Why Taylor Swift is having a pop-cultural moment ahead of arriving in Australia for the Eras Tour

In the 17 years since her debut album, Taylor Swift has gone on to dominate not only the music world but the cultural conversation.

As the megastar prepares to grace Australian stages later this week, it seems Swifties are everywhere, from the schoolyard to scholarly symposiums.

So why is the world so obsessed with Tay Tay, and do we need to take Swifties more seriously?

Studying Swift

In Australia right now, Swift holds the top five spots on the ARIA album chart, headlines about her romance with US footballer Travis Kelce are everywhere and on TikTok fans are wildly churning out friendship bracelets spelling out the names of her songs.

Swift kicks off the seven-show Australian leg of her Eras Tour at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Friday.

Earlier this week, a group of scholarly Swifties converged just a few kilometres up the road for Swiftposium, an academic deep dive into the singer's cultural impact.

Keynote speaker Brittany Spanos, a senior writer at Rolling Stone, teaches a class thought to be "the world's first course on Taylor Swift", at NYU's Clive Davis School of Recorded Music.

Her course isn't the first to be hinged on the work of a famous musician, but when it launched in 2022 the media interest was intense.

Ms Spanos says for her, a self-confessed Swift fan deeply entrenched in the comings and goings of the music world, the press attention was "the first hint that the vibe was shifting dramatically around Taylor Swift".

A relatable shapeshifter

When we took to the streets to find out what makes Swift so popular among one of her key demographics — teenagers — the word "relatable" was a big recurring theme.

And Swiftposium co-organiser Jennifer Beckett agrees.

"Taylor Swift has been compared to a lot of poets like Sylvia Plath … she's not just talking about relationships — she's vulnerably talking about relationships.

"She's taking you through the emotions she's having. It gives you something to connect to and … there's a simplicity to what she does, which makes it easy to grab on to."

From roots in country, Swift has reinvented herself multiple times.

After crossing into the world of pop, she worked with indie darling Jack Antonoff on the album 1989 in a partnership that endures today.

Then stripped-back albums like Folklore and Evermore, featuring collaborations with The National and Bon Iver saw her shapeshift again.

And with each reinvention she's brought with her a swathe of new fans.

"We've watched her grow up, we've watched her turn into different people along the way — she has reinvented herself," Dr Beckett says.

"And that's part of the things that keep you attached to an artist."

Strong fan connections

Back on the street, fans say the star's connection with Swifties is another huge factor in her success.

And Ms Spanos agrees Swift's ability to intimately connect with her admirers is one of her superpowers.

"She's always been so engaged with her fandom," she says.

"And [she] seems to understand the in-jokes that are happening (among fans) and makes references to them … she's so good at that kind of intuitive marketing and connection with her fans."

The star's use of Easter eggs — tiny messages hidden in places like liner notes, lyrics or Instagram captions — also keeps fans highly engaged and is a source of much discussion online.

But both Dr Beckett and Ms Spanos acknowledge that Swift is also a "savvy" businesswoman.

"She makes very, very good decisions. And she has an excellent PR team," Dr Beckett says.

She says Swift's move to re-record her old albums after her masters were sold to music producer Scooter Braun was a serious power move.

"It's like a director's cut of a movie, right? That's effectively what she's done … and then when she renegotiated her new record contract, she negotiated it so that she owns her masters," Dr Beckett says.

"I've never heard of that in the industry before — so she's reshaping industry."

Why Taylor, why now?

Ms Spanos says in the pre-internet world "all-consuming pop-cultural moments", such as Beatlemania, Madonna madness and the hype around Michael Jackon's Thriller, were more common.

"[But] we have so few monocultural moments these days, largely because of how much entertainment consumption is determined by algorithms that allow us to tune out anything that does not match or adhere to our preset tastes and standards," she says.

Dr Beckett says there's a "kind of legacy of having gone to that gig" that people are keen to be a part of when it comes to the Eras Tour.

"I think about my dad talking about how he went to a Doors concert in Dublin," she says.

"Having been at an event like that is something you will have for the rest of your life."

It's a love story

Ms Spanos says the public conversation about Swift's relationship with American footballer Travis Kelce is also an interesting indicator of the star's present popularity.

"The conversations around her have changed so much."

A decade ago, people would have been saying "I can't wait for the break-up album", Ms Spanos says.

But right now, fans are genuinely thrilled for the lovebirds.

Dr Beckett suggests another reason for Swift's enormous popularity at present is the hope she offers fans.

"I think, at the moment with everything that's going on in the world … we're looking for the hope," Dr Beckett says.

"We're looking for the person who displays their emotions in a way that is … not horribly violent.

"We want that sincerity … we're actively craving it — and Taylor Swift, in many ways, provides that for us."

A force to be reckoned with

According to Lord Mayor of Melbourne Sally Capp, Swift's three Melbourne shows are expected to provide the city with $1.2 billion worth of value.

Melbourne's major events usually bring in about $3.3 billion annually — and Swift's visit will provide roughly a third of this in a single weekend.

But it isn't a phenomenon that's unique to Australia.

Wherever Swift performs, economic benefits flow, in an effect dubbed "Swiftonomics".

Every road Swift walks is seemingly paved with gold.

Last December, she was named Time magazine's Person of the Year.

And although her hesitancy to use her enormous platform to champion change has attracted significant criticism, she's also credited with increasing voter registration in the US on several occasions, with the power of a single social media post.

There's speculation about whether she'll weigh in on the upcoming battle for the White House.

Dr Beckett says while for some people the idea of studying Swift in an academic setting is fanciful, the pop star has an enormous amount of sway.

"And also, I think it's really easy to look at something like pop culture, or particular figures, and go, 'Oh, they're just a pop star with a lot of teenage girls who like them — what serious about that?'

"Teenage girls are very serious people … but they also have an enormous amount of economic clout, and they're going to grow up to be voters.

"So, I think that in belittling Taylor Swift, you're belittling young people in many ways … and that is never a good thing to do."