Whether you like it or not, it’s hard to deny Taylor Swift’s current dominance in the music industry. Armed with millions of followers and a longstanding reputation, Swift has fearlessly taken the world and the music industry by storm.
She’s a superstar.
She’s in the New Trier News’s playlist.
She’s a trendsetter, helping launch a new era of concert documentaries.
In October 2023, Swift released a concert documentary of The Eras Tour on Disney+. Other singers like Beyoncé and Olivia Rodrigo began to follow this trend, releasing a barrage of their own concert films in theaters and on streaming services.
Sure, there have been other concert documentaries before The Eras Tour, like “Madonna: Truth or Dare,” Ariana Grande’s “Excuse Me I Love You,” and Aretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace,” but, these documentaries chronicle the behind-the-scenes of concerts instead of showing audiences an actual recording of the show itself.
“The Eras Tour” show changed that standard, though, launching a new concert documentary era where at-home audiences can watch the whopping 3.5 hours of Swift’s 11-album love letter to her fans.
Other pop artists, struggling to be equally favored in this “Taylor Swift” mania, quickly hopped on the trend and released their own documentaries. Notable ones include “Renaissance” (thank you, Beyoncé) and “Guts.”
With the increase in these new types of documentaries, some may wonder whether this is the right direction for music. It’s “The Clash” for the ages (we’re being super serious here). We watched “The Eras Tour,” “Renaissance,” and “Guts” (for research, we swear!) to record our feelings on the matter.
Lorelei: They’re awesome. Let them stay
Frankly, I love concert documentaries.
The first concert documentary I ever saw was “The Eras Tour” in theaters with my sister and my friend. I had a great time. It was fun singing Swift’s songs while hanging out with my friends, and was a nice way to have a more personal experience for such a thrilling event.
“The Eras Tour,” although cutting out some songs, stayed true to the concert itself with its audience angles, which made me feel like I was there, and the authenticity of Swift’s song performance. Overall, I enjoyed watching “The Eras Tour” concert documentary.
They’re great for comfort because viewers aren’t obligated to stand up and sing along if they don’t want to; concert documentaries provide viewers with a choice in how to experience music.
While I previously attended “The Guts World Tour,” I also watched the concert documentary when it came out. This time, it was also awesome because I watched it in the comfort of my own home, allowing me to reminisce over my concert memories while being able to make new ones with the documentary.
The Guts concert documentary was entertaining because it provided multiple up-close perspectives of Olivia Rodrigo while she was singing, which enabled me to feel more connected to her.
Having gone to “The Guts World Tour,” I would say the documentary captured the concert accurately because it kept all the original music from the concert and it also captured the audience well through their volume and drone that gave viewers a look at them.
Besides providing me with a great experience, concert documentaries also help artists. In general, concert documentaries create a cheap way for fans to experience an artist’s concert via a streaming service without having to pay hundreds of dollars to attend the event in person. With the increased access to their concert documentaries, artists then have a potential to profit off of their documentary.
Plus, a concert documentary most likely stays on a streaming service for a long time, thus fans can continuously watch and make good memories with a concert documentary, even after an official tour ends.
Overall, concert documentaries provide me and all of its viewers with a fun experience.
Isabella: Eh, must they stay?
The first time I watched a concert documentary (Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour”) I was at my great-uncle and great-aunt’s house for a mini-family reunion. There, I watched many things on their TV like boxing (Manny Pacquaio, an icon!), golf (7-year-old me was not pleased), Academy Award-winning CODA, and “The Eras Tour.”
There, my uncle declared to the room as we ate dinner that “Reputation” was, hands down, Taylor Swift’s best album. I didn’t pay much attention (but I definitely thought it was top three) to what he was saying, as I was still watching the concert documentary. To me, despite it being extraordinary to my Swiftie brain, it fell flat.
It was nothing compared to what I imagined the concert would be like in person.
Something unique about concerts is the closeness and mutual understanding of those who went to the concert: they are all united in their love for their performer (as well as the mutual understanding that they will experience hearing loss for some time). I lacked that when watching “The Eras Tour” documentary: I wasn’t crying, I wasn’t overwhelmed with emotion, and I wasn’t singing at the top of my lungs. Despite being at the peak of my Swiftie era, I wasn’t in love with it.
The same goes for “The Guts World Tour,” Olivia Rodrigo’s concert, which I watched with my family while writing this piece.
The editing made the concert (I hate to say this) boring.
To me, while I do love Rodrigo, the recording itself was lazily edited with very abrupt camera angles. Additionally, I felt bad for the concert audience during its recording. It felt like Rodrigo was performing, rather unfairly, for the camera, instead of those at the venue. It looked like she was only singing for those who will watch it for free if they have Netflix (which starts at $6.99/month), rather than those who paid money (advertised to be $49, but ended up being more than $970) to see her live. And while I must admit I did sing under my breath for the chorus of a few songs (“Ballad of a Home-schooled Girl,” “Traitor,” “So American”), the documentary wasn’t stellar and dragged on for a while.
I think my main problem with these types of concert documentaries is, well, what’s the point? What’s the point of taking footage and not editing it enough to be engaging, which I found to be the case for “The Eras Tour,” “The Guts World Tour,” and “The Renaissance World Tour”? What’s the point of releasing it in theaters instead of going straight to streaming services, if at all? Documentaries are meant to show audiences something that often isn’t accessible or is previously unknown, like never-before-seen footage of a singer writing their songs (like in “Amy,” Amy Winehouse’s documentary), or show animals scavenging for food (David Attenborough’s numerous documentaries). Concert documentaries such as “The Eras Tour,” “The Guts World Tour,” and “The Renaissance World Tour” seem pointless to me. Instead of viewing a lazily edited recording of the tour, just use a bootleg version, like I did for “Renaissance,” if one must.
Sure, bootleg concerts (recordings found on platforms like YouTube or Instagram) like “The Renaissance World Tour” don’t seem like the best solution, but usually, the audio and video are quite good. Seeing Beyoncé change outfits every five seconds was a plus too (she’s just that magical).
Another thing to note about “Renaissance” is that it was only released in theaters. This meant that people had to buy tickets to watch it in a movie theater and couldn’t enjoy it from the comfort of their own homes. Again, what’s the point, then, of releasing a recorded version of your tour if you only release it in theaters? Where’s the profit in only releasing in theaters instead of also on streaming services? How is that accessibly reaching the masses (a possible excuse for these recordings)?
In all these cases, the fans who bought the $1000+ Eras Tour tickets, $250+ Guts tickets, or $400+ Renaissance tickets were given the short end of the stick. Fans who did not attend the concert apparently got an experience slightly similar (another possible excuse for these recordings) to those who did go and did not have to pay the same staggering prices as those who went for the experience.
While these recordings could provide some magic to those at home, it is not enough to excuse its fanfare and overdone-ness. There is too much hype around these lazily-edited recordings, and it takes away from the experience of those who bought tickets. I am here for a few concert documentaries if done well, but, at this rate, every tour will have one. Keep it to a minimum—don’t overdo it, don’t go out of your way to create one—and maybe I can get behind it.
So? What’s the verdict?
Whether we like it or not, concert documentaries are here to stay: they’ve given us a glimpse into what it is like to see singers perform, and what it is like to be in the audience. The demand for tour recordings likely will not go away for a while, simply because of its ability to reach the masses and its capability of turning a profit for celebrities. Regardless of our affinity for these documentaries, though, we have just one simple, serious request. Please, please, please give us a (well-edited) “Short n’ Sweet Tour” documentary!