Arms lined with friendship bracelets, in glittery outfits with excited faces, over TEN MILLION fans attended The Eras Tour.
Taylor Swift has become a global household name, sparking a deep love for music in millions of fans, young and old alike.
While fandom culture is definitely not exclusive to Taylor Swift, she is one of the best examples in modern times of what it means to be a fan.
Senior Hannah Windmiller, co-leader of the Taylor Swift Nation Club for activity period, has been a fan since the beginning of high school after her sister introduced her.
“It [music] has always definitely been a part of my life because my dad is a DJ, so when I was younger, before I even went to kindergarten, he made playlists for me and my sister to listen to. It was really random songs like Party Rock,” Windmiller said.
As she got older, she started to develop her own personal music taste. She remembers specifically in early middle school starting to love Billie Eilish.
“The only artist I really listened to before Freshman year was Billie Eilish. I started listening to her when I was in sixth grade, around when her first album was coming out.” Windmiller said.
The main distinction between Taylor Swift and other artists, for Hannah, is the range of what she produces.
“Most of them are very different from each other. She has these very pop-heavy albums like 1989, or The Life of a Showgirl, but she also has albums that lyrically are deeper, with albums like Folklore or Evermore,” Windmiller said.
This is why it is frustrating to a lot of fans when critics say that all of her songs sound the same. Comparing her very emotional and raw songs like “Tolerate it” off of Evermore and “Shake it Off” from 1989 is very jarring, as they have drastically different tones.
There are a multitude of examples as to why people find themselves drawn to music, one of the main factors being the community that comes with being a fan of something.
In a modern society that has placed a lot of emphasis on having a big group of friends, a fandom can sometimes feel like that.
This is exactly why Hannah created the Taylor Swift Nation club with her friend, Abby Zimmerman, and created a fun environment where they all share one thing in common, even if they are drastically different from one another.
“In our club, we strive to make it a positive and welcoming environment. Not everyone in the club necessarily is a huge fan of Taylor, but the connections and friendships made through this club are what really make it special. It’s an incredible display of girlhood,” Windmiller said.
“The main goal of the club is to celebrate the discography of Taylor Swift and her dedication to her work over the years, and also to bring people together and have a little break from the stress that school brings, ” Windmiller said.
While groups like this have meetings in person to bond over their love for music, there is an entirely different entity of online presence when it comes to fandom culture.
Specifically on TikTok, massive amounts of videos are made surrounding different music. After all, that was the intended purpose of TikTok when it originally launched as Musically.
It’s really fun because while the artists themselves are famous, the people in the front lines supporting them also gain followers. This results in fandoms feeling like a community, rather than just a group with a common interest.
Tyler Brownell is one of these people, gaining 49.5K followers and obtaining over nine million likes on her videos over time. She knows firsthand what this experience is like.
“I think maybe when she announced she was re-recording her music is when I really felt like a Swiftie, if that makes sense,” Brownell said.
Most artists that she listens to, she has found via Tiktok, and she’s consistently posted videos for around five years, expressing her love for music.
“I’ve always loved music my whole life, but during 2020, when there was nothing to do but scroll on TikTok, I became more invested in things. I always listened to Taylor Swift, but I learned every single song and started posting about her,” Brownell said.
Fandom culture has completely changed as a result of short-form content. It’s much easier than ever before to interact with people anywhere.
“I think TikTok has really changed things. Just listening to the same music can connect you with so many new people you would have never spoken to before. Being in those fandoms has been really nice because it’s so cool to connect with people all over the country.” Brownell said.
In general, fan-girls have a lot of backlash both on and off the internet. This is weird, though, because sports fans do the same thing, sometimes even more extreme. There are a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be in a fandom, and it is a lot less extreme than some claim.
While when it comes to large groups of people, inevitably there will be some people that take it too far, the mass majority are just people who enjoy music.
“People seem to think that just because you are a fan, you have to agree or condone everything they do. You can love an artist and not love everything they do.” Brownell said.
Sophomore Vivian Baker agreed, “I feel like people constantly think that fandoms are all-consuming and crazy. But they really aren’t. They’re just people who enjoy something specific and thrive anytime they listen to it or watch it or something like that.”
When The Eras Tour first started, a lot of fans went to TikTok in an attempt to find out what they could do to make it an elevated experience more than just the insane show itself. This is where things like making friendship bracelets came into play.
What most Swifties recognize as their favorite, though, are the fan projects. Fans watched a lot of shows via live stream over the course of the tour, and watched the glitchy live stream of Swift singing her heart out to find out what the surprise shows of the night would be.
At every show for the entirety of The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift would do an acoustic set. She would do different songs from her discography, sometimes surprising the audience with special guests. These soon became referred to as “Surprise Songs,” as no one was anticipating what would be sung that night.
“All of the fan projects and friendship bracelets just felt so happy and inspiring,” Baker said.
Some included holding up pictures of Swift’s grandmother, Marjorie, while she performed a song dedicated to her. Another was holding up signs reading “We WILL Stay” during The Archer, implying the fans would stay by her side through anything.
Live streams, as mentioned before, gave fans like her who were unable to attend The Eras Tour in person the ability to still experience the magic. Baker and her mom sat outside the stadium at one of the shows, hoping to get last-minute tickets. Although they were ultimately unsuccessful, they still had a good time.
“There was a huge group of people outside. I was surrounded by people in the fandom and community. My favorite part was probably singing with a big group of people whom I’d never met.” Baker said.
Music unites people from all walks of life and promotes unity where it wasn’t present before. It tells a story, from not only the musician’s perspective but also the experience that the listener has gone through while listening to the media.
