The lights, the stage, the thousands of people trading friendship bracelets, the excitement of when the clock hits 8:00 p.m.,the smiles automatically plastered on faces – all to see one person, Taylor Swift. On Nov.1, 2022, Taylor Swift announced the Eras Tour. If you are not a Swiftie and do not keep up with Taylor, she has not been on tour since the Reputation Stadium Tour in 2017, so this has been ‘a long time coming.’  

Although I am someone who is a die-hard Taylor Swift fan and who also attended the concert, you may not understand the hype about the concert or Taylor Swift in general. You also may not understand the Ticketmaster situation after Taylor announced her tour. It was soon considered as the ‘Great War.’ When tickets were about to go on sale, thousands of people went to Ticketmaster to try and get the best seats for the best prices. This led to many people being kicked out of Ticketmaster, and the website stopped working for a period of time. While normal ticket prices ranged from $500 to $1,000 each, tickets for the show were being sold on third-party sites for over $10,000, scamming thousands of people. Many people took last-resort options, like selling their cars for tickets, messaging Taylor, and even trying to sell their organs. Eventually, Ticketmaster was opened back up, and all was resolved and ready for the games to begin.

The Eras Tour is one of the highest-grossing tours ever recorded, coming in at $2.2 billion. Taylor Swift has built this tour up so much that she is now providing economic growth in the cities she has played in. “Swiftonomics,” as it is now called, will continue to increase as she starts the second half of her tour in South America. “Swifonomics” quite literally shook America by causing seismic activity at her Seattle show. The tour caused an earthquake because people were jumping and screaming so loudly that she shook the city off the Richter scale, coming in at a magnitude of 2.3.

Although not all of her concerts have caused an earthquake, they have all had great success so far. It was rare; I was there, and I definitely remember it all too well. I attended Houston Night, and 1.3 hours into it, my voice was gone, and I was already feeling the PTSD (post-Taylor Swift depression); trust me, it’s real. The hype about this concert is unmatched. 

Taylor Swift plays 44 songs, from all different eras of her music. The hype with Taylor Swift is not necessarily about the outfits people wore, the money spent on tickets, the stories written, or the concert itself; it’s about the way Taylor Swift has become an outlet for people when they feel like they can’t go anywhere else. Some people use sports as an outlet; some use therapy; some lift weights, but for some people, music is a way to let go and connect with themselves or others. 

For some who didn’t have a role model to look up to at home, Taylor Swift has become that role model for millions around the world. She is not just a music artist; she is someone who has changed the way people look at themselves and at the music industry in general. The real question to answer now is “Did the sparks really fly at the Eras Tour?” Hopefully, you will “say yes instead of no.”