From Elvis to Taylor Swift: The power of pop
NOT since January 1956, when Elvis Presley burst into the American popular music scene with ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, has the music industry seen a phenomenon as huge and significant as Taylor Swift, when she embarked on her worldwide ‘Eras’ tour in March 2023.
The global media outlets as well as social media platforms had extensively covered Swift tours’ cultural and economic impact; and the US tour dates had broken all sorts of records, including most concert tickets sold in a day.
The Eras tour has now become the highest-grossing tour in history, grossing over US$1 billion, and its concert film, released last October, grossed over US$250 million to become the highest-grossing concert film ever.
Closer to home, financial analysts said the recent six concerts staged in Singapore between March 2 and 9 this year, at the republic’s National Stadium, would bring a boost of almost Sg$500 million to its economy; thus boosting its GDP by 2.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2024.
Among the sectors that have benefited from the Eras tour are hospitality, food and beverage, and the retail trade. Changi Airport has confirmed that passenger arrival traffic between March 1 and 7 rose by more than 20 per cent over the number recorded in the same period last year.
More than 368,000 people had attended the six shows and a significant number, estimated to be up to two-thirds, had travelled to Singapore from all over the region, Fans from India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are believed to be among the thousands who had paid between S$108 to S$348 per ticket.
Many of Singapore’s neighbouring countries have since cast aspersions as to why the island nation had ‘monopolised’ the Eras tour dates for herself.
Indeed, even the Prime Minister had admitted that they had ‘incentivised’ the talent to only stage her shows in Singapore in the Asia-Pacific region. Swift’s other concerts were in Tokyo, Japan and in Melbourne, Australia.
As someone working within the industry, it made business sense for Swift’s management team to hold the concerts in just one city for six nights, instead of spreading out over three cities of two nights each.
Let’s study why this is the case.
It’s a given that Singapore has the best and most suitable venue that can hold an audience reaching to 60,000 fans.
It is a prime location with its international airport hub, coupled with its security status and having successfully done other events before such as the Formula 1 races, as well as concerts by Coldplay, Justin Bieber, Jay Chou and Bruno Mars.
With its geographical advantage, historically Singapore has been a stopover market for artistes who perform in Japan and Australia. It also does not have hard and fast rules on freight in and out. For the record, for Swift’s Eras tour in the USA, a fleet of 90 lorries were involved in hauling the stage, costumes and other equipment.
The promoters of these live shows also depend on the ‘efficient and simple; visa requirements for artistes, promoters, their crew and entourage, and the host country’s political stability makes it easier to plan ahead and not be surprised by any ‘last minute game-changer’.
According to the show promoters, Singapore’s appeal also lies in what it can offer artistes and fans during their downtime – great food, inclusive culture and tourist attractions, extensive shopping arcades and multi-cultural environment.
Unfortunately, the other Asean nations like Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia were not able to match Singapore insofar as suitable venues were concerned, nor did they possess ideal socio-political conditions.
Thailand with its rigid laws with regard to ‘offending the Monarchy’; Philippines with its high-security risks – frankly, no American performer would consider going there, and even insurers beg off from issuing life policies); in Malaysia, besides not having a suitable sizeable venue, the threat of any party instigating public outcry with public rallies cannot be ruled out entirely; Indonesia too has no suitable venue for staging a concert of this stature.
By successfully staging Swift’s concerts, Singapore has strengthened its standing as a leading lifestyle and entertainment hotspot; thus, bolstering the city nation’s appeal as well as its continued growth and development in this fast growing sector.
Fifty years had separated the rise of Elvis in 1956 and that of Swift in 2005, when she signed with Big Machine Records that had produced her first hit album ‘Taylor Swift’.
Elvis was regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His energised interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, had produced a number-one hit ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ and would, within his first year of recording, sell over 10 million records.
Elvis died in August 1977 at age of 42 due to complications from prescribed medications.
Up till today, he had sold more than 500 million records worldwide, and remained one of the best-selling music artistes of all time. He was successful in many genres, from pop to country and rockabilly to R&B, adult contemporary and gospel. He won three Grammy awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36 and in 2018, was posthumously awarded with the ‘Presidential Medal of Freedom’.
Taylor Alison Swift was born on Dec 13, 1989, in West Reading, Pennsylvania, USA – her parents had named her after James Taylor, the singer.
She had spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm, and spent summers in New Jersey where she had occasionally performed acoustic songs at a local coffee shop.
Her early country music influences included Shania Twain, Patsy Cline and the Dixie Chicks; after watching a documentary about Faith Hill, Swift became determined to pursue a country-music career in Nashville, Tennessee.
Between the period of her first album in October 2006 and her latest ‘Midnights’ in 2022, Swift has reinvented her musical identity with each new album release, earning her the moniker from Time Magazine and the BBC as a ‘musical chameleon’.
She has become the first female music artist to write, or co-write, every track of her recordings thus far. She has also earned the title of the first billionaire with music as her main source of income – the others before her had incomes from other sources.
Last year, Time Magazine had named Swift its ‘Person of the Year’.
She also appeared on Rolling Stone Magazine’s ‘100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time’; and as Forbes World’s ‘100 Most Powerful Women’.
On top of this, her many other accolades include 14 Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award; 40 American Music Awards, 40 Billboard Music Awards; 23 MTV Video Music Awards; and the IFPI Recording Artiste of the Year a record four times each.
I leave it to Music Business Worldwide to have the final word on Taylor Swift: “In 2023, Taylor Swift has entered a new stratosphere of global career success!”
I would also echo Karen Carpenter’s song: “She’s only just begun…”