Taylor Swift performs on stage during The Eras Tour at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA on Jul. 28.
Credit: Jose Carlos Fajardo (Bay Area News Group/via TNS)
With the recent premiere of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,” it seems like the 11-time Grammy-winning singer-songwriter will truly never go out of style.
The movie’s opening weekend grossed $96 million domestically, according to Box Office Mojo. However, the self-produced concert film is just the latest of a rolling timeline of events that have kept Taylor Swift in the center of the public eye, Claudia Banke, founder and president of the club Scarlet and Gray: Taylor’s Version, said.
“I think she’s bigger than ever and more popular than ever,” Banke, a third-year in political science and social work, said. “I’ve been a fan for so long, and watching her growth this past year has been really impressive.”
Banke said she’s been a Swift fan since the age of 7, and her first memory of experiencing Swift’s fandom was the 2010 release of the “Speak Now” album and its subsequent tour. It was her first concert, and the first of four Swift concerts she would eventually attend.
“I remember just being so — a little 7-year-old — being so overwhelmed by the amount of people in the arena,” Banke said. “And now it’s just special because that first concert I went to with my mom, my two aunts and my cousin, and we’ve gone to every concert together since then.”
But Banke said being a Swiftie — a self-given label adopted by the artist’s most loyal fans — hasn’t always been celebrated in the mainstream.
“I remember back being in grade school, like sixth grade, and I was a Taylor Swift fan but heard people were making fun of Taylor Swift,” Banke said. “And I think that kind of leads into people being judged for liking that person’s music because the public doesn’t necessarily like them at the time.”
Ohio State’s director of popular culture studies, Jared Gardner, said people like Banke — who have been Swift fans since childhood — represent a large portion of Swift’s audience to whom she has catered over the course of her career.
“She knew that she kind of began with a much younger audience, but she knows that younger audience has grown up with her,” Gardner said. “There’s a lot in pop music that can feel overwhelming when you’re a young teen, but she’s also allowed her original fans to grow up with her to have more complex feelings.”
Gardner said Swift’s longtime audience contributed to the success of her recent album rereleases “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” “Red (Taylor’s Version)” and “Fearless (Taylor’s Version).” He also said these rereleases have created room for brand-new faces in her fandom.
“I think when she’s putting albums together, there’s always thinking about, ‘How am I providing something for different kinds of people?’” Gardner said. “One of the things that rereleases did is it gave a chance for fans who are just discovering her then to start over again and start going through her early career.”
Banke said the rereleases have a different significance, as they represent Swift finally securing ownership of the masters — or final versions — of her songs. Banke said Swift’s reclamation of her discography is inspiring to her and many others.
“Just especially being a woman, it’s an empowering thing to see this other woman take control of her own artistic material and what is deservingly hers,” Banke said. “I think she’s just always been a very honest and authentic person, and I think that’s partly why she has so many fans.”
Gardner said the sister albums Swift released during the COVID-19 pandemic — titled “Folklore” and “Evermore” — contributed to her undeniable success in 2022-23. He said the records’ authenticity and inherently emotional tone reflected that of the rest of the world.
“One of the things she did during COVID that was genuine is she retreated to the studio,” Gardner said. “She basically wrote two albums during COVID much smaller, much softer, much more intimate, more acoustic.”
Gardner said a primary reason Swift is consistently at the center of public discourse is the careful management of information regarding her private life, currently exemplified through her public romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“She can allow this discourse to be out there, while also leaving a whole bunch of it private,” Gardner said.
Gardner said the management of Swift’s public image reflects today’s society, especially considering the rise of social media apps that allow people to carefully curate their image in others’ eyes.
“All of us appreciate how hard it is to balance our personal lives and our public persona,” Gardner said. “I do think there is almost a sense of just appreciation and even role modeling from folks who are obviously doing this on a scale we can imagine, who are somehow managing to still seem to be living a good life.”
Gardner said these glimpses into Swift’s life have united people behind her, as even people who aren’t personally fans of her music appreciate her ambition and success.
“Even if you’ve never liked her music, you’re like, ‘Props to her,’ that’s the kind of thing I hear a lot, even for people who are like diehard 50-year-old aging punks,” Gardner said. “I think that there’s a deep admiration for somebody who hasn’t been crushed, or sold out to her values and betrayed her fans.”
Banke said Swift’s immense popularity has led to better attendance numbers for her club, and that there has never been a better time to be a Swiftie.
“I definitely think fans of hers that are a part of the club now might not have been a part of the club a year ago,” Banke said. “It’s cool to be a Taylor Swift Fan now.”
