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The Eras Era

2021-present

Taylor kicked off the 2020s decade by embarking on the very ambitious mission to re-record the six studio albums released by her old record label. Even though she had just written her two most acclaimed projects with folklore and evermore, beneath those dreamy soundscapes was an artist who had been fighting for years to manage the means, method of production, and distribution of her work. During this time, she also embarked on “The Eras Tour” in 2023. By the time of the last show in December 2024, it had become the highest-grossing tour in history, with over $2 billion in revenue. It was a mega-event that elevated the already-super-famous Taylor to a new level, making her an epochal symbol of cultural saturation on the level of the Beatles in the 1960s or Michael Jackson in his ’80s prime.

But let’s start at the beginning: In 2021, Taylor was a long-established veteran of the industry, and she was using all of the tools that she had learned along the way at her disposal — both as an artist and as a brand — to prove that she knew how to thrive in an ever-changing music landscape. She was also one of the few artists with the power and profile to create change in the music world. To this day it rings true: When she acts, the industry listens. In reclaiming her masters, and drawing attention to the saga surrounding it, Taylor had made a dramatic statement about the importance of artists owning their work and refusing to let others capitalise on their creativity. Sure, she was a multi-millionaire (and as of fall 2023 officially a billionaire) but in using her platform in this way, she was galvanising other, less established artists to fight for a better deal. “Hopefully […] kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation,” she wrote in one tweet. “You deserve to own the art you make.”

Taylor's Worst Nightmare

It all began after the masters for Taylor’s first six albums were sold to impresario Scooter Braun and his company Ithaca Holdings back in June 2019. Taylor signed to Big Machine Records in 2005 as a 15-year-old, fresh-faced Nashville singer with a guitar and long blond hair. The contract expired in 2018 but not before she rocketed to radio-play heights with hits like “I Knew You Were Trouble.” and crossed into the pop stratosphere with sold-out stadium tours over the course of six albums. When her deal was up in 2018, she switched labels to Universal’s Republic Records. Big Machine owns the masters, or original recordings, of her first six albums, as is typical with many recording deals. In her new contract, Taylor made sure to secure ownership of her future masters. Changing labels, carving out more agency, updating contract terms — these steps are par for the course for a successful artist. People change, and so do the contracts that govern them.

Months later, Taylor’s behind-the-scenes moves became front-page news when Big Machine sold to private-equity group Ithaca Holdings, an entity owned by music manager Scooter Braun, making him the owner of Taylor’s master recordings, the original versions of every track she had released with the company. Every time a fan, say, streamed “Shake It Off” or downloaded RED, Braun would now profit. On a business level, Braun’s move was smart: Taylor’s master recordings reap profits whenever the songs are streamed or bought. On the personal front, it was contentious: Taylor has stated multiple times that Braun has repeatedly bullied her. She told CBS This Morning in August 2019:

«I found out when it was online, when it hit the news. Nobody knew. I knew he [Scott Borchetta] would sell my music, I knew he would do that. I couldn't believe who he'd sold it to. Because we've had endless conversations about Scooter Braun. And he has 300 million reasons to conveniently forget those conversations.»

Taylor Swift

In an explosive Tumblr post Taylor described Braun’s buyout as her “worst case scenario”, accusing him of “incessant, manipulative bullying” and Scott Borchetta of betraying her trust. “Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy,” she wrote. “Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”

Making Her Intent Known

It wasn’t long before Taylor outlined plans to re-record her first six studio albums, from her eponymous country debut, Taylor Swift (2006), to reputation (2017). She would start in November 2020, as soon as her contracts allowed. It was the only way for her to essentially reclaim ownership over the period of her career that made her a household name. Speaking to Good Morning America in August 2019, Taylor said:

«It's something that I'm very excited about doing because my contract says that, starting November 2020, so next year, I can record albums one through five all over again. So, I'm very excited about it. Because I think that artists deserve to own their work. I just feel very passionately abouut that. So, it's right around the corner, I'm gonna be busy. I'm really excited.»

Taylor Swift

Things took another turn in November 2019, when Taylor announced that Big Machine and Braun were blocking her from performing old tracks at the televised American Music Awards ceremony (where she was awarded the “Artist of the Decade” award), as “they claim that would be re-recording my music before I’m allowed to”. Finally, an agreement was reached — in her performance, Taylor wore a white shirt covered in the names of her six albums released with Big Machine.

Another twist came in November 2020, when Braun sold the masters to LA investment firm Shamrock Capital in a rumoured $300 million deal. Taylor said she had been “hopeful and open to the possibility of a partnership” with Shamrock but ruled that out upon learning that “under their terms Scooter Braun will continue to profit off my old music catalogue for many years”.

The New Original Version

Artists regularly chafe against their record label contracts. But rarely do they go through the hassle of re-recording and re-releasing old work. Taylor, though, is not the usual artist. As was often the case in the past, she separated herself from the rest of the industry with sheer level of commitment. She has always been meticulous about how her work is consumed and perceived, from the aesthetics of her album covers to the comments she makes on fan blogs. Of course, Taylor has resources many don’t, but what makes her rereleases essential are the amount of attention, thought and feeling she puts into every step of the recording and the rollout, ensuring that the sets feel less like deluxe reissues and more like near-sequels to the originals. “Nobody’s tried this kind of insane project before. I mean, it’s completely bizarre. It’s like if Paul McCartney in the 70s went back and redid…Rubber Soul.” That’s what Rolling Stone wrote in November 2021.

Taylor’s hope was to override her archival works with her new versions. “Artists should own their own work for so many reasons,” she wrote in a March 2021 Instagram post. “But the most screamingly obvious one is that the artist is the only one who really knows that body of work.” As Taylor’s Versions arrived one by one, the value of the originals diminished — given the choice, fans inevitably pick recordings that support Taylor over ones that profit Braun.

Headfirst, Fearless

Further information: Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

Taylor officially embarked on this new phase of her career in February 2021, when she unveiled the re-recording of her 2008 album Fearless, now called Fearless (Taylor’s Version). What could have been an industry curiosity based around a rights dispute instead played out like a widescreen revisit to a pivotal era of Taylor’s career, as hits like “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story” were lovingly re-created, and previously unreleased tracks from the Fearless recording sessions were finally unveiled as “From The Vault” treasures on April 9. Even though the original was Taylor’s sophomore LP, it felt like the right place for this musical do-over to begin. These songs feature some of her most personal stories, tales of female friendships and growing up and first loves that formed the bedrock of her career. In an audio clip released by her label, Taylor said:

«Deciding on what album to re-record first was pretty easy for me. I always gravitated towards Fearless because I think that, as an album, it was a real coming of age, and I look back on that album and I just — it fills me with such pride. It was an album about hope and lessons learned and the effervescence of teenage youth and all that, so what more fun than to go back and explore that?”»

Taylor Swift

The amount of care that Taylor put into Fearless (Taylor’s Version) turned the 26-track set into a must-hear remake of the diamond-certified original, and fans embraced it as such. The full-length became the first re-recorded version of a previous No. 1 album to top the Billboard 200 albums chart upon its release, with the biggest debut week of 2021 at the time with 291,000 equivalent album units, according to MRC Data.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) April 9, 2021 This article is about the 2021 re-recording. For the original album, see Fearless (2008).Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is the reissue of Taylor’s second album, Fearless (2008). It was released on April 9, 2021, and features all tracks of Fearless re-recorded with fresh vocals from Taylor, including six bonus tracks that were scrapped from the 2008 version.

Proving Her Legend Status

Fearless (Taylor’s Verison) wasn’t the only way that Taylor’s towering legacy cast a shadow over the first half of 2021. After the April release of the album, she proved a key influence and contributor to another artist’s year-defining album. Pop singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo hadn’t been shy about her love of Taylor’s music over the course of her breakout year, name-checking Taylor as a sonic and spiritual guide when “drivers license” was released back in January, and receiving an Instagram shout-out from Taylor during the debut single’s quick ascent. Olivia’s debut album SOUR took the adoration even further upon its May release: the piano ballad “1 step forward, 3 steps back” borrowed from Taylor’s own “New Year’s Day” (2017), resulting in Taylor and Jack Antonoff being listed as writers on the track. Two months after the album’s release, Olivia also added Taylor, Antonoff and Annie Clark as co-writers to the hit “deja vu” due to the bridge’s similarities to Taylor’s “Cruel Summer” (2019). Olivia was pop’s rookie of the year with 2021’s biggest breakthrough album — which Taylor got some of the credit for, in ways both figurative and literal.

Also in May, Taylor got awarded the prestigious “Global Icon Award” at the BRIT Awards in London. A few weeks later she also accepted the “Songwriter Icon Award” at the 2021 NMPA Awards. She stayed active all summer, guesting on two songs (“Renegade” and “Birch“) on How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, the second album from Aaron Dessner’s Big Red Machine project—a charming continuation of the folklore & evermore era of gentle songwriting and rustic textures—and tossing out the Taylor’s Version re-recording of 1989’s “Wildest Dreams” to have a little fun with an unexpected viral moment the song was enjoying on TikTok.

Painting the World RED – Again

Further information: RED (Taylor’s Version)

After the success of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) Taylor realized her fans were clearly excited about the re-recordings and that they wouldn’t be “an embarassing project” as she had initially feared. That is why, going forward, she decided to put more time and resources into the release of the Taylor’s Versions.

RED had long stood as the fan-favorite Taylor album. It was the storied start to her pop crossover, it contains massive hit songs along with B-sides that gained cultish followings, and it had long been heralded by fans as her best work. Taylor orchestrated an elaborate promotional campaign when it came time to release RED (Taylor’s Version) in November 2021. If it had simply matched Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in terms of fanfare and listenership, her year would have still been pretty spectacular. Instead, Taylor’s second re-recorded album wildly outpaced its predecessor in nearly every way, turning the release of “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” into a cultural sensation. Taylor had the internet writing thesis papers on a three-month relationship that happened more than a decade ago because she offered up so many new intimate details to pore over—The short film! The remarkable SNL performance!—and another chart-topper for Taylor. With its November debut atop the Hot 100, “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” also became the longest No. 1 in the chart’s history—in the age of TikTok virality and dwindling attention spans, no less. In short, RED (Taylor’s Version) was treated like an event in pop culture, and both diehard and casual fans responded in kind.

«One of the things about the whole discussion over music ownership is that this was something that started out as a really hard thing I went through. The fans are the ones who turned it into something very empowering. They were just saying to me over and over again, 'We wanna listen to your versions. If you redo it, that's what we'll listen to.' If they hadn't done that, I don't think I'd be having this amazing, exciting experience.»

Taylor Swift

In the end, RED (Taylor’s Version) drove as much conversation as any of Taylor’s recent all-new studio albums. Moreover, it scored a blockbuster debut, with 605,000 first-week equivalent album units moved. More than double the amount of Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Additionally, the album also launched 26 of its tracks onto the Billboard Hot 100 – a record among female artists.

The Greatest Pop Star of 2021

In December 2021, Billboard crowned Taylor the “Greatest Pop Star of 2021.” This marked the second time she received the honor, after 2015. No other popular artist harnessed that type of fan energy with as much passion and imagination in 2021 as her, across albums and platforms, on projects that challenged the modern music industry while still succeeding wildly within it. Even without a proper new album, Taylor sent three separate projects to the top spot of the Billboard 200 during the calendar year—the first female artist to accomplish that feat in the chart’s 65-year history. And in November, one final domino fell for Taylor’s re-recordings project when iHeartRadio announced that it would now only be playing Taylor’s Versions of her older hits from each album as they rolled out—after streaming platforms had already given them prominent placement on main pages and major playlists. In addition to the impressive sales of her re-recorded albums, the reactions from the streaming and radio worlds underlined the widespread acceptance that these new recordings had replaced the classic versions as the ones listeners would be digesting and caring about moving forward.

Taylor was making the type of moves within and outside of her music that elevated an artist from superstar to legend. Those moves are often very hard to execute but no one who had been paying attention was the least bit surprised when she stuck each landing. Wind in her hair, Taylor was there, and making it look all too easy.

Honorary Doctorate

Further information: Doctor of Fine Arts, Honoris Causa

In January 2022, New York University’s Clive Davis Institute introduced its first-ever course on Taylor and her career. Taught by Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos, the class covered Taylor’s evolution as a creative music entrepreneur, the legacy of pop and country songwriters, discourses of youth and girlhood, and the politics of race in contemporary popular music. The course had a long waitlist. Two months later, it was announced that Taylor would receive an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from New York University for her work and achievements as “one of the most prolific and celebrated artists of her generation.” She also served as the commencement speaker for the graduation ceremony of the Class of 2022 in May 2022.

RED (Taylor’s Version)

RED (Taylor’s Version) November 12, 2021 This article is about the 2021 re-recording. For the original album, see RED (2012).RED (Taylor’s Version) is Taylor’s second re-recorded album, released on November 12, 2021, through Republic Records, as the re-recording of her fourth studio album, RED (2012). It is part of her counter measure against the changed ownership of the master recordings to her first six studio albums.

The Launch of Another Era

Further information: Midnights Era

For the remaining first half of 2022, Taylor dropped off the radar, presumably spending most of her time in London with then-partner Joe Alwyn. Meanwhile, the media was craving new Taylor content because her public appearances had become rare; she only appeared at select film festivals to promote her short film for “All Too Well.” It all felt like the calm before the storm. Then, just as August was coming to and end, Taylor shocked the music world by finally announcing her very well-kept secret at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards while accepting the “Video of the Year” award for “All Too Well (The Short Film)“:

«I wouldn’t be able to re-record my albums if it weren’t for you. You emboldened me to do that. And I had made up my mind that if you were going to be this generous and give us this [award], I thought it might be a fun moment to tell you that my brand new album comes out October 21. And I will tell you more at midnight.»

Taylor Swift

For the first time, Taylor paused an ongoing era to launch another one. Read more about the Midnights Era here.

The Tale of Speak Now (Taylor's Version)

Further information: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

With the release of her tenth studio album, Midnights, Taylor became more universally loved than ever before. It didn’t take her long to return to her “Eras Era”, though. In March 2023, she embarked on her sixth headlining concert tour, “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). She debuted a discography-spanning setlist that lasted over three hours and kicked off an aptly-named stadium run, destined to become the highest-grossing concert tour of all time. When 20,000 people regularly started showing up outside her sold out shows, it became clear that something unique was happening. Streaming records made it clear as well: Sixteen years into her career, Taylor had managed to became more popular than ever before. Welcome to Taylormania.

During the summer months, Taylor used this momentum to re-release “Speak Now”, which was a landmark album for her 13 years prior. It was the first and only album for which she was the sole songwriter on all the tracks—seen at the time as a reaction to cynics who believed that the young singer’s co-writers must have done the heavier lifting on her first two albums. During her “Eras Tour” show in Nashville on May 5, 2023, Taylor officially revealed that Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) would be released on July 7, 2023:

«I first made Speak Now, completely self-written, between the ages of 18 and 20. The songs that came from this time in my life were marked by their brutal honesty, unfiltered diaristic confessions and wild wistfulness. I love this album because it tells a tale of growing up, flailing, flying and crashing… and living to speak about it.»

Taylor Swift

The announcement timing was quite fitting, as it arrived during her first of three shows in Nashville where she launched her career in country music. The city commemorated the occasion by lighting its famous John Sigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge purple that night.

For the launch weekend of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Taylor had some tricks up her sleeve. Essentially, she threw a giant release party at her “Eras Tour” stop in Kansas City, where she added an emotional performance of “Long Live” to the setlist and premiered a new music video for the vault track “I Can See You.” The video stars Joey King, Presley Cash (who both appeared in the 2011 music video for “Mean“) and her ex-boyfriend Taylor Lautner, who inspired “Back to December.” Afterwards, Taylor surprised the crowd by bringing King, Cash, and Lautner out on stage. Infamously, Taylor Lautner surprised everyone by cartwheeling and backflipping onstage in a call back to a scene he shared with Taylor in the movie Valentine’s Day over a decade ago.

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) achieved first-week sales of 716,000 album equivalents in the US and over 1 million album equivalents worldwide, landing Taylor at No. 1 on the Billboard 200. At the same time, the record made history by scoring “the biggest sales week for a re-recorded album ever” at the time, besting the first-week consumption of RED (Taylor’s Version) in 2021. In addition, Taylor was the first living artist in nearly 60 years with four of the Top 10 on the Billboard 200 with Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Midnights, Lover, and folklore.

It's A Cruel Summer

When Taylor announced in March that she was “in her Eras era”, she truly meant it. During the summer months of 2023, she gained another classic hit with “Cruel Summer”, which originally appeared on Lover back in 2019. The track originally debuted at No. 29 on the Hot 100 chart on September 7, 2019, before disappearing after two weeks. By June of this year, however, “Cruel Summer” started to have a resurgence, appearing at No. 49 and slowly climbing its way higher up the chart until it finally reached No. 1 in October 2023. Celebrating the feat with co-producer Jack Antonoff, Taylor said:

«We just wanted to say thank you so much for making ‘Cruel Summer’ a Hot 100 No. 1 and it’s not even the summer anymore. It’s deep fall, I’m wearing a sweater. We love you guys.»

Taylor Swift

For the faithful, it had been a mission — first, to get “Cruel Summer” released as a single at all, and then to make sure it became Taylor’s tenth No. 1 on the Hot 100. When the “Lover” album came out, there was an assumption among fans that it would follow “ME!,” “You Need to Calm Down” and the ballad “Lover” out the door as a single, and that, if anything, it was the most overtly commercial tune on the album, destined to own the warm weather months of 2020. But the pandemic put a crimp in the album campaign in the spring, after Lover had been out for a few months, and by summer 2020, Taylor was moving on to folklore and having a No. 1 with “cardigan.”

In 2023 though, “Cruel Summer” hadn’t exactly felt like an underdog, anyway; it had already topped Billboard’s Radio Songs, Adult Top 40 and Mainstream Top 40 charts. Its enduring popularity at radio over a period of months that year made it clear that the success of the song was due to real popular demand, not just the fandom’s whim or epic quest.

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) July 7, 2023 This article is about the re-recording. For the original album, see Speak Now (2010).Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is Taylor’s third re-recorded album. It was released on July 7, 2023, via Republic Records, as the re-recording of her third studio album, Speak Now (2010).

A New Love

Amidst her record-breaking tour, Taylor started dating football star Travis Kelce, presuambly in August 2023. The two confirmed their budding romance in September, when Taylor showed up to support the Kansas City Chiefs tight end at a home game at Missouri’s Arrowhead Stadium. The move came months after Travis first publicly expressed interest in Taylor, after attending one of her concerts—though his plan didn’t exactly work out at the time. During an episode of his New Heights podcast (which he co-hosts with his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason), he shared: “If you’re up on Taylor Swift concerts, there are friendship bracelets, and I received a bunch of them being there, but I wanted to give Taylor Swift one with my number on it,” he said. Though Taylor used to hold a meet-and-greet with fans after her concerts during her previous tours, she hadn’t been doing so during “The Eras Tour” (as she performed for three hours or longer every night). “I was disappointed that she doesn’t talk before or after her shows, because she has to save her voice for the 44 songs that she sings,” Travis said. “She doesn’t meet anybody—or at least she didn’t want to meet me, so I took it personal,” he jokes.

Soon after though, sources told Entertainment Tonight that Taylor and Travis were in the “talking” phase of their relationship and were keeping it casual given their hectic schedules. Things seemed to turn more serious once September rolled around and Taylor appeared in a VIP box at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, on Sunday next to Travis’s mother, Donna—to the surprise and delight of the entire nation. The following weeks, all anybody could and would talk about was America’s new version of a “Royal Couple”. During an interview at the Chiefs’ practice facility, Travis shared how he felt about being at the center of so much attention about his relationship with Taylor:

«As all the attention comes, it feels like, you know, I was on top of the world after the Super Bowl and right now even more on top of the world. So it’s fun. We’re learning with the paparazzi just taking photos from all over the place, but at the same time, it’s—you know, it comes with it. It comes with it. You got a lot of people that care about Taylor, and for good reason.»

Travis Kelce

On October 14, Taylor and Travis shared their first public appearance as a couple on Saturday Night Live. In November, Taylor continued her “The Eras Tour” with international shows in South America, and Travis was by her side during her travels. A source told Entertainment Tonight, “Travis and Taylor are all in. The two are very into each other and are enjoying their time together but are also planning for the future. Taylor starts her international tour in November, and Travis is planning to be there to spend time with her.” The insider added that both Taylor and Travis were “very serious about their careers, and the two bond over that and want to show support for each other whenever they can.”

Party Like It's 1989 (Taylor's Version)

Further information: 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

Taylor announced the re-recording of her most successful album during the final show of the 2023 US leg of “The Eras Tour”, which closed out with a historic six-night run at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium. The announcement capped a wave of fan speculation that she would reveal 1989 (Taylor’s Version) on 8/9. She alluded to that when breaking the news at the top of the acoustic section toward the end of the concert while also pointing to the string of blue outfits she had worn during the show, including the one she had on for the announcement:

«Since I was a teenager, I’ve wanted to own my music, and the way to do it was to re-record my albums and call them Taylor’s Version. And the way that you have embraced that, the way that you have celebrated that, you really decided that it was your fight too, and that you were 100% behind me, and if I cared about it, you cared about it. I’ll never stop thanking you for that. It is so generous of you to care about something that I cared about. And so now, here we are, on the last night of the US leg of 'The Eras Tour', in the eighth month of the year, on the ninth day of the month. You might have noticed there are some new outfits for this show, there’s some blue stuff going on. And there’s something that I’ve been planning for a really, really, really, really, ridiculously, embarrassingly long time. And I think instead of just like, telling you about it, I think I’ll just show you.»

Taylor Swift

Fans had long speculated that 1989 would be the next album from Taylor’s catalogue to be revisited. She had teased multiple Easter egg clues to the album over time and featured the rerecorded version of her single “Wildest Dreams” in the movie Spirit and “This Love (Taylor’s Version)” in the season one finale of Prime Video’s The Summer I Turned Pretty. In 2023, Taylor herself also added fuel to the fire with a subtle clue in her “I Can See You” music video. In it, Taylor escapes from a bank vault, symbolizing her attempt to reclaim her music. At the end of the video, her getaway car is shown driving toward a bridge with the sign that reads “1989 TV” sign in the center, alluding to 1989 (Taylor’s Version) being next to release.

In 2014, 1989 was a seminal moment in Taylor’s career as it marked her transition into the pop genre landscape after starting her career as a country singer-songwriter. Her fifth studio album nabbed 10 Grammy nominations, winning “Album of the Year,” “Best Pop Vocal Album” and “Best Music Video” for “Bad Blood.” At the time, Taylor had made history by becoming the first woman to win the Grammy for “Album of the Year” twice for her solo recordings. Years later, after winning “Album of the Year” again in 2021 for folklore, she became recognized as the only female solo artist to have won the award ceremony’s top prize three times.

Upon its release on October 27, 2023, exactly nine years after the original, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) went down in history books as giving Taylor her best first week tally for an album ever. The release topped the Billboard 200 with 1.653 million equivalent album units. That put it ahead of her previous personal best, which was 1.578 million for Midnights. Needless to say, among the Taylor albums this one performed better than in its first week is the original 1989—which bowed nine years ago with a then-astonishing 1.297 million units.

The Eras Tour – In Cinemas Worldwide

Taylor, whose billion-dollar “The Eras Tour” redirected the flow of commerce and social media that summer, had fashioned herself as 2023’s main character. With the global release of her concert film on October 13, she offered fans a near-exact replica of the stadium show that reinforced her inexhaustible talent and undeniable status as pop’s pre-eminent songwriter.

By mid-November, the Eras Tour film had collected $150 million in domestic receipts and more than $200 million globally. That global haul represented more than 18% of the $1.092 billion total global box office earned since the film was released, according to data from Comscore. “It’s been a remarkable, one-of-a-kind, record-breaking and influential run for the Eras Tour, not to mention a huge win for Taylor Swift and theater owners,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com. The movie is the highest-grossing domestic and global concert film release of all time.

Numbers aside, the Eras Tour movie shows, to stark effect, Taylor’s power over a stadium full of people and cinemas around the globe. Its release came at a time when the yearning for Taylor Swift-induced escapism was at an all-time high. Taylor was pop culture. In the two months since the first leg of the tour had finished, she had often commandeered the news cycle by, among other things, stepping out with football player Travis Kelce, getting Beyoncé to show up to her premiere, and selling a record-breaking amount of movie tickets. All of which served as excellent distractions from the dumpster fire that is life on Earth in 2023.

1989 (Taylor’s Version)

1989 (Taylor’s Version) October 27, 2023 This article is about the re-recording. For the original album, see 1989 (2014).1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the re-recording of Taylor’s fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). It was released by Republic Records on October 27, 2023, exactly nince years after the original record.

TIME's "Person of the Year" 2023

It was hardly a surprise, but it was still a significant achievement: Taylor was crowned Apple Music’s “Artist of the Year” for 2023. She is the No. 1 most-streamed female artist in Apple Music history and is also the female artist with the most songs to reach Apple Music’s Global Daily Top 100. This was the second time Taylor had received an Apple Music award, which was held for the fifth time in 2023. In 2020, she was named “Songwriter of the Year” for her work on folklore and evermore. In a statement, she wrote:

«I am so honored to be Apple Music’s 'Artist of the Year.' Thank you to every single one of you for making this year the most incredible, joyful, celebratory year ever. From streaming the music nonstop to screaming it together in real life at the shows, dancing chaotically in movie theaters, none of this would have been possible without you. Thank you so much.»

Taylor Swift

As the entire world witnessed in real time, in wonder and awe, Taylor reached a new level of superstardom that year. She saw consistent streaming lifts throughout the year, particularly around the enormous success of “The Eras Tour.” The week the tour kicked off in March, Taylor’s streams grew 61 percent globally. She continued to see double-digit growth in monthly streams throughout the summer:

«Taylor Swift’s impact on music is absolutely undeniable — not just this record-breaking year, but throughout her entire career. She is a generation-defining artist and a true change agent in the music industry, and there is no doubt that her impact and influence will be felt for years to come. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to celebrate her achievements.»

Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats

The “Eras Era” — an event so culture-engulfing it turned songs from her past into some of the biggest of that year. And Taylor Swift into Pop Culture itself.