The Era of the Eras Tour

On March 17, 2023, Taylor Swift took the stage in Glendale, Arizona, (momentarily renamed Swift City), to kick off the highly-anticipated Eras Tour. Since then, it has been an instant success, going as far as to generate over $5 billion for the economy. But why has the tour been circulating this much success? 

Before the pandemic and since the release of her second album, Swift would release an album and immediately go on tour for it. Just before the pandemic, Swift was preparing for “Lover Fest”, her tour for her 7th studio album “Lover”, until she was forced to cancel it due to lockdown. Since then, she has released 6 albums (not including her upcoming album, 1989 (Taylor’s Version)) in the span of three years, all untoured. At the Eras Tour, concert-goers explore 17 years of Swift’s career, starting with the “Lover” era, the first of her untoured albums, and ending with the “Midnights” era. 

Two and a half minutes before Swift takes the stage, a huge clock appears counting down. Once the time runs out, large, flowy pink and purple petal-like objects are brought out onto the stage. Then, Swift appears from under all the petals in a sparkling bodysuit. As of the end of the first leg of the US tour, there are three variants of this bodysuit: a pink and blue one, a blue and gold one, and a purple, tasseled one.

 Swift opens the show with the chorus of “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince”, followed by “Cruel Summer,” where Swift invites the crowd to “scream the first bridge of the evening”. Swift then puts on one of three sparkly blazers, (silver, navy blue, or black and pinstriped) to sing “The Man” and “You Need to Calm Down”. She removes the blazer, grabs a pink or blue guitar to sing “Lover”, and then puts away her guitar to sing “The Archer”. 

After the ”Lover” era, Swift takes us through the “Fearless” era. Swift comes out of the stage in a frilly gold dress, a sparkly gold noodle dress, or a sparkly silver noodle dress. Swift opens the “Fearless” set with the song “Fearless”, where she holds up the iconic hand heart. She takes us back in time when singing “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story”.

We transition from the “Fearless” era to the “evermore” era. Originally, the “evermore” set begins with “‘tis the damn season”, but as HAIM opened for Swift, Swift invited them on stage every night to sing “no body no crime”, as they are featured on the track. For the “evermore” era, Swift wears one of three outfits: an orange, yellow, or shimmery and bronze ankle-length dress. But at first, to sing “willow”, Swift wears a long green cape on top of the dress. She takes off the cape, and goes on to sing “marjorie”, as an ode to her late grandmother. Then, Swift settles down on the mossy piano to talk to the crowd, following the conversation with  “champagne problems”. At the end of the song, the crows roars due to the recent competition from each city to outlast each other in their applause. Currently, Night 6 of LA holds the record for the longest cheer, lasting almost 8 minutes. After the standing ovation, Swift sets the table to sing “tolerate it”, until transitioning to the “reputation” era. 

Swift opens the “reputation” era with “...Ready For It?”, before singing “Delicate” (along with of course the iconic 123LGB chant!) Then, Swift” “takes us to church”, singing “Don’t Blame Me”, until transitioning into “Look What You Made Me Do”, featuring some iconic looks from her past eras. As of right now, there is only one “reputation” era outfit, a black bodysuit with a red snake. 

After the “reputation” era, we transition to the “Speak Now” era, which originally only consisted of “Enchanted”, but since the release of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)”, Swift has added “Long Live”, a fan favorite, to the tracklist. For the era, Swift wears a ballgown. Currently, there is a sparkly pink, a gold sequin, a layered purple (dubbed the cupcake dress), a silver sequined ballgown, a glittery dress with flowers, and most recently, a blue ballgown. 

After the “Speak Now” era, we enter the “Red” era, where Swift opens the set with “22”. She wears one of three t-shirts for the song: one saying “A lot going on at the moment” (derived from the original 22 shirt saying “Not a lot going on at the moment”, one saying “Who’s Taylor Swift anyway? Ew.” (from the iconic song lyric), and one saying “We are never getting back together. Like ever.” She takes off the shirt and unveils a glittery red bodysuit with sparkly black shorts. Swift goes on to sing “We Are Never Getting Back Together” and “I Knew You Were Trouble”, until putting on a sparkly red coat to sing the ten-minute version of “All Too Well”. During the dates when Phoebe Bridgers opened the show, Swift would invite her on stage to sing their song “Nothing New”, before singing “All Too Well”.

The next era we explore is the “folklore” era, where Swift wears a flowy dress in either white, pink/cream, purple, green, or blue. Originally, she opened the set with “invisible string”, but about a month into the tour she swapped it out for “the 1”. Then, she gives a speech explaining the “folklore love triangle”, before singing “betty” and “the last great american dynasty”. Swift goes on to sing “august”, from which she transitions into the bridge of “illicit affairs” and then the entirety of “my tears ricochet”. She closes the set with “cardigan”. 

After “folklore”, we hear the iconic intro of “Style”, leading us into the “1989” era. There are four 1989 outfits: a two-piece set with jewels in either green, orange, pink, or blue. After “Style”, Swift sings “Blank Space” (for which she pulls out an iconic golf club), “Shake It Off”, and “Wildest Dreams”. She closes the set with “Bad Blood”, (featuring real fire in the stadium) and the burning of the iconic “Lover House”. 

After “1989”, we enter the highly-anticipated acoustic set. Every night, Swift sings two surprise songs she never repeats on the tour after singing once. The only exceptions in which she re-sings surprise songs are if she messes up while singing the song, or if the song is from the album “Midnights”. Occasionally, Swift will bring on a special guest during the acoustic set. So far, she’s invited Jack Antanoff, Gracie Abrams, Marren Morris, Marcus Mumford, and most commonly, Aaron Dessner on stage to sing. 

After the acoustic set, Swift moves on to the “Midnights” era, coming out of the stage in a purple fur coat to sing “Lavender Haze”. Swift takes off the coat to reveal a sparkly, overlarged t-shirt in either pink, blue, purple, iridescent purple and blue, or a t-shirt with extra jewels. She sings “Anti-Hero” and “Midnight Rain”, but during the second chorus of “Midnight Rain”, Swift changes outfits midsong, taking off the t-shirt to reveal a bodysuit. The bodysuit is either navy, dark blue, or midnight blue with sheer cutouts. She goes on to sing “Vigilante Shit”, “Bejeweled”, and “Mastermind” in the bodysuit, before closing the show with “Karma”. During the weekend of the “Karma Remix” featuring Ice Spice release, Swift invited Ice Spice on stage to sing the song. For “Karma”, Swift wears either a frilly blue, magenta, light pink, or multicolored jacket on top of the bodysuit. Ten eras, 44 songs, and 44 outftits later, Swift thanks the crowd and takes a bow with her dancers and musicians.