Taylor Swift has been a pop culture icon and one of the many faces of the music industry since she was fifteen. Walking into any store, or just turning on a radio station, you will probably hear at least one of her songs, and she has covered a multitude of genres through her music. As of late, her name has been the focus of numerous aspects of the media, whether that’s because of controversy or accomplishment. So how has this popularity impacted the music industry, and those surrounding it?
1. Ticketmaster, and the Control Over Live Music:
When Swift first announced her Eras Tour, a 3-hour long tour covering all 10 of her studio albums, there was a scramble among fans for tickets. Despite two different presales, and a general sale (which actually never happened, thanks to Ticketmaster mismanaging the tickets dropped in the first two sales), many fans were left disappointed, and without tickets. Even some who were able to grab tickets were upset to find their purchased seats were in areas with obstructed views, or entirely behind the stage. Ticketmaster, the largest website in the world that sells tickets to live events, was in charge of managing the traffic on the website, and ensuring fans would be able to see their favorite singer perform. Despite assuring Swift and her team that the website would be able to handle the amount of people on it at once, the website was glitchy, the queues were inaccurate and fans were often kicked out and sent to the back, and the tickets didn’t refresh fast enough at the speed they were being bought so people would often try to buy tickets that were already purchased. The general sale never even occurred, as Ticketmaster dropped too many tickets in the first two sales to have enough inventory for the third. This event went absolutely viral, with many Swifties referring to it as “The Great War”, after one of Swift’s songs on her newest (not Taylor’s Version) album. Other music artists and fans have had similar issues, with Drake’s tour “It’s All A Blur”, also causing the website to malfunction. Thanks to Taylor Swift, the company Live Nation, which owns Ticketmaster, is currently under a lawsuit by the Justice Department for violating antitrust laws, laws which are put in place to prevent monopolies and unlawful business practices.
2. Concert and Tour Culture:
The Eras Tour is an astonishing 3-hours and 15-minute show, and this doesn’t include the multiple openers per show. This, combined with the coveted nature of actually getting the tickets themselves, makes the tour a full event, more so than just a place to see live music. Swifties made bracelets based off of song lyrics and inside jokes surrounding Taylor Swift and handmade outfits to recreate Swift’s own concert outfits and iconic clothes from music videos. The hashtag “erastour” on instagram has over 416k posts, full of fans showing their outfits and pictures and videos of Swift herself. These trends have followed into other artists’ concerts as well, one of my friends attended a Joshua Bassett concert, and his supporters have bracelets there as well. Fans of Harry Styles, whose demographic also overlaps with Swift’s a lot, are known for extravagant outfits with feather boas to mimic Styles’ fashion as well.
3. Scooter Braun, and Artist Rights:
Taylor Swift was signed with Big Machine Records when she was fifteen, and gave them ownership of her first six studio albums. When she left the label in 2018, in favor of signing with Republic Records, her first albums were still owned by Big Machine. Scooter Braun, owner of Ithaca Holdings, bought Big Machine for $300 million, including Big Machine’s artists, albums, and other records. This included Swift’s first six albums, which he refused to sell back to her. Swift, in an act of defiance, vowed to re-record these albums and reclaim the music that was rightfully hers. So far, she has re-recorded Fearless, Speak Now, and Red, and 1989 (Taylor’s Version), is set to release on October 27th. This feud was highly publicized, and brought attention to hidden aspects of the music industry. Many fans were shocked to find artists didn’t own their music, and most other types of artists, like painters and sculptors, own their artworks as they’re being created, and sell them after if they chose to. Even artists like Kesha, The Beatles, and Prince have fought for ownership of their music with record labels. This new era of private ownership, has also allowed for an influx of new music artists in the industry, such as Phoebe Bridgers, who is actually signed to her own record label, Saddest Factory Records.
4. Impacts on Other Industries:
Taylor Swift has also made impacts on industries outside of just music, including the television and movie industry. Swift has produced movies for her concerts in the past, Taylor Swift Reputation Stadium Tour, a film produced by Netflix, has a rating of 8.4/10 on IMDB. These movies allow fans to experience the concerts when they weren’t able to physically attend. She also has other movies, such as Taylor Swift: Miss Americana which was released in 2020, and shows behind the scenes content into Swift’s life. On October 13th, Taylor Swift Eras Tour will be out in AMC theaters, and has already broken records selling $26 million worth of tickets in 24 hours. Movies such as The Exorcist: Believer have already moved their release dates in order to avoid the hype surrounding Swift’s documentary. As of September 9th, seven viewings of the movie at AMC Arrowhead 14 are listed as “almost full” on their website. Moving release dates for movies, which already have so much money going into advertising, is an extremely expensive and tedious process, and the fact that three movies have already changed their release date speaks volumes to Swift’s impact.
Taylor Swift’s fame has led to her influencing our society today on a dramatic scale, whether that be within the music industry or outside of it. She is a beloved artist to millions of fans, and this has been shown time and time again by the unwavering support this singer has backing her. Her impacts have led to changes in different aspects of our world today, and her career is not slowing down anytime soon.
