move on to address the topic of those who are likely behind the Taylor ‘Mother’ Swift movement; the new, young Swifties.
I watched the Eras Tour with my 27-year-old friend Gabriella, and we were the oldest (and the only) adults in the entire screening without children.
This wasn’t entirely surprising given that it was mid-afternoon on a Thursday in the middle of a school holiday, but what was beautiful about it all was how entirely engrossed and invested the children who were watching it were.
One of my favourite moments of the entire film was during Shake It Off (ironically the song she’s released that I’m least fond of, but I digress). The song began and the kids all stood up, dancing and singing along. This was fairly normal practice by this point, so my friend and I didn’t think much of it. Halfway through, though, one group started to run down to the front and then, without much more convincing, the rest began to follow. Before long, there were just over 20 young boys and girls - basically all of the children in the screening - dancing and singing at the front, staring up at Taylor as they did. Did I nearly cry? Maybe. We don’t talk about it.
What it was though was phenomenal to see a group of young people so excited about her. About the music. About the show. You can be sure they felt inspired, excited, and totally enthralled in that moment.
It proves two of my theories. One, that she is, indeed, a timeless creative who speaks to so many generations. And two? That Shake It Off was the gateway drug for younger Swifties.
💖 Taylor Swift, the Queen of Eras
We’ve all, at one point or another, looked at ourselves and wondered how things would have worked out if we’d been a different person: more confident; more cold; more assertive; more kind.
There’s something about the eras that Swift has moved through that we’ve all moved through, too. We’ve all had periods in our life where we’ve felt wronged or deeply in love, reflective or full of confidence and possibility. That’s part of what makes her music so relatable, and her identity, and the narrative of her story, so enticing to follow.
However, Swift plays into these archetypes so powerfully that the character of each era fully embodies them. The lover, the villain. This is something fictional, something we can’t flit between as humans. It is something, though, that all good stories have - and somehow Swift has portrayed all of them within her story, and then again within her Eras Tour. She becomes them, and presents them to us - moving between each as flawlessly as a bird in flight.
This subject could be an entire post in itself. There’s so much to dive into here. But what’s really clever is the multitude of characters Swift plays on stage, and the way in which she jumps between those versions of herself - at different times in her life - and also somehow plays the songs in a manner where she’s also reflecting on each point in her journey to the now. Almost like some sort of out-of-body experience, as though she’s watching it all with us. Like some big, shared reflection.
It makes this gargantuan tour film feel entirely personal.
🎞️ The Eras Tour film, the summary
I could continue writing about this film for weeks - this is your pre-warning for the inevitable reviews when I see the actual tour in person - but it’s such a brilliant watch.
There are so many angles to it, and there’s also so much to pick apart. I’ll probably watch it a few more times on-screen, too - it’s one of those experiences you could take away something new from during each watch, at least for a while.
Swift is a powerful catalyst of a person, and that truly shines through. She’s already able to sway the economy with her influence, and I’d be highly surprised if she doesn’t continue to make significant waves for the rest of her life. She’s just one of those people but with an added dose of insane drive and hard work ethic.
If you enjoy magic, and want to experience some particularly potent magic that Swift has kindly bottled for us all as a cinematic experience, I highly suggest you see the Eras Tour film. Whether it’s at a cinema, or when it comes out on a streaming service (I’m hoping and praying it won’t be a cinema exclusive) it’s an inspiring and empowering watch, whether you’re a Swiftie or not.
Have you seen it? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!