In an attempt to understand the Taylor Swift phenomena, I went to a noon showing of The ERAS Tour film. The theater was packed with young girls, ages six through young teens , many with their moms. I sat in the back row, not to block anyone’s view, and felt a little out of place. Directly in front of me were nine girls in sparkly dresses munching on boxes of popcorn, their moms sat behind them in my row, holding lattes while keeping an eye on their cellphones and their girls. I also sat at the end of the row because the running time of the film was three hours, and I was not sure I could manage through it.

Five minutes into the film, I realized that the moms were around the same age as Taylor Swift and their girls were becoming the legacy generation. The sound was blasting, and it was hard to tell if the audience in the film was screaming or if the live movie theater audience was screaming. The moms sang along, danced in their seats, waved cellphone flashlights in time with the screen audience waving theirs and the daughters often joined in, everyone knew the lyrics and gestured the emotions that accompanied the words.

I don’t know much about music, and I understand that Taylor Swift is very talented. I want to add, she has crazy stamina. I’d say she’s more of a skipper than a dancer, moving around a digitally dynamic stage floor. She shares her feelings with her fans, and they see themselves with her in their mutual club. As she sings, they sing and they are of one voice. It is almost a religion of shared friendship bracelets (amulets), shared lyrics (hymns) a shared desire to dress up (vestments) and waving cellphone lights (candles.). She is romantic, not explicitly sexy. Welcoming everyone, she expresses her confidence, smarts, is kind and generous and has the power to get you to vote. She is good. She does good.