Taylor Swift is Time’s person of the year. Here’s why she’s also been a big financial story in 2023.

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You can’t shake this off: Taylor Swift is Time’s person of the year.

The pop star topped several other prominent contenders previously announced by the publication, from tech titan Sam Altman to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Even Barbie was on the shortlist. 

But Swift, who was also recently named to the MarketWatch 50 list of financial-market heavyweights, stood out for a number of reasons, according to Time.

Primarily, she was a positive force in a world rocked by so much negative news in the past year, said Sam Jacobs, Time’s editor-in-chief.

“We picked a choice of someone who represents joy,” Jacobs said in an appearance Wednesday morning on NBC’s “Today” show.

Still, it could be argued the real story is Swift’s impact as a financial mover and shaker. The star’s Eras Tour proved to be one of the biggest events in pop history: Not only did Swift sell out show after show, but her fans traveled throughout the country to attend the concerts. In all, it’s estimated that Swiftie spending tied to the tour reached $5 billion, with businesses large and small benefiting. 

Call it Taylornomics, as some already have. Or Swiftonomics, if you prefer. Either way, it was a force to be reckoned with. And it served as a proxy of sorts for the consumer mindset in 2023.

Beyond Swift, Americans just kept spending this year, despite early predictions of doom and gloom for the economy as interest rates surged and despite warnings by experts that the U.S. would tip into a recession by the summer. It did not, and the U.S. stock market rebounded as a result.

Americans forked over money on everything from trips to restaurant meals and designer handbags — a “revenge spending” trend that followed years of pandemic-related isolation and limitations.

So, did Swift and the revenge-spending consumer play a part, large or small, in the U.S. stock market, as measured by the S&P 500
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 realizing a solid total return of nearly 19% so far in 2023?

Of course, correlation should not imply causation — but still. The S&P 500 sank 7.8% from its first-quarter high to 3,858 on March 13, its lowest close in 2023, amid recession fears. Four days later, Swift launched her Eras Tour in Glendale, Ariz. By the time she hit Arlington, Texas, at the end of March, the S&P 500 was above 4,100, and it kept rising as her tour crossed America. It recently hit 4,567.

In effect, the market’s rise paralleled Swift’s ascendance as a pop juggernaut. It’s easy to write off such timing as mere fluke or coincidence. But some smart financial folks aren’t quite saying that. As for Swift herself, her team didn’t respond to an interview request.

Certainly, the billions of dollars that Swift’s activity generated this year can’t be ignored, regardless of the fact that it’s just a fraction of the $27 trillion U.S. GDP. Swift even made a summer appearance in the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which cited her concert tour’s impact on travel and tourism spending in Philadelphia.

‘She’s a market mover for sure’

Swift also had a direct effect on some publicly traded companies. The stock of movie-theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings
AMC,
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 rose for days in the lead-up to the October release of the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert film. The Swift picture generated a global opening weekend of $128 million, setting a record for a concert film. Footwear retailer Shoe Carnival
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-0.33%
 said it saw an “uptick in Western” items tied to the “whole Taylor Swift stadium concert thing” (apparently, Swift loves her boots and so do her fans).

“She’s a market mover for sure, but I think there’s been a perfect storm that allowed her to be a market mover,” said Thomas LaSalvia, a senior economist with Moody’s Analytics. He cited the fact that the U.S. economy “held up so much better” than expected and consumers were “willing to go out there and experience life like never before.”

That brings us back to those Swifties who booked all those flights and hotels to attend her concerts. The Swift-related money spent on room nights alone totaled $208 million, according to STR, a hospitality and analytics company.

Kat Mahon, a public-relations specialist, spent at least $10,000 on tickets, travel and concert merchandise as part of her Swift sojourn, which took her to 11 concerts in the New York metro area, Philadelphia and Los Angeles. 

It was a financial burden for Mahon, who still lives with her parents in New Jersey. “My friend said, ‘That’s money you could have spent on an apartment,’” Mahon said.

But it was the kind of blowout experience Mahon felt she couldn’t miss, saying, “It was very emotionally fulfilling.”

Swift’s financial success went beyond her touring. The singer-songwriter continued to be a force on the pop charts, with her release of two albums, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

Swift’s relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has also been a buzzy story — and a financial boon for the NFL. 

Specifically, Swift’s appearances at games have resulted in surging sales for seats on the secondary market, to say nothing of broader boosts for the league. Mind you, Swift isn’t singing the national anthem or providing the halftime entertainment at these games. She’s just there to support Kelce.

Hot Girl Summer

Swift also figures prominently into another spending trend of 2023: the “Hot Girl Summer” that encompassed everything from the “Barbie” movie, which has grossed more than $1.4 billion worldwide to date at the box office, to Beyoncé’s blockbuster Renaissance World Tour.

In short, these were events that appealed heavily to women and showcased their buying power as a result. By one estimate, women made up 80% of the audience at a Swift show in Texas.

Ellyn Briggs, a brands analyst with decision-intelligence company Morning Consult, says the movement driven by “Barbie,” Beyoncé and Swift constitutes its own perfect storm. And it’s one that will have lasting consequences, she contends.

This “has brought women’s spending to the forefront,” Briggs said.

Which is not to say all financial minds are in agreement that Swiftonomics is really a thing. Or at least a thing that has shaped the U.S. economy — and, in turn, the stock market — in any meaningful or ongoing way.

“The market does not respond to pop stars,” said Jeffrey Campbell, an economics professor at the University of Notre Dame.

Pick your argument. Some say that the money spent on all things Swift was money that would have been spent otherwise on something else — say, a Disney
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 vacation or a Caribbean cruise — so there was no real gain for the economy.

Others say the spending on Swift to date this year — and many other discretionary events, passions and pursuits — will haunt the economy in the fourth quarter. Meaning someone who made that trip to see Swift in Los Angeles could be cutting back on holiday shopping — or on their shopping in general.

Economists have been suggesting a cool-down could be coming — and there’s still talk about a potential recession. It’s more than just Swift-related factors, of course. The resumption of student-loan payments, for example, may weigh far more heavily on spending.

‘People will spend amazing money on a feeling worth feeling’

Even if the naysayers are right that Swift isn’t such a driving force in the economy — or even a symbol of the spending we’ve seen in recent months — that doesn’t mean she hasn’t changed the game in other ways, however. In terms of the music business alone, she’s leaving an incredible imprint, say those who follow or work in the industry.

For years, there’s been talk about how Live Nation Entertainment’s
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 Ticketmaster subsidiary has done a poor job of serving fans and artists alike. But it took the Ticketmaster meltdown that resulted from Swift’s Eras Tour tickets going on sale to prompt a Senate hearing on the issue.

Swift’s surge in 2023 also sends a message of another kind, says Damian Bazadona, founder of the Situation Group, a New York marketing agency that specializes in live entertainment. 

Swift didn’t amass a legion of fans for nothing, Bazadona explains. She did it by crafting hit after hit, from “Anti-Hero” to “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” to, yes, “Shake It Off.”

Then she stitched those songs together into an Eras Tour concert, spanning three hours and 15 minutes, that even the most hardened of critics praised as a stunning summation of her life’s work.

The inherent lesson is that you don’t have Taylornomics without talent. 

“You got to put on a good show,” Bazadona concluded. “People will spend amazing money on a feeling worth feeling.”

Indeed, the best news for the stock market may be that while the Eras Tour is done in the U.S. for 2023, it will resume in October 2024, starting with Swift’s performance in Miami. Meanwhile, Swift has been busy playing international dates.

For her part, Mahon, the New Jersey fan who already spent $10,000 attending Swift concerts, is looking to keep the party going. She’s already made plans to attend the Eras Tour stop in Vienna next summer and may add the tour’s closing European date in London to part of the same sojourn, leaving time for some sightseeing along the way.

“I do want to make a trip out of it,” Mahon said.

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