In My Taylor Swift Era

 originally published for The Holy Ruckus on July 17, 2023

Thinking about the connections between my recent experience at the Taylor Swift Eras Tour and one’s experience with the faith community is not a new concept. Back in November when I and millions of other Swifties were watching that dot on Ticketmaster not move on our computers, my friend and fellow contributor to The Holy Ruckus, Mike Tenney, suggested that- should we attend the Eras concert together- we reflect in a podcast episode of his on our concert experience and its connection to liturgy. An author from America Magazine, Kevin Christopher Robles, also connected his concert-going moment to Church as well. 

But just as each of our experiences with Church are unique and different, so are our experiences with music and art. I do believe there are points to be made about how concert-going can equate in some ways to a ritualistic spiritual experience like Church. 

My first spiritually connected concert was when I was about 17 and attended an outdoor Dave Matthews concert (this fact is going to age me and I also promise that no concert enhancing substances were involved). I had been struggling with depression at the time Matthews’ music was popular and his albums had evolved into a source of comfort for me. To hear his music live and have it wafting as my friends and I twirled around together on the lawn with thousands of other fans felt similar to how I sometimes would feel at church: connected to a community that had similar beliefs but yet an individualized experience that was all my own. 

As a late in life Swiftie, I truly became a convert in late 2020 when her folklore and evermore albums came out. I had never really connected with her earlier music and even teased my friends (again, sorry Mike Tenney!) for their love of her. However, even before I finally was “...Ready For It”, Swift’s music had always been a source of connection for me as a teacher with my students. When I taught high school in the early 2010’s, her album Speak Now (not her version!) was released and I remember talking with my students about her live performances of “Back to December” and the songs she had written in response to the 2009 MTV Movie Awards incident with Kanye. I even used her hit “Love Story” from Fearless (not her version then, but can use her version now!) to introduce my freshmen Scripture class. They often looked at me puzzled, but after playing the video, I would explain that the Bible was God’s love story with his people and all we had to do is “just say yes”. 

So even before I became a full-fledged Swiftie myself, I had people in my life experiencing and sharing her words with me. And I recognized that her music could connect me with others and could be a source of inspiration. I then finally had my own personal connection with her music when her later albums came out as Swift was now in her 30s and I could identify my own resonance with her music. 

I am not equating Taylor to our beloved Christ. She is a flawed individual just like the rest of us, though I do appreciate how she admits her own faults in her music, and she has evolved and pursued self-growth with and like the rest of us. However, we cannot deny that her words and the experience of attending a concert with fans who know every lyric, every ritualistic aspect of her shows, has a similarity to the way that we sometimes experience Church. 

For starters, the attire to attend the Eras concert is unique. Just as anything could possibly go for attending Church when it comes down to it, we like to dress up to fit the part of “showing up” for God and Mass. So it is with Swifties and this tour. You will not be ostracized if you attend in a t-shirt and jeans, however, most put on their “Eras best” and spend a decent amount of time in effort in finding and wearing that perfect, glittery, eras-appropriate dress. 

Arriving at the Eras tour, you are greeted with joy and comradery. Because of a lyric from the song “You’re On Your Own Kid” from Swift's latest album, Midnights, which advises listeners to “make the friendship bracelets”, this has become a new part of the Eras tour ritual. Concert-goers make friendship bracelets beforehand to trade and exchange with other fellow Swifties in their own sign of peace. 

The recitation of every lyric of every song of the three plus hour set could be compared to one’s knowledge of the words to the parts of the Mass. The songs (barring the two surprise songs of each night’s show) follow the same pattern every night and if one isn’t able to attend, you can follow along on a Tik Tok user’s live stream to participate. This reminds me of how we can attend Mass anywhere in the world and it will be the same and a somewhat similar, yet still individualized experience. 

I believe that as a Church, we have some things to learn from the Eras tour. In my experience, Swifties are the kindest fans. They are super supportive and complimentary. I received many compliments on my own Eras tour outfit. No one was pushy or rude before, after, or during the concert as it seemed to be understood that we all wanted everyone to have the best experience with Taylor and her music. I am also kind of in awe at how, like our Church (though we seem to struggle with this these days), Taylor unites members of both political parties. Conservatives see her as a star with family roots and values: a Pennsylvania hometown girl who stays grounded and connected to her parents. Liberals see her as someone who embraces the LGBT+ community with songs like “You Need to Calm Down” which proclaims, “shade never made anybody less gay”. 

This building of bridges (and Taylor is known to write an amazing bridge!) between people of different viewpoints and backgrounds through a common experience and through word and ritual is another thing her tour has in common with the Church and one that perhaps we can take note of. We are more similar than we are different. We just have to “take the moment and taste it. You’ve got no reason to be afraid.” Because we are not “on our own kid.” We are as St. Paul says, one body in Christ.