Volume 9 Issue 1

FROM REPUTATION
TO REVOLUTION:
How Modern Technology Has
Ushered Concerts into a New Era
By Kinsey Williams
W
While the first industrial revolution was
ushered in by the steam locomotive
and the second ignited by electricity,
new sparks are flying as we are
immersed in the fourth period of
innovation – an era that, according to many, began
in 1989.
On May 5, 2015, Taylor Swift welcomed fans
to New York with a career-defining innovation –
glowing bracelets. Though they made their original
appearance at a 2005 Coldplay concert during the hit
song “Fix You,” the 1989 World Tour marked the debut
of what would become one of Swift’s most iconic
concert elements – a synchronized, interactive light
60 alice.ua.edu
show worn on the wrists of each concertgoer.
With this being the most vibrant display of modern
technology’s impact on concerts, Swift’s career,
among others, epitomizes the evolution of connection
in live performances despite living in an age of typical
screen-imposed seclusion.
Mia Hernandez, a sophomore at the University
of Alabama, has witnessed this evolution firsthand.
Hernandez attended Swift’s first headliner tour,
The Fearless Tour, and of her most recent cultural
phenomenon, The Eras Tour. Although smaller venues
as seen on The Fearless Tour are often associated
with greater intimacy, the meticulous planning of
Swift’s team defeats this assumption through the