There are two moments in Taylor Swift's Miss Americana documentary that I think about a lot. In the first, Swift sits on the phone and learns that Reputation, her big reinvention album after becoming public enemy number one and a 'snake' after the Kanye West Famous incident, has been passed over for Grammy nominations. Though upset, Swift is resolute, and simply tells her publicist, "I'll have to make a better one". The second is while she's working on Lover, the album after Reputation, and confesses that she fears her career at the peak of the music industry will vanish once she hits 30, as it often does for women, saying "this is probably my last opportunity to grasp onto that kind of success". As last weekend's The Eras Tour opener proves, Swift was wrong.
Post-Lover, Swift released Folklore (which was the longest number one album and highest selling album of 2020 in the US, winning Album of the Year at the Grammys), Evermore (which many consider to be her best songwriting, was nominated for AOTY), and Midnights (one of the most successful albums in history, the first to ever take up all ten places of the Billboard top ten, is expected to be win AOTY at the next ceremony). She also took back ownership of her past work, releasing Red (Taylor's Version) and Fearless (Taylor's Version), with the rest due to arrive soon, announced that she will soon be directing her feature film debut for Searchlight, and of course, recently embarked on her Eras Tour.
The Eras Tour is a huge event, one that could even force Ticketmaster's infamous policies to change after unprecedented demand (more than ten times higher than the Superbowl) caused the website to crash and millions of fans to lose out, and that was just for the presale. It spans Swift's ten album strong career, and is playing at the biggest stadiums across the USA, with new dates added at practically every venue to cope with demand. When BTS sold out LA's SoFi Stadium four nights in a row, some thought it would never be beaten. Swift sold it out five nights in a row, right at the end of a run of over 50 dates across the country, and with an extra 20,000 seats per night than BTS. In fact, at 16 of the venues of the tour, Swift has broken some kind of attendance record.
All of this underlines exactly the kind of star Taylor Swift is. Four years on from thinking she was done, seven years on from being 'cancelled' thanks to Kayne West's revenge porn, 17 years on since her debut, Taylor Swift is still the most powerful figure in music. Nine years ago, Bloomberg ran the famous headline 'Taylor Swift Is The Music Industry' after 1989 stormed the charts with hits like Bad Blood, Shake it Off, and Blank Space. It's incredibly rare for any artist, but especially a female pop star, to be at the top of their game either side of a decade. It's unheard for that 'top' to mean 'the single biggest star on the planet'. Beyonce is the only person who even comes close to her longevity and popular appeal.
Swift is so impressive because she has achieved all of this through being an albums artist. She doesn't produce quick singles to keep herself in the headlines or capitalise on various trends. Each of her ten albums has a cohesive theme, distinct from the last (or as with Folklore and Evermore, a deliberate continuation), and is given space to breathe. The Eras Tour is a fitting name, each set coming with its own sound and visuals, and Swift is making a big tour even bigger - her set is over three hours long, spanning 44 songs, at least nine of the ten albums and including two unique songs that don’t usually make the cut.
Taylor Swift doesn't have to push herself this hard. With her natural talent and marketability, she could cruise to some easy years at or near the top, then fade away gracefully and retire. She could have done that six years ago - by choice or not, many pop stars in her position in their late 20s do. That she has kept pushing and is now, almost two decades into her career, the most powerful she has ever been is a testament to her dedication to the craft and her unique position. In writing her own songs, avoiding makeup or perfume lines, having clearly defined on and off periods for album launches, and headlining colossal tours, Swift is something of a throwback artist. It's still true now: Taylor Swift is the music industry.