Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour
By Sophia Fineza
Source: IMDb
logline: Taylor Swift takes the stage and proves she doesn’t care about her bad reputation.
Source: IMDb
i want to start this review off by telling y’all that i could (and would) write essays about taylor swift, her career, and her overall impact on the world and music industry. however, i will not submit you, my lovely reader, to that (right now) (possible lenZ piece coming soon??!!). that being said, this review will be a bit different than some of the others you may have read. since the reputation tour is more of a tv special than a movie, it won’t have a favorite characters section. okay! now that we have that out of the way, let’s move onto the actual review.
for those of you who don’t know me, taylor swift is my favorite artist. reputation is my second favorite album of hers, as well as my second favorite era. you might be asking yourself “why is she writing about her SECOND favorite? why not her FIRST favorite??”. well, it’s because the 1989 tour movie isn’t available on streaming services and i’ve tragically never seen it. so that’s why. however, reputation is a very VERY close second favorite. this was probably one of taylor’s most anticipated albums, with all the drama and tabloid shit going around. if you’ve ever participated in the #TaylorSwiftisOverParty movement, i consider you an enemy. at this point in time, i was not the swiftie i now consider myself to be. i adored red and 1989, but i was a 14 year old girl who considered herself too old for taylor when reputation came out. i’ve obviously changed my tune since then, but i didn’t get to fully take in the reputation era. this tour movie truly immerses you in the reputation era. even though i didn’t get to go through it with the rest of the swifties, having it easily available to watch really got me back into taylor’s music, and have a deeper appreciation for reputation as an album. i really think that taylor swift mastered the pop genre, which she’s proven with 1989, reputation, and most recently midnights. she’s one of, if not the best, in the game, and the rep stadium tour proves this. at the time, she was probably one of the more heavily hated people in the music industry, and was still playing sold out venues.
reputation truly has one of the best vibes out of all her albums. it was the first time we really got to see taylor’s anger and aggressiveness poured into her music. however, there’s another side to the dark and angry album, and that’s the romantic side. a lot of swifties agree that reputation is first and foremost a romance album. over 50% of the album are love songs, thanks to the inspiration given by our king joe alwyn (rip toe 2023). the production on every track goes absolutely crazy, with the electro-pop vibes, heavy bass, and very prominent beat lines. there are a few musically thematic breaks, like in new year’s day. i think that reputation had the potential to create her best tour yet with the extreme tone shift from her old music and vibe, and whoever did the stage design and stage production for the tour definitely pulled it off. one of my favorite parts of the stage was the exposed sections behind the screens that taylor was walking/dancing around in during her bad blood/should’ve said no mashup. i think that adding that area of the stage, along with the two smaller stages that she travels to during the set, was a really creative idea to ensure that every part of the stadium would be able to be close to the action and make the most of a pretty small main stage. compared to her eras tour stage, which is basically just a very long skinny walkway, the rep tour breaks up the space and overall creates a really cool atmosphere for the concert-goers. we also got some really cool set pieces, like karyn the snake, the tilting stage for LWYMMD, and the golden throne room (snake themed, of course).
one of, if not the most important aspect of the reputation stadium tour and its respective tour movie is the hype and energy surrounding it. while watching, you notice how many cuts the cameras make to the audience, showing different fans every time, from young kids to adults, even including older adults there with their kids. i think it’s a testament to how many fans taylor truly has, especially with so many news outlets saying that the rep tour was going to ‘flop’ and that no one was going to go. it ended up being her most successful tour to date. the album and tour were so highly anticipated, and you can really see how much the people in attendance love taylor and her music. i think that being a real and fully faithful swiftie partially comes from whether you went to the rep tour or not. i’m not trying to gatekeep the fandom, of course anyone can be a fan of taylor, but with all the bad press surrounding her and so many people calling her character into question, supporting her throughout all of that really shows how loyal her fans at the time were.
overall, having the reputation stadium tour on streaming services is such a win. it’s a good time, and you can sing and dance really aggressively in your living room along with taylor and the fans. the vibes are absolutely immaculate, and even if you’re not a huge taylor swift fan, you’ll enjoy the energy from the crowd and the sheer amount of talent that woman has. if you’re tired of watching shaky eras tour footage on tik tok like i am, definitely check it out!!
something i liked: we absolutely have to discuss the style/love story/you belong with me mashup. OH MY GOD?? it genuinely changed my life i am not kidding. it scratches the right part of my brain perfectly and those three songs just sound so amazing together. the transition between love story and you belong with me is so seamless and blend so well, i remember the first time i heard it my jaw was on the FLOOR. taylor should consider herself lucky that i didn’t go to the rep tour because i would have to be airlifted out that fucking stadium after hearing this.
this movie is rated TV-PG.
where to watch:
IMDb:
