Harvard's Taylor Swift professor on why new Eras Tour documentary is so important

It’s been a long time coming… but Swifties are finally getting a backstage pass to the Eras Tour.

Swiftie Christmas has come early as the first two episodes of the six-part docuseries The End of an Era drop on Disney+ today (12 December) alongside the full concert film from the final night of the tour, filmed in Vancouver, titled Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour | The Final Show.

To mark the occasion, we spoke with Harvard’s resident Taylor Swift expert — and long-time Swiftie — Professor Stephanie Burt, who taught Harvard’s wildly popular 2024 class “Taylor Swift and Her World.”

Burt remembers expecting maybe 15 Swifties to sign up. She got 200. Unsurprising when you recall the Eras Tour stopped off in 5 continents, 50 cities, had 149 shows, with a total of 10.1 million attendees, breaking countless records including highest grossing tour of all time at over $2 billion.

Why this documentary matters so much to fans

For Burt, the sheer appetite for Swift, from Harvard lecture halls to stadiums stacked with friendship bracelets, comes down to a skill set that’s often overlooked.

“People being so into her shows how good she is at writing songs,” she explained. “If she couldn't do that before she was famous, she wouldn't be famous.”

Burt points out that long before fans were dissecting easter eggs or screaming “1, 2, 3, let’s go b****!” on cue, people were falling in love with the songs without knowing anything about her.

“The people who heard ‘Love Story’, ‘You Belong With Me’, ‘15’, ‘Speak Now’, ‘Our Song’ and ‘Tim McGraw’ on the radio didn’t know who she was,” Burt said. “They just knew they wanted to hear the song again because it was beautifully constructed… and because it had words that made the singer both aspirational and relatable.”

And that — Burt argues — is the magic trick Swift has pulled off for nearly two decades.

Relatable, aspirational, and somehow both at once

Burt believes Taylor’s genius lies in giving fans versions of themselves in her music, while also giving them something to reach for.

“We see ourselves in her songs and we imagine we could be more like her. We could have her problems instead of our problems… and they’re still problems.”

Swift’s work-ethic-meets-heartbreak vibe hits something universal, too.

“A lot of us have had the experience of, ‘Yikes, I have to go to work today and I just had the worst breakup ever.’ That’s a widely shared feeling,” Burt noted. “And the song gives us the aspirational version - getting through it anyway.”

Why the Eras Tour became its own universe

While the albums each tell a story, Burt says the Eras Tour became a story about identity — and the many selves we try on while figuring out who we are.

“More than any of her albums, the Eras Tour was about how many versions of ourselves we try on,” she said. “And how hard it is to be yourself when you’re also changing for other people’s approval, something a lot of us go through as we grow up.”

From the shifting set designs to the costume changes to the choreographed versions of Taylor literally trapped in cages she escapes from, Burt sees real symbolism.

“It wasn’t three hours of the same thing, and that wasn’t an accident,” Burt explained. “Taylor takes a very active hand in every part of the show — the sets, the costumes, the choreography. Everything was designed to hold our attention.”

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The surprise songs: a Swiftie ceremony

Of course, no discussion of the Eras Tour is complete without mentioning the ritualistic obsession that are… surprise songs.

“When you meet another Swiftie who went to a different show, you don’t say, ‘What did she play?’” Burt laughed. “You say, ‘What did you get?’ Because they felt like gifts.”

According to Burt, the specificity, songs chosen for that night or that city, made the shows feel intimate even at stadium scale.

A fandom with space for (almost) everyone

Burt is clear on what sets Swifties apart from other mega-fandoms:

“There are so many of us. It’s multi-generational. It has space for fans in grade school and fans of retirement age. And it tries to have low barriers to entry.”

That means you don’t need to know exactly where Taylor was on April 29th (even though some fans definitely do), and you don’t need to recite All Too Well (10 Minute Version) from memory to count.

“No one’s going to say ‘You’re not a real Swiftie’ if you can’t,” Burt said. “The fandom doesn’t operate like that — and some fandoms do, although no fandom should.”

Her personal favourite eras? 'Midnights' and 'The Tortured Poets Department,' for the record.

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So what will The End of an Era give fans?

If the Eras Tour was a celebration of every version of Taylor, and by extension, every version of ourselves, then this documentary looks set to give fans the one thing they never got: the perspective behind the curtain.

For a fandom that prides itself on decoding clues, analysing metaphors, and trading surprise song stories like sacred relics… this is basically a six-hour emotional dissertation.

As Professor Burt reminded us: “We like imagining ourselves up on stage, working as hard as we can to keep a giant audience delighted, the way she does.”

And starting today, we finally get to watch exactly how she pulls it off.

The End of an Era is now streaming on Disney+

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