The Big One

This is it.  The Big One.

The tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour go on sale this Tuesday.

I don’t think non-Swifties understand just how big this is.

There’s a tried and true system in the music industry.  An artist releases an album of music, and they go on tour to promote it.  They return to the studio and make another album, then tour it.

One album.  One tour.  Rinse and repeat.

Even the migration from CDs to streaming didn’t disrupt this formula.

But covid did.

Taylor Swift’s tour for her Lover album was cancelled due to the pandemic.

While the rest of us were watching Tiger King and learning the Zoom Mullet (dress shirt on top, pajamas on the bottom), Taylor Swift was holed up writing songs.

She returned to her roots and released Folklore in 2020, which of course she couldn’t tour.

Without the distractions of a tour, she made more music and released an unprecedented second album in 2020, Evermore.

She still couldn’t tour.

But now the pandemic is over (even if covid isn’t) and she’s blown the roof of the music world with Midnights.

She’s finally going back on the road.

For those of you keeping track at home, that’s four new albums since she last toured.  Four albums of new material the Swifties haven’t heard live (and that doesn’t even count her reissues.)

Think about it.  She’s now got 10 albums (excluding reissues and Christmas music), and 4 of those came out since her Reputation Tour.

She’s essentially doubled her catalog.

So if you’re wondering why it’s the event of the season, responsible for ruining weddings and turning grown women into squealing teenagers, now you know.

And the tickets go on sale Tuesday.

Longtime readers know that my greatest regret is missing the Red tour.

I won’t let that happen again.

Yesterday my best friend, her daughter, and I had our strategy session.

First we reminisced about how you got tickets in the old days—camping out in the parking lot of our local grocery store to get tickets for Garth Brooks.  Adrienne (my friend’s daughter) could not believe this is how we used to do it—I’m still not sure she fully believes it.  But she cannot conceive of a world before the internet, so I get it.

But this is a modern war and we need modern tactics.  In addition to other Swifties, we’ve got to fight the bots.

We’ve agreed on the amount we’re going to spend and where we want to sit.

I’ve already rearranged my work schedule so that I don’t have to go into the office and blocked out the time on my calendar.

I’ve charged my phone and two laptops.

I’ve doubled checked the credit card information on my Ticketmaster account.

On Tuesday, we (internet) surf at dawn.

We come back with 3 tickets or we don’t come back at all.