The love that Taylor Swift’s fans have for their favourite performer has caused them to, quite literally, shake the earth. The popstar, who is currently playing sold-out concerts in the US as part of her “Eras” tour, performed in Seattle this weekend where the energetic display of loyalty and devotion of her fans who danced and sang for four hours straight on two days resulted in seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake. The last time fans managed to cause the earth to move this much was also in Seattle, when spectators at an NFL playoff between the Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints, cheered so loudly for player Marshawn Lynch that their enthusiasm registered on a nearby seismometer, and earned the nickname “Beast Quake”.
Fandoms have attracted attention for the wider impact they can have on society and the economy. For example, economists drew a connection between higher-than-expected inflation in Sweden and the influx of tens of thousands of Beyonce fans in Stockholm, where the singer had performed in May. In the US, Swift’s fans have been credited for the sudden boost to public transport systems in cities like Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia and New Jersey, as most chose mass transit over the hassle of driving and finding parking spots during her ongoing tour. “Swifties” were also responsible, earlier this year, for putting a yet-to-be published book — which was, at the time, only rumoured to be written by the singer — at the top of bestselling charts.
A real earthquake, of course, is caused by sudden movements along fault lines deep inside the earth’s crust and no amount of jumping and dancing by a pop star’s fans can mimic its intensity. But to those who tend to dismiss pop culture as “superficial”, the Taylor Swift quake shows that the power of fandom can also be deeply moving.
