Good morning, Broadsheet readers! New bosses mean workplace stress, Aritzia’s founder reportedly created a toxic work environment, and Fortune senior writer Alicia Adamczyk digs into the summer of Swift. Have a terrific Tuesday!
– The ‘TSwift lift.’ If there’s a record Taylor Swift hasn’t broken this summer, it likely won’t take much longer. From touring to streaming to physical music sales, Swift, 33, is utterly dominant, living through a third career peak at an age when women in entertainment can be, in her own words, “discarded in an elephant graveyard.”
The Eras Tour is so popular it’s created its own mini-economy in the U.S. Even the Federal Reserve credited Swift’s concerts for “strongest month for hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the onset of the pandemic.” Analysts are calling it the “TSwift Lift.” The tour itself is projected to gross over $1 billion, according to concert tracking site Pollstar, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time and Swift the only woman to breach the top 10.
(Full disclosure: I’ve been a fan of Swift’s since her debut album and attended the Eras Tour earlier this summer.)
As impressive as it is, it’s not just the tour that’s been making an impact. Earlier this month, Swift released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the third album she has rerecorded. She embarked on the rerecording project after the masters for her first six albums were sold, she says, without her knowledge in 2019 to a businessman she has bad blood with, named Scooter Braun. By rereleasing her music, she hopes to regain control over her life’s work (and stick it to Braun in the process).
It’s an emotional and artistic decision for Swift, but it’s also pretty good for business. Swift is one of the few artists who can still drive significant physical sales. SNTV debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, selling 507,000 copies, according to Luminate. As of this writing, four of her albums sit in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, the first time a living artist has charted so many at once. She now has more No. 1 albums than any woman in history.
These are astounding figures for any modern artist, made even more impressive by the fact that most of her newest album is not, well, new music.
That’s in part thanks to the Eras Tour, which is working in tandem with her rereleases. As fans rediscover old favorites at her shows, or new fans hear them for the first time, all of her albums have been spiking on digital music services this year, making her the top-streamed female artist on Spotify (only The Weeknd is currently besting her there). As far as marketing efforts go, it’s hard to beat.
Since the release of Midnights in October last year, a scene from her 2020 documentary Miss Americana has played repeatedly in my head. In it, 29-year-old Swift reflects on her status in the music industry and wonders about her legacy. “This is probably one of my last opportunities as an artist to grasp on to that kind of success,” she says. “As I’m reaching 30, I want to work really hard while society is still tolerating me being successful.”
Those who know Swift’s music aren’t surprised by those ruminations. A yearning for girlhood, the pressures of growing up, and fears of an uncertain future are common touch points throughout her catalog, reflected in songs like Innocent, Nothing New, and Seven.
Swift need not worry too much. Since that documentary was released, she has released three critically-acclaimed new albums—Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights—and three rerecorded albums. Folklore earned her her third Album of the Year at the Grammys, while Midnights became the top-selling album of 2022, doubling sales of the runner-up. She has sold out a world stadium tour and crashed Ticketmaster, inspiring a bipartisan Congressional hearing on the company’s sales practices. She is not only being tolerated, but celebrated.
Swift has long been credited for her business acumen. But 2023 is taking her to heights reached by very few artists, male or female, in the past. The girl in the dress is on top of the world—and has decades yet to add to her legacy.
Alicia Adamczyk
alicia.adamczyk@fortune.com
@AliciaAdamczyk
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- The everything app. Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino cosigned Elon Musk’s surprise plans to rename the social media platform to “X” in a tweet stating that it was a “second chance to make another big impression.” Yaccarino asserted that the rebranded “X” will be “the platform that can deliver, well…everything.” Fortune
- CTO to CFO. Chevron has tapped Eimear Bonner to take over as CFO next year, marking just the second time a woman will occupy the position in the company's 140-year history. Bonner has been with the company for 24 years and took over as CTO two years ago. Reuters
- Behind the clothes. A number of current and former Aritzia employees are speaking out about the toxic work culture that many attribute to the behavior of founder and former CEO Brian Hill. At one point, Hill allegedly asked employees at a Toronto store, “why aren’t we hiring people who look like that?” while pointing to a Victoria's Secret storefront. A spokesperson denies Hill ever "made any comments or directives regarding hiring employees based on their race or body type." Business Insider
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Aimee Witteman is joining Rewiring America as head of investment. Carolyn Poirier has been appointed Americas chief financial officer at Arup.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Stressed out. Almost half of female employees reported feeling stressed or anxious when working for a rookie manager, new research finds. Two in five women surveyed also said that new managers motivated their desire to quit, compared to just 29% of men who reported feeling the same way. Fortune
- The anti-girlboss. Gen Z women are turning toward “lazy girl jobs—nontechnical roles that are flexible and non-intensive—and stepping away from the workplace rigor of “girlbossing.” Accepting a lazy girl job can be both a statement against working hard in a patriarchal system and a reflection of Gen Z’s anti-work mindset. Fortune
- On the move. Climate change's harsh effects on agriculture are forcing more women to migrate. Globally, women are now on the move at the same level as men in a phenomenon known as the "feminization" of migration. The trend is evident at the U.S.-Mexico border where 35% of migrants are women, up from 14% in 2012. NPR
ON MY RADAR
‘Wednesday’ and ‘The Witcher’ casting director Sophie Holland on seeking diversity and the power of casting to change people’s perceptions Variety
From Norway, a voice unafraid to call out FIFA from the inside New York Times
From pet cemetery owner to identity thief to best-selling ghostwriter New York Times
PARTING WORDS
“I have not had burnout, and I do attribute that partly to being a woman...I feel that I am very collaborative and a good listener, strive for consensus.”
—Daniella Levine Cava, mayor of Miami-Dade County, on her experience as a female mayor.
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