by Erica Wilson
As fifth-year senior Madeline Kendall watched the Hannah Montana movie when she was around eight, it ignited a passion in her for Taylor Swift that would follow her throughout her childhood and into college. Swift wrote two of the tracks in the movie and also made a brief cameo, performing her song “Crazier.” In Kendall’s fourth-grade talent show, she sang “You Belong with Me” and has dressed up as the singer for several Halloweens. In her junior year of high school, she created a Junior Jewels t-shirt decorated with her best friend’s names, replicating the shirt Swift wore in her 2009 “You Belong With Me” music video.
All of Kendall’s friends, including myself, learned early on in their friendships about Kendall’s favorite singer. “I would say that I bet people think about me when they think about Taylor Swift,” Kendall said, referencing lyrics from the song “I Bet You Think About Me.” Many of my college memories surround Kendall and I driving around Fayetteville with Taylor Swift at full volume, dancing around in our seats and analyzing the lyrics to match current situations in our lives.
“The fact of the matter is that no matter what stage of life I’m in, I can find lyrics or words that will match my situation perfectly and allow me to feel less alone in those problems,” Kendall said. “The fact that millions of people relate to these songs shows me that we are not alone in these feelings.”
Swift’s carefully crafted lyricism is perhaps one of the greatest testaments to her talent. Her songs, which range from country to pop to indie, explore themes of self-reflection, heartbreak, empowerment, anger, change, loss, and the list goes on and on.
Senior Mary Beth Kemp has also always found herself resonating with Swift’s lyrics, as she has been her favorite singer for as long as she can remember. Kemp went to the 1989 tour while she was in high school, which she said was the “highlight of her life.”
Swift began The Eras Tour, which is “A journey through all of her musical eras,” on March 17. The concert is more than three hours long and includes 44 songs on the setlist. When Swift announced the tour, Kemp said she knew she absolutely had to go.
The Eras Tour
A clock appears on the screen, ticking away the time as soft lyrics play and audience members spring to their seats so as to not miss a second of the show. The repeated line “It’s been a long time coming” pays homage to Swift not having toured since 2018 due to the pandemic and hints toward the opening song. Dancers holding light tapestries emerge, forming a circle and enveloping the stage until Swift makes her entrance, sending the crowd into chaos. Standing in the audience at the March 31 show in Arlington, Kemp said she definitely shed a tear.
“It was very emotional,” Kemp said. “I felt like I was that little girl again just listening to Taylor in my room.”
Throughout the journey of musical eras, Swift leaves the audience in awe with her lavish outfit changes, incredible energy and radiant stage presence. She moves on from the “Lover” era with a costume change to a gold-fringed dress and holding an acoustic guitar. She spins around and holds her hands high in a heart shape as she delves into the classic “Fearless” album. She blurs the lines between fantasy and reality with her “folklore” album, created during the pandemic and exploring themes of isolation and nostalgia. The energy shifts immediately with a brief interlude for the “Reputation” album. Images of hissing snakes intermix with the visuals and sounds of black and red boots walking across the screen until Swift emerges from the haze, singing “knew he was a killer, first time that I saw him.” She is surrounded by a group of dancers, all dressed in sparkly black and red. They move together, their movements sharp and incredibly confident. For “Speak Now,” Swift emerges in a larger-than-life elegant, purple sparkly dress. The stage is drowning in purple lights. When the time comes, the crowd seems to breathe together all at once, screaming “Please don’t be in love with someone else,” a lyric incredibly charged with emotion from the song “Enchanted.”
As Swift continues through her setlist, there are two songs that no one in the audience could predict: the two surprise songs. She hopes to never repeat these selections, leaving “Swifties” all over the nation carefully tracking the songs chosen each night in hopes that their favorites are still an option for the show they have tickets for.
Kemp attended both the March 31 and April 1 Arlington shows. In the second one, Swift’s surprise songs were “Clean” and “Death by A Thousand Cuts.” The former song is one of Kemp’s all-time favorites, so hearing it live was very emotional and cathartic for her, she said. During “Death by A Thousand Cuts,” a fan-favorite, singing the bridge was a pivotal moment for many in attendance. Swift even paused the song to play the bridge twice because she wanted the song’s writer Jack Antonoff, who was in the audience, to have the experience of hearing a crowd scream the bridge live.
Swift fan’s dedication and support for the artist is on full display at these shows. Many come dressed up from head to toe, adhering to one particular era or combining a few. The audience is littered with sparkly sequins, “Lover” hearts and other bejeweled accessories, some mirroring her most recent album “Midnights.” On the first night of the Arlington Show, Kemp followed the Lover theme, wearing a sparkly pink dress. The next night she dressed as the Reputation theme, wearing black with tights with snakes on them. “We dressed to the theme for sure,” she laughs.
Kendall has tickets to two upcoming Eras tour shows. She plans to wear a pink fringe dress and put a Lover heart around her eye, a tribute to her favorite album.
Another trend has emerged during Swift concerts that showcase the supportive community that has rallied around Swift and formed bonds with one another. Many concert goers create friendship bracelets decorated with Swift’s song lyrics to trade with strangers. When I attended the Arlington show, I had not even made it out of the parking lot to walk to the stadium before a stranger gifted me with a friendship bracelet to the theme of my favorite album “Speak Now.” The purple and white beads perfectly complimented my purple bodysuit and skirt with gray sparkly fringe and made the concert that much more special for me.
(Picture of bracelet I got)
The Eras Tour is reflective of Swift’s vast influence for the duration of her career through her brilliant storytelling, poetic lyricism and relatability, especially for the generation that has grown up alongside her.
“I feel like I grew up with her, like she’s been just someone that I’ve listened to my entire life, and as she has grown and changed I feel like I have also grown and changed with her,” Kemp said. “There’s just no other artist that’s been that important to me for that long, so I feel like that’s what makes (her) special.”