A new era for music

Concerts will never be the same after this weekend.

Taylor Swift's career-spanning Eras Tour is about to come to an end in Vancouver. The final shows are the culmination of an industry-changing global tour: Across more than 150 shows and five continents, the Eras Tour boasted a 46-song, 3½-hour set that powered across genres, languages and nations (and in some cases, resulted in seismic activity).

The scale of Taylor's tour demanded Congress' attention and changed the way concert tickets will be sold for decades to come. Billions of dollars created by the tour stimulated economies around the world, demonstrating a new capacity for music to drive spending. And the vision of Swift, her constant Easter eggs and surprises, set a new (and probably undefeatable) bar for musicians to constantly be creating and driving the conversation forward. To put it simply: The revenue, popularity and passion generated by the Eras Tour will make it difficult for any other tour to rival.

So where does live music go from here?

👋 Nicole Fallert here and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for Paste BN subscribers (that's you!). This week, we talk with Bryan West, Taylor Swift reporter for The Tennessean, part of the Paste BN Network, about what the end of the Eras Tour means — for the music business and for the pop star's future.

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'Remember this moment'

Bryan West left journalism for six years. When family and friends asked if he would return to the work, he would say, "Only if I can write about Taylor Swift."

In 2023, that came true. Paste BN hired West as its one and only Taylor Swift reporter. He stepped into an unprecedented job just as the Eras Tour was picking up steam, bringing Swift's portfolio of 11 albums to audiences around the world. There was no playbook for West's job.

He knew the ins and outs of her world. He knew he would keep track of the surprise songs she chose from her vault for the acoustic set of the show (there's only six songs left she hasn't sung).

But he never imagined how covering the beat would be so much more than Swift herself, but the people her music reached. He met an 11-year-old who uses a wheelchair with a viral costume mimicking Swift's iconic dancers. Sisters grieving the loss of their mother told West how Swift's tour helped them mourn. Fans shared how they traversed miles to get to the shows or made presentations to include their families in the Swiftie-dom.

And as he covered the tour for Paste BN, he could have never anticipated the Eras Tour would become about more than the music.

"It became every sphere of news," West said. "I could have never imagined it would involve a presidential election, or ISIS and a terrorism threat in Austria, or the NFL. I didn't think I would write about a fan death in Brazil."

West, who lives in Nashville, goes to a lot of concerts. Swift has changed live music going forward, he says.

"It impresses me so much that for just one song she uses pyro," he said. "She rolls in a whole cottage for a matter of minutes to sing songs from 'Folklore.'"

The scale and caliber of the show will be hard to match for another artist, let alone Swift herself, West said. And the show demonstrated a unique ability to achieve such greatness by absorbing fan input, bridging the typical fan-star gap found in concerts. Just take the moment during "22" when Swift hands her iconic black top hat to a young fan. As the tour progressed, the "hat" has become an iconic portion fans expect to see (like this lucky 7-year-old).

Fan-inspired reactions to the show inspire West and will be taken into account by other artists' future tours. He spoke to the girls who started the trend of bringing yellow and orange balloons to mimic the orbs Swift holds on stage during "Willow." In "Blank Space," fans break out into a chant that harks back to Swift's 1989 tour.

The music industry will also learn from Swift to update their tours along the way to keep up momentum. After April, she brought in a completely new section for her album "Tortured Poets Department." She constantly swaps out the colors of her sparkly "Lover" and "1989" costumes. She earns roars from audiences for bringing on surprise musical guests (I got to see Ed Sheeran join the stage with her in London!). At the Eras Tour, nothing is sacred − it could all change one show to the next, holding fans rapt.

"She's the queen of surprises," West said. For him, this means he has to be extra-prepared when reporting on the tour. As any other journalist, they wouldn't dress or act a certain way to show a bias. So he dons a black T-shirt and jeans, often sticking out amid a sea of sparkly dresses and rainbow fan friendship bracelets as he keeps track of every musical moment. She often does "the expected at unexpected times," he said.

"I have so many days and nights when my world is on fire," West said. "I'm sprinting from a concert back to my Airbnb, typing out an article on my notes app and cutting a quick video. You have to come down from your high and write."

But even though he must remain a neutral observer, West often reminds himself of a lyric from "Long Live," oft known as Swift's fan anthem, amid the chaos of following Swift's world: "Remember this moment."

"As crazy as this gets, I take 30 seconds with the crowd and am like, 'What is my life?!'"

Covering a star as prolific and omnipresent as Swift is a never-ending effort, West said (he worked over 40 hours when she dropped a surprise double album and a music video for "Tortured Poets" in April). There are few other talents in the industry who produce at the rate she does. Live music will take a note from Swift to use the stage for mic-drop moments.

"She's reached the peak of world domination and she somehow keeps going," West said. And the last night of the tour won't be an exception.

"I think she's going to put an exclamation point on it," West said. He has more than 30 story ideas prepared for what could happen on stage in Vancouver for the final weekend, from potential guests to announcements of new work or her latest re-recording.

Whatever comes next for Swift, West said, she's at her best and probably will continue working on projects that span from music to film to performance to, well, just having fun in her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

"I anticipate she's not going to take that long of a break. ... She's always being on her toes," West said. "She's 13 steps ahead of everyone."

Thank you

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Best wishes,

Nicole Fallert

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A new era for music

'Remember this moment'

Read more Eras Tour coverage from Paste BN

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