The nearly two-year-long, USD2 billion Eras Tour shattered records, made history and quite literally triggered earthquakes – so what could Taylor Swift, the planet’s biggest star, possibly do next?
“Taylor Swift just needs to rest, frankly,” said Andrew Mall, an ethnomusicologist at Northeastern University. It’s a wholly reasonable sentiment when you look at what the megastar, who turns 35 on Friday, has accomplished, including releasing nine albums in five years alongside a concert feature film.
The career-spanning global odyssey of a tour she just staged was like nothing that came before it: 149 shows across the world that typically clocked in at more than three hours long each.
Eras Tour tickets sold for sometimes exorbitant prices and drew in millions of fans, along with many more who didn’t get in and were willing to simply sing along from the parking lot.
“I think she can’t top it right away,” Mall told AFP. “There’s just no possible way she can turn around and launch something else that has as large an impact, cultural and economic.”
For Kristin Lieb, an expert at Emerson College on pop, gender and branding, the question of what’s next isn’t even particularly fair. “The minute you finish a marathon, or the minute you win the World Series, or the minute somebody gets tenure, you know, the first question is, what are you going to do next?” she told AFP. “I’m starting to make sense of that as a real cultural sickness.”
It’s up to her
But in an industry that’s constantly seeking what’s young, new or fresh, “what’s next” is nevertheless always front of mind.
The Swifties are still waiting on more Taylor’s Version albums: Since 2021 Swift has been making good on her vow to re-record her first six studio records in a bid to own the rights to them. She’s got two left, Reputation and Taylor Swift.
