thegeographyofswifties-240528195143-2fe43311 2.pdf

It’s all about Taylor Swift and her geography

1. The geography of Swifties
An enquiry into Taylornomics/Swiftonomics

2. The ERAS tour is set to take over
$1.5 billion and generate a great
deal more for the economy of the
USA and every country that it
visits…but not without some
issues…

3. What is the economic impact of a concert in a city?
Suggest all the various spending that is associated with attending a concert in a city which
you don’t live in (remembering that in the USA, the distances between cities are much
larger than in the UK)
It’s Taylor Swift’s Economy and We’re All Just
Living In It. - Wall Street Journal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eras_Tour

4. What is the economic impact of a concert in a city?
Suggest all the various individual spending that is associated with attending a concert in a
city which you don’t live in (remembering that in the USA, the distances between cities are
much larger than in the UK)

5. What is the economic impact of a concert in a city?
Suggest all the various individual spending that is associated with attending a concert in a
city which you don’t live in (remembering that in the USA, the distances between cities are
much larger than in the UK)
Don’t forget…

6. Employment - part and full time…
The music industry consists of multiple distinctive industries and jobs like music directors, sound technicians,
booking agents, broadcasters, journalists, graphic designers, songwriters, publishers, radio stations and
record labels.
Companies in these industries make money off of artists but rank-and-file workers don’t earn that much
money.
A crew on a tour largely consists of gig workers and private contractors like catering personnel, roadies and
stagehands that might not have the next gig lined up after the tour ends.

7. National Careers Service
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/roadie
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/live-sound-engineer
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/stagehand
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/lighting-technician
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/stage-manager
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/set-designer

8. Sponsorships - from MNCs (Multinational Companies)
Who sponsors the tour and where are they based?

9. What are the social and environmental impacts of a concert in
a city?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-15/taylor-swift-eras-tour-australia-sydney-melbourne-econom
y/103438046 - mania ahead of a trip to Australia

https://www.perthnow.com.au/entertainment/music/fans-line-up-outside-melbourne-tattoo-parlour-for
-taylor-swift-inspired-tattoos-c-13628987 - getting a permanent reminder of the gig

10. How does geography influence the locations of the concerts?
A key factor is the relative location and transport connections between them, as
staging, sound equipment and lighting rigs are transported by truck. This has
resulted in some logistical juggling at times.

Source 1:
https://en.as.com/entertainment/taylor-swifts-eras-tour-route-explained-n/

11. Logistics of the tour… Supply chain management
The Taylor Swift brand cannot allow any disruption of the tour, says Nada Sanders, distinguished
professor of supply chain management at Northeastern. Every concert is a major supply chain
management feat, she says, and every piece has to arrive on time.
“You have basically what is like a small city with all these different crews and different categories
from catering to various stages to lighting to guitars to microphones and LED screens,” Sanders
says. “The issue is that it has to be coordinated. It’s not like bringing them to one event at one time,
but it’s also having to coordinate the movement.”
To coordinate the arrival of dozens of semi trucks to one place, such a complex operation relies on
real-time metrics from radio-frequency identification and GPS, as well as predictive analytics to
estimate when each truck is going to arrive.

https://news.northeastern.edu/2023/08/11/taylor-swift-economy-impact

12. Qantas added more than 60 additional flights — that's 11,000 seats — when
Swift first announced she was coming to Australia.
This month, it had to add a further seven flights to continue to meet demand.
Those flights are coming from Brisbane to Sydney and from Perth, Auckland
and Brisbane to Melbourne.
Qantas' bookings increased by a whopping 1,500 per cent when tickets went
on sale compared to the same period the year before.
Jetstar said nearly 10,000 passengers booked flights when the concert was
announced and it had seen a steady increase in bookings over the past eight
months.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-15/taylor-swift-eras-tour-australia-sydney-melbourne-economy/1034380
46

13. Costs of the show
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eras_Tour

14. Band

●Max Bernstein – guitar, keyboard
●Matt Billingslea – drums
●Karina DePiano – piano
●Amos Heller – bass
●Mike Meadows – guitar, keyboard
●Paul Sidoti – guitar, backing vocals
●Jeslyn Gorman – backing vocals (except the Seattle, Latin American, and
Tokyo shows)
●Kamilah Marshall – backing vocals
●Melanie Nyema – backing vocals
●Eliotte Woodford – backing vocals

15. Demographics of a Taylor Swift audience
Which group are you?
Gen Z, born 1997 to 2012 - Zoomers
Millennials, born between 1981 and 1996
Gen X, born between 1965 and 1980
Baby Boomers, born 1948 to 1964

Who goes to Taylor Swift concerts?
What financial ‘clout’ do they have?

16. What’s the price of a ticket?
Who gets the money from a ticket?
Ticket agencies?
The artist?
The venues?

17. Alternative economics
https://www.outkick.com/taylor-swift-tickets-are-going-for-thousands-of-dollars/

19. Price gouging / surge pricing

20. What are the impacts in countries that the tour isn’t even
reaching?

Source 1:
https://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/press-release-2023-swifties-assemble-air-new-z
ealand-adding-new-flights-to-get-fans-across-the-ditch

21. Merchandise - more plastic and other resources - made in
China and with a large carbon footprint, or responsibly
sourced…??

23. Friendship bracelets Seattle stores ran out of beads as
Swifties scrambled to buy them for
friendship bracelets. Now imagine if
Swift were to make a climate
statement by promoting beads made
from recycled plastics that has been
removed from oceans. This would
not solve the climate problem but
would at least nudge Swifties to think
about climate-friendly actions to
demonstrate their love for Swift’s
music. Broadly, without “ok boomer”
type of finger pointing, we need to
reflect whether current carbon
intensive lifestyles are sustainable
and whether the younger generation
should create icons of individuals
with egregious climate records.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/prakashdolsak/2023/08/02/taylor-swift-and-climate-change-is-the-youth-shaking-o
ff-or-embracing-carbon-intensive-lifestyles/

25. Impact

26. Is it really a ‘World Tour’ if it doesn’t have a concert in Africa?
(or Antarctica)

No concerts on the African continent.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/sep/02/taylor-swift-accused-racism-african-colonial-fantasy-video-wild
est-dreams
https://www.news24.com/citypress/voices/no-taylor-swift-africa-was-not-like-that-2015090
4

27. Private jet usage - controversy over tracking of the jet.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/prakashdolsak/2023/08/02/taylor-swift-and-climate-c
hange-is-the-youth-shaking-off-or-embracing-carbon-intensive-lifestyles/

28. Vinyl sales

Every LP requires resources to produce.
What is the relative impact of physical
media over downloads / streaming?
https://time.com/6223774/vinyl-records-cimate-impact-taylor-swift-midnights/
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262537780/decomposed/

29. Multiple purchases

30. Earthquakes
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1685039445811064835?s=20
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/28/arts/music/taylor-swift-earthquake-seattle-.html

31. Cultural influence
Instagram: 283 million followers -
https://www.instagram.com/taylorswift/

And counting….
May be over 300 million by the time
you see this.

32. Zeitgeist - here to stay?
How long will this interest last?
Her fans are only young and have decades of purchasing ahead of them.
After this tour…. What next?
How does she rate along with other musical greats?

33. Nature in the lyrics
https://planetforward.org/story/taylor-swift-nature-music/
“She’s in a meadow, she’s in a forest, she’s walking along a lake… It
often takes a while for the lyrics to kind of sink in. You don’t really
hear all the words, and then you start listening, and it’s like, ‘Oh! She
keeps referencing parks and trees and creeks and lakes and all this
stuff,’” Opperman observed.

34. Friendship / Community
The Swifties have dressed up for the occasion, with many, many thousands of them
decked out in fan favourite white cowboy boots, stylish glitter dresses, prom frills,
sparkles and party bling. From my £150 seat high up in the nosebleeds of this
gleaming new sports venue, I feel like a bat clinging to the lip of a volcanic crater,
peering down into a boiling, joyous lava that bubbles with pink sequins and flashing
concert wristbands.
The Swifties jingle their armfuls of friendship bracelets and are word perfect on
every song; it is rare to come to such a large concert and experience such a friendly
and inclusive vibe.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12399021/Taylor-Swifts-pop-tour-caused-earthquake-saved
-America-recession-Britain-JAN-MOIR-takes-seat-Swifties-LA.html

35. Charity work
Foodbanks
https://abc7news.com/taylor-swift-the-eras-tour-donations-second-harvest-silicon-
valley/13584313/

36. Charity donations
https://abc7news.com/taylor-swift-lisa-lopez-galvan-kansas-city-shooting-parade/14432
575/

37. Changing places / rebranding… “Swiftie Clare”
Santa Clara
https://abc7news.com/taylor-swift-santa-clara-the-eras-tour-friendship-bracelets-s
wiftie/13561207/

Liverpool - ‘Taylor Town’

38. Glendale, Arizona - changed its name in 2023
https://www.glendaleaz.com/play/swiftcity
https://www.timeout.com/london/news/17-times-taylor-swift-has-mentioned-london-in-her-songs-052024
London in her lyrics

39. Local bakeries

40. Climate Change - a Forbes comment:
We are delighted that the younger generation is having fun. After depressing Covid-19 lockdowns, this is a welcome
change. But much of the entertainment seems carbon-intensive, and we find this “consumption as salvation” approach
to be disturbing (apart from the moral issue surrounding conspicuous consumption, who can really afford to purchase
Swift concert tickets and paraphernalia, especially in Seattle with burgeoning homeless population?).
This raises questions such as whether the climate ethic of the younger generation is any different from that of boomers.
Instead of OK-Boomers type of performative environmentalism, it is time to ask the tough question: how to confront
our carbon-intensive lifestyles.
Individuals have a choice when it comes to entertainment. Why is the younger generation gravitating toward celebrities
with very high carbon footprints who flaunt their consumption-oriented lifestyle? Consumption divas such as Kylie
Jenner and Kim Kardashian have among the highest number of Instagram followers (397 million and 363 million
respectively). Greta Thunberg, in contrast, has only 15 million followers. What does this reveal about the climate
priorities of the younger generation?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/prakashdolsak/2023/08/02/taylor-swift-and-climate-change-is-the-youth-shaking-off
-or-embracing-carbon-intensive-lifestyles/

41. Toronto - November 2024
Greater impact than hosting the World Cup in 2026
“It’s probably going to be the biggest impact a single music artist has ever had on the city over a
very short period of time,” predicted Alan Cross, a music writer and radio broadcaster. “People are
going to stay in hotels, go to restaurants, go shopping, hang out. Some people will go to all six
shows. So, the amount of spend that’s going to happen will be huge.”
https://www.thestar.com/business/swiftonomics-here-s-how-taylor-swift-s-toronto-concerts-will-impact-the-lo
cal-economy/article_b93a0f74-5558-55bc-891a-9627a8ee6788.html

42. And finally…

Why do sales of this
product increase as
a result of Taylor
Swift concerts,
which last over three
hours?
https://abc7news.com/taylor-swift-concert-show-diapers/13328876/

43. And finally… it’s because…
https://abc7news.com/taylor-swift-concert-show-diapers/13328876/

44. An increase in fraud cases - fake ticket sales
https://www.lloydsbankinggroup.com/media/press-releases/2024/lloyds-bank-2024
/lloyds-bank-issues-urgent-warning-over-taylor-swift-ticket-scams.html#:~:text=Sin
ce%20tickets%20went%20on%20sale%20in%20July%20last%20year%2C%20m
ore,was%20more%20than%20%C2%A31%2C000 .

45. Comparisons with other musical greats?

47. And soon Taylor will be coming to Britain…

Will she boost the economy?
https://www.cityam.com/swiftonomics-how-taylor-swifts-uk-eras-tour-could-boost-the-uk-economy/

48. The
Economic
Impact

UK

49. Discuss the overall impact of the major ERAS tour.
Headings for discussions / groups:
-Environmental
-Economic
-Social
-Cultural
How are places being changed temporarily by the arrival of the ERAS tour?

50. Singapore Practice Paper

52. Extras
Quiz
https://www.sporcle.com/games/cjm23/places-in-taylor-swift-songs

53. The emotional geography of her lyrics
Taylor Swift's 'Cornelia Street' is a poignant
reflection on the significance of place in the
landscape of love and memory. The song,
which appears on her 2019 album 'Lover',
uses the metaphor of a street in New York City
to explore the depths of a romantic
relationship and the fear of its potential end.
Cornelia Street becomes a symbol for the
experiences and moments shared between
Swift and her lover, turning the location into a
sacred space that holds the essence of their
time together.
https://www.lyricslayers.com/taylor-swift/cornelia-street/

54. AAG: A meeting of academic
geographers
As various universities have engaged in developing courses surrounding the creative worldings of Taylor
Swift through her lyrics, imagery, and legal and economic impacts, geography is uniquely positioned to
analyze the many facets that her work influences the real and the imaginary. From economic geography
to logistics to cultural relevance to intergenerational meaning to gender and sexuality, Swift’s Eras Tour
and the cultural reverberations that have emanated from it demand discussion from a geographical
perspective. This panel will explore the integration of Swift and her world into both research and
coursework, emphasizing the potential for increased engagement from undergraduate students and the
potential for diverse geographic perspectives.