Swift’s rise doesn’t leave fans behind
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Taylor Swift performs at Etihad Stadium. Picture: Stuart Milligan
Source: News Limited
JUST four years ago, American country singer Taylor Swift was playing at the intimate Billboard nightclub in Melbourne.
Her impressively fast career trajectory saw her upgrade to 47,000 fans at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night.
The secret to Swift’s swift success is simple – old fashioned human connection.
She’s mixed country music storytelling and undeniable pop hooks for the masses.
Swift is one of the few artists still selling large numbers of albums and her fans study them intently – which is lucky as 10 of the 14 songs she sang were from her latest album Red.
Coldplay and Bon Jovi wouldn’t dare play that much new material, but Swift knows her audience has a thirst for her new stories and every new album track was a crowd singalong.
Swift clearly knows she’s in a very lucky position.
Unlike recent teen visitor Justin Bieber, 24-year-old Swift has so much respect for her young fan base you
get the feeling she’d rather disclose the subjects of all her famous breakup songs than keep her audience waiting for 70 minutes.
It really is quite something to watch the admiration and love she gets from her audience. And the feeling is mutual.
“The three weeks we’ve spent on tour in Australia have been some of the best of my entire life,” Swift told the majority female crowd.
There’s a lot to like about Swift.
Unlike most people in the Top 40, she’s self-sufficient and doesn’t rely on an army of songwriters to put words in her mouth.
The Melbourne show was the last date on her Red tour for the year.
There was a belated crowd singalong to mark her 24th birthday, which was spent in Melbourne on Friday.
