When the Eras Tour started three years ago, nobody expected it would gain as much traction as it did. Even though Taylor Swift had already broken many records before, the Eras Tour propelled her to a different level of stardom. It is undeniable that the fans were a huge part of that. Swift created an incredible three-hour show, but it was the fans who showed up night after night, creating new traditions and making up chants and friendship bracelets.
This is the hard-earned prize of the standards that she herself set by building a very close relationship with her fans since she started her career 19 years ago. From having a meet and greet room “tea party” at her Speak Now Tour, to hosting listening sessions at her homes for her 1989 album, she has always allowed fans to be close and personal with her without having to pay anything.
Many people noticed that this was the first tour of hers that had no meet and greets, something that used to be a sweet tradition of security guards picking out particularly engaged fans in the crowd to bring backstage after the show for a hug and picture with Swift.
You might ask yourself, why did that change?
To that I would say, parasocialism. The Swifties fan culture has changed so much since the start of the Eras Tour, but even before, there were already some cracks in the relationship between Swifties and Swift herself. For example, in 2018, on her Reputation Stadium Tour, a fan called her fat at a meet and greet. She also got quite a few invasive questions about her relationship at that time with Joe Alwyn. That still was not enough to make her stop with fan meetings altogether, as seen by her 2019 Lover Listening Sessions.
In 2020, when Swift released “folklore” and “evermore,” it started feeling less like the intimate, united fandom it was before. So, so many people joined the fandom during quarantine, and a lot of them did not start out as casual listeners who just enjoy her music but pretty quickly became massive Swifties – obsessed with every part of her life, including (or rather, especially) her relationships.
That in itself might not sound too crazy, but it very quickly spiraled out of control. In 2023, Swift attended Jack Antonoff’s wedding in New Jersey, and hundreds of Swifties stood out on the street waiting for a glimpse of her. She was not even the bride!
In the same year, Swift very briefly dated controversial singer Matty Healy, and dozens of fans sent him death threats on social media and then wrote an open letter to Swift, deciding that she should break up with him.
Additionally, a lot of Swifties hated the last three albums Swift has released very vocally on social media for the first two weeks after they came out. This sense of entitlement among fans, who believe that their support for Swift grants them some kind of right to comment on her every decision and demand her time and attention, is concerning.
Add to that a fanbase that is obsessed with interpreting secret meanings into things – partly because Swift fostered that with her easter eggs. It also means that she got accused of being a Republican after the release of her latest album, “The Life Of A Showgirl,” even though she is quite the outspoken Democrat and opponent of Trump. The overanalysis, which often starts with a conclusion and then works out the evidence along the way, is also a huge problem, because it leads to people accusing her of ridiculous things.
So I really understand why Swift is not engaging with the fans anymore to the level she did before. Because who needs haters when your so-called fans take so much joy in hating?
It also shows that Swift has, in a sense, raised the very monster that now turns against her at every step.