The Eras Tour concept is kinda sad if you really think about it
Former swiftie here, hear me out. Taylor announced the Eras Tour on Good Morning America on 1 November 2022. At that point, she had just released Midnights a few weeks earlier and had not toured since the Reputation Tour in 2018, as the Lover tour had been cancelled due to the pandemic.
She was still the lowkey celebrity, in the midst of releasing re-recordings, and although she had a loyal fanbase, she hadn't gone viral or become globally famous yet. Before the announcement, the theories in the fandom were that she would probably do a Folklore/Evermore/Midnights tour (the albums she didn't get to play live), with one or two Lover songs. The setlist would be long, but she would prioritise Midnights since it was the newest album.
However, Midnights wasn't well received. It was her return to pop after experimenting with indie music for three years, but even among her fans, the consensus was that it was an OK album with a clunky concept. I think deep down she knew the fandom wasn't happy with it. Then she announced the Eras Tour.
I was a Swiftie at the time, and the announcement of a tour of all her previous albums seemed odd to me since, to my knowledge, it's something only music legends or retiring musicians do. As an artist, she was OK, but her most successful era was 1989 in 2015. Almost a decade later, she kept releasing albums that didn't match its success. Yes, Folklore and Evermore were praised for their lyricism and themes, but they didn't make her mainstream or a global superstar.
Taylor said that she did it so she could promote the re-recordings while they were released, but it still made no sense to me. She did have a tour for every album until Lover, so why do it all over again and not prioritise her three untoured albums?
While part of me thinks she did it as a nostalgia cash grab for her fanbase, it seemed like she was going to retire, with the Eras tour being her farewell to celebrate her career. It seemed very "I peaked 10 years ago and all my radio hits are from my older albums, this is it". At the time, she was with Joe Alwyn, and they were spotted house hunting in London, where they lived. Many of us believed that they were going to settle down and she would quit music to become a grounded director or a producer like she hinted due to her involvement in several movies (bad movies but movies still).
In her 2020 documentary Miss Americana, she said, 'This is probably one of my last opportunities to grasp onto that kind of success', referring to the Lover album, which was criticised by the press, didn't sell well, and didn't receive a single Grammy nomination. I truly believe she thought that Midnights and the Eras tour would be her last attempt to perform on a large scale and be successful, but she went viral, became a world-famous pop star and a billionaire thanks to the tour profits.
Since she craves validation so much, she seized the opportunity to shine and maximised her spotlight. At the same time that she rose to stardom, she broke up with Joe. While there is no evidence that these two events might be connected, I think they are. He is very private, and he was no longer compatible with her megastar lifestyle (look at her wedding, and consider how she likes to stay relevant). Now she's married to a massive famewhore and both capitalized the shit of their relationship so there you go
Edit: I used the termin 'lowkey artist' to refer that she was famous but not at the level she's now, not even 10%. before Eras, she peaked during 1989 and by Lover she was known mostly for Fearless/1989 hits, but Lover flopped hardly. she gained some respect during the pandemic for folklore, but the reason she blew up in 2023 is because the younger generations got to know her old albums (red, speak now, self titled) and her deep-cut songs that only fans knew at the time thanks to the re-recordings and the Eras Tour.
I didn't mean to say she's an indie artist by any means because she's not lol