BY: ETHAN CHUN / STAFF WRITER
Between changing how music is released, how albums are consumed, breaking records, and setting new standards, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift have undeniably become dominating forces in the music industry, shifting pop culture with every new release.
In 2022, Beyoncé and Taylor Swift both released new albums. Beyonce’s album “Renaissance” was released on July 29, 2022, becoming a massive success and helping her grow into the artist with the most Grammy award wins in history.
Taylor Swift’s album “Midnights” was released on October 21, 2022, and it helped her break a record on the Billboard Hot 100. The next week’s Billboard charts showed that the songs off of the album held the top ten spots, a record previously held by The Beatles when they held the top five spots on April 4, 1964.
This year, both embarked on tours. On March 17, 2023, Taylor Swift debuted The Eras Tour, while Beyoncé debuted the Renaissance World Tour on May 10, 2023. Fans from all over the world immediately flocked to the internet, waiting for hours on end to purchase tickets for these shows.
In an incident that occurred on November 15, 2022, the presale for The Eras Tour shut down Ticketmaster and, in an update on the situation, Ticketmaster tweeted, “There has been historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets for the TaylorSwiftTix presale.”
A Senate hearing with Live Nation Entertainment, the company that owns Ticketmaster, took place. The hearing was a direct result of Ticketmaster’s Eras Tour presale disaster and even affected the presale for Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour.
With 146 shows in five continents spanning over a year and a half, The Eras Tour has been projected to boost $5 billion for the economy. With ticket sales alone, Taylor Swift is projected to gross $2.2 billion, breaking Elton John’s record for his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, which grossed over $887 million.
However, The Eras Tour didn’t just benefit Taylor Swift. With her popularity, as well as the hype surrounding the tour, Swift also uplifted local economies in the locations of her shows.
The phenomenon, coined by The Wall Street Journal as “Taylornomics,” explains that whenever Taylor Swift performs somewhere, her fans go to local businesses and spend money. In a survey performed by QuestionPro Research, it was found that on average, fans spent just over $1,300 per show.
Besides paying for tickets, fans would also spend money on things like transportation, food, clothes, and merchandise. With tens of thousands of fans attending, and spending an average of $1,300 at every location, it’s easy for Swifties to help local economies grow and they were very enthusiastic about this too, as 91% said that they would go to another concert.
In the same study, Dan Fleetwood, the President of QuestionPro Research says: “If Taylor Swift were an economy, she’d be bigger than 50 countries; if she was a corporation, her Net Promoter Score would make her the fourth most admired brand, and her loyalty numbers mimic those of subjects to a royal crown. It’s all a testament to her focus on the fan experience.”
On Oct. 1, 2023, the Renaissance World Tour finished up its last concert in Kansas City after 56 shows. Similar to “Taylornomics,” Beyoncé’s economic impact has been coined by Yelp as “The Beyhive Bump.” The phenomenon occurs in a similar way to “Taylornomics,” where at the locations she performs, the local economy grows based on the Beyhive’s spending.
Beyoncé is famous for being an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, Black Lives Matter, and a proud feminist. Her album Renaissance, as well as the Renaissance World Tour, are celebrations of all these identities. On her tour, she paid homage to ballroom, a subculture created by queer people of color. Due to this, women-owned, black, and LGBTQ+ businesses were supported most of all businesses by fans.
Recent Yelp statistics show that Beyoncé brought a 14 percent increase to black-owned beauty businesses, a 4 percent bump to black-owned food businesses, a 21 percent increase to women-owned shopping businesses, a 13 percent increase to women-owned beauty businesses, and an impressive 194 percent increase to LGBTQ-owned shopping businesses in Philadelphia’s economy.
In a story done by ABC 7 news, interviews with several small business owners showed their experiences with “The Beyoncé Bump,” due to the boost in business from Beyoncé performing. In one such instance, Sandra Dailey, the owner of “Sandy’s Cobbler Cups” received an order for 200 Cobbler cups for a Beyoncé-related event. Similarly, an LGBTQ-owned store called “Knobs,” saw its business double after Beyoncé requested that fans wear silver to her concert for her birthday.
Every one of Beyoncé’s 56 shows for the Renaissance World Tour was sold out, and a wide range of celebrities and political figures such as Kamala Harris, Jeff Bezos, Oprah, Zendaya, Paul McCartney, Frank Ocean, Tom Holland, Naomi Campbell, Kris and Kendall Jenner, Pharrell Williams, Selena Gomez, Priyanka Chopra, Ariana Grande, Dua Lipa, and more went to see Beyoncé perform.
The impact of the Renaissance World Tour has been groundbreaking for Beyoncé. It’s been found that the tour could generate $4.5 billion, an economic impact higher than the 2008 Olympics, and has generated $579 million in revenue which makes the Renaissance World Tour, the highest-grossing tour by a woman, as well as the highest grossing tour by a black artist.