8/14/2023 0 Comments Lights out tour tiktokThat includes “demos that probably would never see the light of day,” he recently told iHeartRadio, “and then maybe one of 'em hits and it's like, ‘oh man, we need to look at this,’ and ‘maybe this should make the record.’” It’s something that Tenpenny also appreciates as a fan of other artists, pointing out Charlie Puth as an example of a singer-songwriter who often finds compelling ways to share “the inside process” of the making of his music. Tenpenny uses the platform as a way to gather “instant data,” garnering real-time reaction from TikTok users who share their responses to his music. …I mean, it literally chose our single ‘Truth About You.’ It would not have been a single on radio without TikTok. “And it's been an awesome way for me to get my music out there in a different way, especially during the pandemic. The social media giant is “its own monster right now,” Tenpenny said. For Swift, whose frequent regeneration constitutes a significant part of her identity, taking ownership of her eras provides a neat way simultaneously to self-narrativise – trendy – and perform her greatest hits – what the people want – with a huge, relatable wink at the meta irony of it all.Mitchell Tenpenny would “99% guarantee” that one of his smash-hit singles wouldn’t have its meteoric rise without TikTok. Formerly only in the vocabulary of the chronically online, the idea of the pop-star “era” – a chapter of their life or career usually distinguished by aesthetics – has now entered the broader cultural lexicon. The premise of the tour is key to what Swift is offering. Naturally, this creates expectations, and fans want more and more in turn – both in-person and online. That concert tickets have dramatically increased in price over the past few years is because artists are offering a lengthy, large-scale show, which costs more to produce than a stripped-back acoustic set. Bruce Springsteen is known for his marathon concerts, which do not involve costume-changes and pyrotechnics – but his audience is also unlikely to scour TikTok for videos of him playing “Dancing in the Dark”. Ironically, adding significant visuals also makes the footage imminently more prone to go viral. Yet in order that a ticket for the concert is still covetable, attending must offer a unique experience: one that goes beyond simply hearing the songs played live. Social media is a powerful tool for fans – it allows more exposure for more people. Yet we are surely past the stage when artists can sincerely beg fans to put down their devices and be in the moment: try telling that to the millions of Swifties who don’t live in Arizona, refreshing their feeds and waiting for content to drop. We have all whipped out our phone at a gig within the first few seconds of our favourite song, only to watch it the next day and realise that the video captured nothing of the performance – and that we watched the real performance through our phone. Listening to a recording of a song – or even watching a video of it being performed live – is nothing like being in the room as an artist plays. Swift – along with Beyoncé – offers not just a concert, but a once-in-a-lifetime experience. “Eras” is by no means the first stadium show to offer an experience far beyond the music – the turning point for this was arguably Beyoncé’s 26-song set at Coachella 2018, which pushed the boundaries of what a pop concert can be – but its lengthy, immersive format seems to confirm that for elite pop stars playing live in the 2020s, expectations have changed. No one is more aware of this than Swift, a savvy marketer always tuned into the zeitgeist, who was furious when a Ticketmaster meltdown prevented thousands of her fans getting tour tickets. Because of bottlenecks, bots and soaring prices, concert tickets have never been more difficult to obtain – and yet footage from them has never been easier to access. Love On Tour, the hashtag for Harry Styles’ recent tour, has 7.2bn views on the platform #TaylorSwiftEras already has 80m. Sensory, intimate and with an existing audience of dedicated fans, pop concert content thrives on TikTok. When you can watch footage of a pop concert streamed live on TikTok from the front row, how do you make it worth buying a ticket? The answer is crystallised in Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour, that opened at the Arizona State Farm Stadium on Friday night: by putting together not just a concert, but a three-hour long immersive spectacle. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management) Taylor Swift performs onstage during “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” at State Farm Stadium, Arizona.
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