Even during Taylor Swift Although she gained widespread recognition in the early years of her musical career, she clearly understood the message: there is little room in the world of entertainment for women past a certain age.
At the age of 22 he wrote Nothing new about her fear of age and insignificance and imagines a radiant 17-year-old debutante ready to take her place. Seven years later, Swift addressed these fears in her documentary Miss Americana. “Women in entertainment are marginalized and end up in the elephant graveyard before they turn 35,” she said, lamenting the impossible standards the culture imposes on maturing women. The pop superstar thought his time was almost up.
“As I approached 30, I thought, ‘I want to work really hard while society still tolerates my success,'” he said on camera.
Now, after turning 36, Swift had his premiere The end of an era In Disney+a six-part documentary that takes a look behind the scenes of their tour Era’s Tour 2023-2024. Between images of the intense effort required to perform 149 sold-out concerts around the world, Swift and her team offer theories about how and why the tour achieved the greatest commercial success in history, breaking records and boosting local economies wherever it took place. At one point, Swift puts it in the context of her legacy as an artist, declaring that the tour will “probably be the highlight, the most important thing I’ve ever done,” and returns to the topic of ageism.
“I’m very depressed about pop culture’s obsession with youth and how we’re allowing extremely young people to set the cultural tone for us,” Swift comments in the latest episode, released Tuesday. “And then the idea that an artist, in my case, has the privilege of developing so much in his thirties that he knows himself better and can create what he is remembered for: that is something very special.”
Although the show features people over 30 who continue to produce relevant work, it’s no surprise that Swift has internalized these lessons as she watches female pop stars age and become ridiculed for their looks or the target of criticism online for various reasons.
But Swift finds herself in an unusual position as she enters the third decade of her career, shortly after what she describes as her peak. And it seems that the tour’s astronomical success, an anomaly that even surprised them, has allayed some of those fears. Because Swift has made it very clear in recent months: she has no plans to go anywhere.
This message clearly began in the fall when he was promoting his twelfth album. The life of a showgirlshe announced on her fiancé’s podcast Travis Kelce. Unlike other recent releases Fast He toured major television and radio programs and participated in more than a dozen interviews in the United States and the United Kingdom. In BBC Radio 2the moderator Scott Mills noted that some of her fans feared Swift would get married, have children and never release another album.
Swift looked surprised. “That’s a shockingly offensive comment,” he replied, as Mills quickly clarified that it was purely a fan concern. “People don’t get married to quit their job… I love the person I’m with because they love what I do and they want me to fulfill myself through creating art and music.”
The singer admitted that she was enjoying a break after two grueling years of three-and-a-half-hour concerts; She seemed uncomfortable when another host asked her if she was planning another tour soon. However, in interviews, he emphasized that leaving his mind on autopilot was not a good thing, explaining that he was “recording.”The showgirl’s life” on his few days off in the summer of 2024, when he felt like he could do the show by heart and needed something to stimulate his creativity.
She’s not one to stay quiet, even when she feels societal pressure to step aside. Fast He expresses this in the song that gives his name to the album, which is about the surreal challenges of public life, issuing a provocative line to those who wish he would “hurry up and die.”
“Now I’m immortal, dolls,” he sings, “I couldn’t do it even if I wanted to.”
Recently in an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen ColbertShe became even more direct when the moderator asked her who she could contact for career advice. Fast mentioned the legend of Fleetwood Mac Stevie Nicks and his employee MaxMartinand then spoke of his admiration for those who never stop evolving.
“I think there are parts of our society that really value that and admire longevity. And others that think, ‘Leave it to someone else. Can’t you just leave so we can talk about how good you were?'” Swift said. “And I think: I don’t want to.”
That is possible Fast responded to the criticism after the publication of The life of a showgirlwhich sold 4 million copies in its first week and broke records as the best-selling album since records began. Some online complained that part of this record was due to selling multiple versions CDdigital and on vinyl, arguing that completist fans inflated the numbers by purchasing multiple editions. Even among his followers, there was debate about the quality of the album, which received mixed reviews, with some fans disappointed by what they considered to be unintrospective lyrics.
The singer seemed to address this in an interview Apple Musicwhere he said Zane Lowe who welcomed the “chaos” of the initial reactions and respected subjective opinions about art. Besides, she noticed, people were at least talking about her.
“The rule of the show is if you mention my name or the title of the album in the first week of release, you help,” he said.
Fast He has never hidden the fact that criticism affects him and that he has previously incorporated it into his music. Now, after seeing how far she can go, even as – terrible! – Woman in her 30s, she seems ready to put it behind her. When the host worried in a radio interview that he had offended her years ago with a joke about her sweaty appearance after a concert on a hot day, she assured him that she now felt more confident.
“People don’t have to be so overprotective of me,” he said. Fast. “I’m pretty strong.”
TO Fast She’ll probably have even more to deal with next year, when she’ll surely grab the world’s attention with her wedding Kelce. Although she insists on not checking social media, her enormous fame means she can’t help but find out what people think about her. Towards the end of the documentariesEnd of an era“, argues that the tour’s success was also due to how it fit into the cultural moment. Lucky, then.
“Sometimes, very rarely, you create something and the wind blows in your favor,” he said. Fast. “Somehow the culture, the moment and the general mood around you – things you can’t control – all come together to make it all work out.”
The documentary ends with a conscious message. After a text sequence discussing recent milestones and achievements Fasta last one appears:
“On October 3, 2025 Taylor released his twelfth studio album “The life of a showgirl‘, the biggest success of his career.
After a pause, two more words:
“Until now”.
Spring: Washington Post
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