Taylor Swift, the NZ phenomenon
For almost 12 hours last Thursday, the phone lines at ZM virtually rang non-stop. By the end of the day,
52,780 calls had been logged in just
11 hours at the Kiwi radio station — more than one call every second.
There were similar numbers again yesterday and likely the same for the next two Thursdays.
Over the past few weeks, the station has had the real-life equivalent of Willy Wonka golden tickets on offer — airfares, accommodation and double passes to give away to one of Taylor Swift’s four upcoming concerts in Sydney.
As soon as the station plays a Taylor Swift song on “Taylor Thursday”, the lines open up. A lucky caller goes into the draw, and a winner is announced at the end of the day.
ZM has even had to tweak its staff rosters to handle the calls.
“We got a small amount of tickets to give away early last year from the promoter,” says ZM content director Ross Flahive.
“Based on the success of that, we reached out to someone on her management team who has built a good relationship over the years and put forward a proposal with our fingers crossed to buy more tickets to giveaway. This was after the shows had all sold out so we weren’t sure how it’d go. He and the team were incredibly helpful and made it happen.”
ZM’s winners — there will be 64 in total (32 double passes) — will be all sitting together in the same A Reserve block at Sydney’s Accor Stadium.
Flahive is a “manic Swiftie” — he will be at three of her shows, two in Melbourne and one in Sydney.
“For us, it’s been an easy thing to lean into . . . [we] knew the hype that was going to surround this.
“The competitions we did last year broke so many records for us, this one is no different. It’s a oncein-a-generation pop culture moment. With another year to go on the tour, it’s clear it’ll be one of the biggest ever.
“Elvis, Beatles, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift. She’s at that level — but bigger.
“Elvis, Beatles, etc were huge when countries/US states had one or two TV stations, a handful of radio stations and a newspaper or two. Mass saturation was actually pretty easy. To get that level of mania in the most fragmented media landscape ever is unreal.”
Swift is never far from the headlines — this week, X (formerly Twitter) was forced to ban searches on her following the emergence of deepfake explicit images. On Monday (NZT) she was in Baltimore to watch her NFL boyfriend Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs beat the Ravens for a spot in the SuperBowl on February 12.
Flahive says Swift and Kelce are this generation’s Posh & Becks.
He also sent Media Insider a Variety article in which chief music critic Chris Wilman, who reviewed The Beatles back in the day, equated Swift to the Fab Four.
“Cutural impact is a little harder to make specific superlative claims for. Even without wanting to be mean about it, some who remain resistant to Swift’s charms would like to see her touring success as part of an ever-repeatable series of cyclical phenomenon.
“Most students of pop history can pull out a few landmark tours that felt like signal moments,” he said, referring to specific tours from the likes of The Jacksons, Springsteen, Madonna and U2.
“Having seen all those tours at least once in their day, and now having seen the Eras Tour on four occasions, I can vouch that as much as those moments in touring lore deserved their reputations, there are few direct correlations with the once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon we’re seeing today.
“Really, the only thing it can be compared to is a Beatles tour.”