Taylor Swift breaks the internet, shaking off her competition

Taylor Swift is the biggest musical artist in the United States with nine #1 hits. She released her first album, “Taylor Swift,” in 2006, and would later release nine more albums. She became famous in 2008 for her song “Tim McGraw,” but did not become a worldwide sensation until she released her fifth album, “1989.” 

However, when Swift switched to Republic Records in 2018, her first six original albums were sold to a private equity firm. To her dismay, she lost the rights to all of them, and now calls them the “Stolen Versions.” In attempts to own all of her music again, she has decided to re-record the six that were stolen. She has given them the suffix, “(Taylor’s Version)” to signify that she owns them. In 2021, she released “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version).” 

Starting in 2023, she decided to go on tour, which she titled, “The Eras Tour.” She later would release a concert film. In the concert film, she revealed that she named it that after she received comments about how she never did a concert for her more recent albums “Lover,” “Folklore,” “Evermore,” and “Midnights.” Thus, “The Eras Tour” was born. Swift has made an estimated $4.1 billion from the tour. 

During the tour, she continued re-releasing past albums. In July, she released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and recently announced “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” This leaves the last two albums, “Taylor Swift” and “Reputation” waiting to be owned by Swift. 

“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” has already broken the internet. Swift, like the mastermind she is, partnered with Google to create a puzzle for her fans to solve. Songs that didn’t make the cut on her albums (songs “From the Vault,”) were to be released after 33 million people solved the puzzle. Swift immediately jumped to the most searched on Google. Her puzzle was solved in an impressive nine hours. 

During this time, she announced that she would be releasing “The Eras Tour” concert film on Oct. 13th. Knowing that they could not top Swift, movies like “The Exorcist: Believer” moved their release dates. Not even two days after releasing the film, Swift already hit $97 million at the Box Office. To put this on a higher scale, the highest grossing movie at its debut, “Barbie,” was around $162 million. “The Eras Tour” concert film has become the highest grossing domestic concert film ever. 

“The Eras Tour” concert film is unlike any other movie that a person would see at a theater. In the auditorium, fans will be found enjoying themselves at a new level never seen before. This experience includes singing, dancing, clapping, all the things that a person would not see in a normal showing of a film. It is an experience that will change one’s life forever. Never in life will society stumble upon a group so unified. 

Throughout the film, Swift thanks the audience for supporting her and letting her play around with genres of music. Remaining modest, she is always shocked at the amount of applause  

given to her. If she could see the people watching the concert film, she would be shocked at the number of audience members who got up from their seats and gave her a standing ovation at the end of the film. 

The sweetest part of the film was during the end credits when she wrote messages to her fans in the form of friendship bracelets. She once again thanked the audience and reminded them that this wouldn’t be possible without them. During the roll credits, Swift played videos of fans preparing to go to the tour. It was the best way to bring her U.S. “Eras Tour” to an end. 

“The Eras Tour” concert film is available at Cinemark & AMC theaters internationally. “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” will be released on Oct. 27.

Kenna Seegmiller

Kenna Seegmiller is a current freshman studying Theatre Education at Utah Valley University. In her free time, she loves to play video games, write stories, and listen to music.