来自专栏：TSC的13号报刊亭
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Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2023: No. 1 — Taylor Swift
——Obviously.
By Andrew Unterberger
12/15/2023
Billboard is counting down our staff picks for the top 10 pop stars of 2023 all this week. At No. 1, we remember the year in Taylor Swift — who, quite simply, spent all year doing things we’ve never seen a pop star do before.
Billboard 本周正在介绍我们工作人员挑选的 2023 年的前 10 名流行歌星。排名第一的是泰勒·斯威夫特（Taylor Swift）——简单来说，她花了一整年的时间做我们以前从未见过流行歌星做的事情。
“9/24/23. Taylor was here.”
“23 年 9 月 24 日。泰勒来了。”
So read the bio of the NFL’s official TikTok account on Sept. 24, as Taylor Swift attended her first Kansas City Chiefs home game of the season as the special guest of her then-rumored beau, star tight end Travis Kelce. Swift’s appearance at Arrowhead Stadium was bigger news than anything that happened across 13 football fields that Sunday; even the reported condiments on the chicken she was eating in her guest box spawned year-defining memes. And so, the National Football League – as powerful, influential and deeply embedded a cultural institution as exists in the United States of America – had no choice but to simp for their new pop overlord. Taylor was here.
9月24日，NFL官方抖音的简介如此写道。那一天，泰勒丝作为其绯闻男友Travis Kelce的特邀嘉宾，首次出席了一场橄榄球比赛。泰勒丝出席的新闻是如此重要，其他13个体育场里的橄榄球赛发生的任何事情都相形见绌；连她在客厢里吃的鸡肉上的调味品都催生了2023年度表情包。因此，美国国家橄榄球联盟（National Football League）——全美国最强大、最有影响力且根深蒂固的文化机构——别无选择，只能顺应潮流、恭迎女王。泰勒来了。
Then again, there were very few places Taylor Swift wasn’t in 2023. Certainly not in North America, which she spent most of the year criss-crossing on her culture-consuming Eras Tour, being feted with gifts, welcome videos, keys to the city, street namings, city namings and Taylor Swift Days in jubilant anticipation of her arrival. And if it wasn’t your city she was coming to that weekend, chances are you still had a good idea where she was headed, because fans, the press and just about everyone else was on Taylor Watch all year – the kind of full-time job that major media companies needed to start specifically hiring reporters for. When Swift was in the building this year, nobody else mattered as much; when she wasn’t in the building, her absence was still bigger news than anyone’s actual attendance.
话说回来，2023 年，泰勒·斯威夫特 （Taylor Swift） 无处不在。北美是她的统治领域，一年中的大部分时间她都在开巡演，被礼物、欢迎视频、城市钥匙、街道命名、城市命名和泰勒斯威夫特日（Taylor Swift Days）所簇拥，人们欢欣鼓舞地期待着她的到来。即使她在某个周末未曾造访你的城市，你很可能对她的动向依旧一清二楚，因为粉丝、媒体和几乎世界上所有人一整年都在密切跟进她的一举一动（on Taylor Watch）。以至于各大媒体需要开始专门招募全职报道Taylor相关新闻的记者。今年的情况是，当泰勒丝在场时，没人比她重要；当她不在场时，她缺席的新闻比其他人在场还重要。
A lot of pop stars – some new, some established, some all-timers – had great years in 2023. We here at Billboard just wrote about nine of them, with plenty more we wish we could’ve given the full treatment; it was a notably great year for pop’s best and brightest. And yet, the decision of who would be our No. 1 Greatest Pop Star has never been easier. That’s truly no disrespect to our runners-up; it’s just about Taylor Swift having the kind of year that, as recently as late last year – even as we actually predicted in our No. 3 Greatest Pop Star of 2022 essay for her that she’d be “ready to snatch the crown right back in 2023” – we never could have seen coming. It didn’t seem possible that anyone could have a year this dominant: not this deep into the streaming era, not this long after the oft-proclaimed death of the monoculture, not when the entire industry seems to be in crisis over how to capture and hold onto listener attention. It was a year not to be judged against Swift’s 2023 peers, but against the entirety of modern pop history.
2023年里，形形色色、或新或老的流行歌手都闪耀万分。我们已经撰写了2-10名，并遗憾于未能在名单中纳入更多的歌手。对于流行乐而言，这无疑是光辉熠熠的一年。然而，在冠军归属的问题上，从未有哪一年像今年这般毫无疑问。这真的不是对亚军的不尊重，只是说2023年泰勒丝的统治程度实在是完全超乎所有人的想象（即使2022年底我们把她排在第三位时，就能预测到她2023年能轻松夺魁，我们也想不到2023年是这样啊）。似乎从没有人能如此统治一整年：有谁能在流媒体时代深耕如此呢？有谁能在“巨星时代已经逝去”的论调出炉已久的今天，在整个行业陷入如何吸引听众的危机时，取得如此的成就呢？2023年的泰勒丝不能用她的同辈来评判，而应该与整个流行音乐史来对比。
Which isn’t to say that it came totally out of nowhere, of course. The main reason we were able to call such a big year coming for Swift in 2023 was because she’d already ended 2022 on a stunning new career peak, 15 years into her superstardom. October’s Midnights release had served as the climax-to-that-point of a 2020s where Swift had made every right move, starting with the acclaimed alt-folk reset of Folklore and Evermore in 2020 and crescendoing with the triumphant first two Taylor’s Versions re-recordings (and the improbably Billboard Hot 100-besting 10-minute revision of Red deep cut “All Too Well”) in 2021. We actually named her the Greatest Pop Star of that year, too, saying that she’d been “making the type of moves within and outside of her music that elevate an artist from superstar to legend.”
当然，这并不是说泰勒丝2023年的成就是凭空产生的。我们之所以能说泰勒丝统治了2023，当然是因为她以全新的生涯巅峰结束了2022年。而这已经是她成为超级巨星的第十五年了。2022年10月，《Midnights》发行，掀起2020年代新的高潮。2020年代的泰勒丝做出的每一个决策都正确无比：2020年发行了广受好评的民谣双专，21年发行大获成功的两张重录（包括奇迹般的B榜冠单，10分钟重置版ATW）。我们也把泰勒丝评为了2021年的流行巨星之首。当时的我们点评道，她“在音乐行业内外的举措将其由超级巨星提升为传奇人物。”
But Midnights took her to yet another new level, with 1.57 million units moved in its first week – nearly three years into a decade where no other artist, even Adele, had even come particularly close to clearing a million – and spawning the longest-reigning Hot 100-topper of her career with the four-quadrant smash “Anti-Hero.” Previously, Taylor Swift’s Greatest Pop Star Alive claims had to be tempered with allowances that Adele sold more, that Drake streamed better, that The Weeknd and Ariana Grande had bigger pop hit singles. Now all those qualifiers were moot: Swift was dominating on every platform at every level, and if anyone else was nearing her performance in one or two facets of superstardom, they certainly weren’t in all of ‘em. She ended 2022 the unchallenged No. 1 in the pop arena; the only reason she slotted at No. 3 in our Greatest Pop Star rankings for the year (behind Bad Bunny and Harry Styles) was because she’d spent the first eight months of the calendar mostly dormant, recharging.
但是《Midnights》将泰勒丝带到了新的巅峰。首周销量就有157万——近十年来，除了Adele之外，还没有其他艺人能触及百万销量呢。红极一时的《Anti-Hero》成为泰勒丝职业生涯中在榜时间最长的B榜冠军单曲（53周）。2021年评选流行巨星的时候，我们还不得不补上，说Adele专辑销量更多，Drake流媒体数据更好，The Weeknd和Ariana Grande合作的单曲成绩最好。现在这些补丁毫无意义：泰勒丝垄断了每一个指标、每一个维度，即使有人在某一个或两个维度和她接近，也肯定做不到泰勒丝一般全能。2022年结束时，泰勒丝已经成为流行竞技场不可挑战的冠军；之所以2022年的榜单我们把她排到了第三位（仅次于Bad Bunny和Harry Styles），是因为2022年的前八个月她都在休眠充电呢。
There would be no such lengthy respites in 2023. Swift kicked off the year still in the golden hour of the Midnights album cycle. Over the first two months of the year, she released a gently surreal video for “Lavender Haze,” picked up a Grammy for best video as director of All Too Well: The Short Film and scored a top five album on the Billboard 200 for a Record Store Day release of her Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions collection. But mostly, she prepped for the Eras Tour.
2023年没有这么漫长的喘息期。泰勒丝在辉煌的《Midnights》盛世中开启了这一年。在前两个月中，她为《Lavender Haze》发行了一段温和的超现实主义mv，以《All Too Well：The Short Film》的导演身份获得了格莱美年度MV奖，并在唱片店日发行了她的《Folklore： The Long Pond Studio Sessions》实体专，在Billboard 200上挺进top5。但更重要的是，她正在筹备时代巡演。
It would be no exaggeration to call the Eras Tour the single most anticipated live trek of the century. Part of that was just a numbers game: Taylor Swift had not played a full concert since the Reputation tour in 2018, having to cancel her planned Lover Fest mini-world tour for 2020 – the COVID shutdown year. In the half-decade since that successful live run, Swift had released four entirely new albums, as well as two Taylor’s Version deluxe re-recordings, and myriad in-between bonus goodies. All of that had combined to make Swift significantly more popular than she had been in the late 2020s, when she was already one of the biggest pop stars and live draws on the planet. Needless to say, the fans were ready – so much so that Ticketmaster’s servers had proven woefully under-equipped to handle the level of demand once Eras Tour tickets were first released to the public the prior November.
毫不夸张的说，时代巡演是本世纪最令人瞩目的演唱会。一部分是因为人们等待了太久：泰勒丝从2018年REP TOUR以来就没有巡演过了。2020年，她不得不取消LOVER FEST。五年来，她发行了数张专辑，作品的积累让她的人气再度高涨，而五年前的她就已位列全球最红的明星之一。毋庸置疑，粉丝们已经准备好了——以至于 Ticketmaster 的服务器在2022年11月被挤崩了。
And when Eras finally kicked off on March 17, it was far more than just the tens of thousands of fans in attendance at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ who were watching. Interest in the tour was so high that phone-filmed bits of the show spread through social media like wildfire, with some fans even live-streaming the entire experience from their phones. Consequently, even though no official stream of the kickoff concert was offered, millions of Swifties still saw the whole thing, if only in minute-long clips at a time. Eras was in many ways the first event tour for the TikTok Generation – the app rising to global prominence during Taylor’s touring hiatus – and footage of and reactions to the first concert soon overwhelmed the service, ultimately reaching all corners of the internet as fans pored over each song selection, each costume and set change, each little bit of in-between banter.
当时代巡演于2023年3月17日拉开帷幕，观看比赛的不仅仅是在亚利桑那州格伦代尔的州立体育场现场的数万名球迷。人们对这次巡演的兴趣如此之高，以至于手机拍摄的节目片段像野火一样在社交媒体上传播开来，一些粉丝甚至用手机直播了全场。因此，即使缺乏官方直播，百万霉粉依然跟进了全程，即使是以刷无数个几分钟长的剪辑片段的方式。从多重角度来说，时代巡演是抖音一代所经历的第一次盛会——在泰勒丝REP TOUR与ERAS TOUR之间的休止期，该软件统治了全世界。第一场巡演的一切很快淹没了抖音，并占据了互联网的每个角落，因为粉丝们仔细研究了每首歌曲选择、每件服装和布景的变化，以及过程中的每一个玩笑。
The kickoff show was, in every way, just the beginning for the Eras Tour. Contrary to 99% of big pop tours, national interest in Eras hardly dropped at all after the first night, as the set’s rotating spot of two acoustically performed “surprise songs” gave fans reason to excitedly tune into the social chatter (and videos) from each new concert. “I AM DONE WITH TAYLOR SWIFT” became a recurring trending topic as the battle cry of faux-betrayed Swifties, irate that their personal fav track appeared in the setlist for a show when they weren’t in attendance. The celebrity turnout at Eras gigs also became a reliable topic of content and discussion, with everyone from Julia Roberts to Flavor Flav getting in on the world’s hottest ticket.
从各个方面来看，首场演出都只是时代巡回演唱会的序幕一角。与99%的大型巡演相反，全美人民对时代巡演的兴趣在第一晚之后几乎没有下降，因为每场巡演轮换演出的两首“惊喜曲目”让歌迷们有理由兴奋地跟进每一场巡演。话题“泰勒丝我真的受不了了”反复登上热搜，成为霉粉自觉被背叛后的口号，她们对自己最喜欢的曲目被演唱时自己并未出席而感到愤怒。时代巡演观众席上的名流济济也被广为讨论，从Julia Roberts到Flavor Flav，每个人都获得了世界上最热门的门票。
All eyes remained on the Eras Tour as it wound its way through the States during the spring and early summer. The arrival of Eras in a new town every weekend brought with it not only an avalanche of hype, media attention and near-groveling from the host cities, but enough traveling business to give local economies a notable boost. Cities like Las Vegas and Philadelphia had reportedly seen their tourism levels rise to pre-pandemic levels upon her visits, and research company QuestionPro estimated that the tour could raise as much as $4.6 billion for all its host cities combined – even leading to debate on The View over whether Swift was doing more for the national economy than President Biden.
在春天和初夏，时代巡演在美国蜿蜒而行，所有人都紧紧关注。每个周末，时代巡演来到一座新城市，不仅带来了雪崩般的追捧、媒体关注和主办城市近乎卑躬屈膝的迎接，还带来了足量的旅游业务，为当地经济带来了显著的推动力。据报道，巡演期间，拉斯维加斯和费城等城市的旅游水平已上升到大流行前的水平。研究公司 QuestionPro 估计，这次巡演可以为美国境内的所有主办城市直接带来多达 46 亿美元的经济效益；The View因此提出讨论，泰勒丝是否比总统为国民经济做得更多。
It helped that by that point, the tour had its own hit single adding to its promotion – and for once, it was one that Swift herself couldn’t have planned or predicted. “Cruel Summer,” a sparkling album cut off 2019’s Lover, had been a fan (and critic) favorite and regular high-performer on streaming for years, but with its plum second-from-the-top placement within the Eras setlist – and with the weather heating up – consumption of the song kicked into high gear. In June, it reappeared on the Hot 100 for the first time in four years, and Swift soon seized the moment, announcing its release as an official single a few weeks later. Radio quickly jumped on board – it ultimately spent 10 weeks atop Pop Airplay, her longest-ever reign on that chart – and in July, the song climbed into the Hot 100’s top 10.
彼时，时代巡演有了自己的主题曲：头一次，这是泰勒丝未曾预料或计划到的。《Cruel Summer》是专辑《Lover》中闪闪发亮的遗珠，多年来一直广受粉丝和乐评家的好评，播放量也水涨船高。但随着它在时代巡演中首发出场和天气的升温，这首歌开始迎来高潮。6月，它于发行四年后重回B榜。泰勒丝很快抓住时机，在几周后宣布打单。电台迅速助推：残夏最终在电台榜豪取10周冠军，是泰勒丝在电台榜统治时间最长的一次。7月，残夏挺进B榜前十。
And in truth, “Cruel Summer” was just the tip of the spear for the full-on streaming onslaught that the Eras Tour represented for Taylor Swift. For the first eight weeks of her tour, her streaming numbers rose across the board in each frame – ultimately leading to a 79% total boost in her streaming performance, for numbers that were already ozone-high. Her catalog-wide consumption was so vast that in July, she notched four albums simultaneously in the top 10 of the Billboard 200, becoming the first living artist to accomplish that feat since Herb Alpert six decades earlier. (By year’s end, she’d become the first to get a full five at once.)
事实上，残夏的成功只是泰勒丝流媒体盛世的冰山一角。在巡演的前八周，泰勒丝的流媒体播放量不断攀升——最终导致其播放量提高了79%，而她的播放量在巡演前就已经高得吓人了。她的收听量是如此之大，以至于7月，她在B榜专辑榜的前十名中占据了四位，成为自60年前的Herb Alpert 以来第一位完成这一壮举的在世艺术家。（到年底，她成为第一个一次性占据五席的人。）
One of those four July albums was her first Taylor’s Version re-recording for 2023, of 2010’s Swiftie-beloved Speak Now. The set featured the usual barrage of bonus cuts. Best of the bunch was the slinking solo performance “I Can See You,” which became the highest-charting song from the new Speak Now, debuting at No. 5 on the Hot 100, as the album became her third straight re-recording to bow atop the Billboard 200 – with a whopping 716,000 first-week units, the best number yet for any Taylor’s Version, and also the biggest number for any album released to that point in 2023.
在七月创纪录的四张专辑中，有一张是她在2023年发行的第一张重录专辑，即原本发行于2010年的、广受粉丝喜爱的Speak Now。和往常一样，重录带来了数首加曲。其中最优秀的莫过于闪耀的独唱“I Can See You”，它在B榜排行第五，成为重录版Speak Now排名第一的单曲。Speak Now重录成为泰勒丝第三张登顶的重录，首周销量高达 716,000 张。这是那时重录专的最高销量，也是 2023 年发行的任何专辑中的最高销量。
If Taylor Swift’s year had ended as the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour began to wind down in late July and early August, she already would have done more than enough to easily capture our No. 1 spot in these rankings. She even took a kind of mid-season victory lap at September’s MTV Video Music Awards. Without performing, she was still the show’s focal point all night, as she hung out with Ice Spice and collected nine awards, including song and video of the year for “Anti-Hero” – her second-straight win and fourth total in the latter category, double the amount of any other artist.
如果泰勒丝的这一年随着时代巡演八月初美国第一轮的结束而结束，那么她已经做得足够多了，可以轻松在我们的榜单中夺魁。她甚至在9月的VMA中小小横扫了一把，有种抽身于工作短暂休息拿个奖的感觉。虽然没有登台表演，她依然是整个晚上的焦点。镜头记录着她和Ice Spice的姐妹情深，以及横扫的九个奖项——包括“Anti-Hero”的年度歌曲和MV奖。她连续第二年获得年度MV，这也是她第四座年度MV奖，其他歌手顶多拿了两座。
But Swift’s year was nowhere near done – in fact, the biggest moments were yet to come, as would become abundantly clear on that aforementioned Sept. 24 date. Rumors were beginning to swirl about her and Kelce. The Chiefs star had become increasingly coy in his comments about the pop icon, saying he’d invited her to come see him play a home game (after he’d seen her Eras show in Kansas City that July). She did indeed do just that on the 24th, with her presence at Arrowhead sending both the worlds of sports and pop culture into a frenzy, and leading to numerous posts and videos of non-football-conversant Swifties sharing the sport’s rules with one another, so they could better understand what was happening in between the shots of their hero in a private box with Kelce’s mom Donna.
但泰勒丝的这一年远未结束——事实上，最重要的时刻还没有到来，正如文章开头所提到的 9 月 24 日所表明的那样。关于她和Kelce的绯闻开始流传。这位酋长队的明星在对泰勒丝的提及中变得越来越腼腆，他说他邀请她来看他打一场比赛（在2023年7月他在堪萨斯城看过她的巡演后）。她的确在 9月24日前来了，她在 Arrowhead 体育场的出现让体育界和流行文化界都陷入了狂欢，并导致大量对橄榄球一窍不通的霉粉紧急学习相关规则，以期她们能了解泰勒丝与Kelce的妈妈在私人包厢里聊些什么。
From then on, every Sunday (and a couple Mondays and Thursdays) of 2023 was overtaken with Taylor talk: Would she be showing up at the Chiefs’ next game? What other celebrities would she be attending with? What kind of Kelce swag would she be wearing, and what would that mean about their relationship? Her love story with Kelce – a well-liked, unproblematic figure, a Super Bowl-winning superstar as an athlete with enough of a Q rating as a celebrity to host SNL – was universally accessible, and found near-100% public approval. You didn’t need deep grounding in Swift Lore to understand the relationship, because it just felt right: the All-American athlete dating the All-American pop star.
从那时起，2023 年的每个星期天（以及几个周一和周四）都充斥着对泰勒丝的讨论：她会出现在酋长队的下一场比赛中吗？她还会和哪些名人一起参加？她会穿什么样的Kelce周边，这对他们的关系意味着什么？Kelce是一个广受欢迎的、没有污点的公众人物，是以运动员身份赢得超级碗的顶流巨星，作为名流足以红到主持SNL。因此，她与Kelce的爱情故事获得了几乎100%的公众认可。你不需要对泰勒丝有多了解来理解这种关系，因为它感觉很对：美国体坛顶流和歌坛顶流约会。
As her second 2023 tour of America’s football stadiums continued through October, Swift also had a new project to promote: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, the concert film documentary shot across her August dates at SoFi Stadium in California. While such concert docs have historically been fan-only fare, with limited box-office ceilings, news of The Eras Tour was greeted as if it was the new Marvel blockbuster – and with commercial expectations to match, as insiders projected it could earn as much as $100 million in its opening weekend. Swift released the movie directly through theater chain AMC’s screening and distribution, and even with the brand beefing up its ticket sales systems to five times their usual capacity in advance of the Eras ticket pre-sale, they still crashed due to overwhelming demand. No business could properly quantify or contain Swfitie enthusiasm in 2023.
随着她美巡二轮持续到10月，泰勒丝还有一个新项目需要推广：巡演大电影，拍摄于8月的洛杉矶场。虽然此类型演唱会纪录片历来都是粉丝导向的，票房上限有限，但时代巡演大电影的声势无比浩大，有如漫威的最新大片一般。它的商业成绩也同样出色，内部人士预计其首周末票房即可突破1亿美元大关（注：最后遗憾地并未达到）。泰勒丝直接与AMC合作发行电影，即使AMC在预售前升级系统，将其容量提高到往常的五倍，系统依然崩溃了。2023年，没有任何企业能够合理地量化或者遏制霉粉的狂热。
And then, the capper. While Swifties had ravenously consumed each of Swift’s three Taylor’s Version re-recordings, there was one that was anticipated above all others: 1989, the 2014 mega-blockbuster that fully completed her crossover to pop superstardom and was still treasured by fans as the defining album of that pop era. Swift had announced the release of her new 1989 onstage at the final show of her Eras Tour U.S. leg in August, and in late October, it was finally set to be released. However, following a full year of Taylormania, dating back to Midnights the prior October – and only three months after Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), two weeks after the Eras Tour film, and with “Cruel Summer” still holding atop the Hot 100 – some had to wonder: Has it been too much Taylor? Will fans really have the capacity to come out in full force for another album of re-recordings?
紧随而来的是人们等待已久的时刻：尽管霉粉已经对发出的三张重录都热情高涨，但有一张重录是最受期待的：重录版89。这张发布于2014年的跨时代专辑确立了泰勒丝流行巨星的地位，时至今日依然被歌迷们视为那个时代的决定性专辑。8月，泰勒丝在时代巡演美国站的最后一场中官宣了这张专辑。10月，它终于要来了。然而，在自《Midnights》发行以来持续一整年的“泰勒狂热”（Taylormania）后，Speak Now重录发行仅三个月，大电影上映仅两周，残夏还高居B榜冠军位置——有的人未免会怀疑，泰勒是不是发的太多了？粉丝们真的还有余力为另一张重录专出战吗？
The first-week numbers for 1989 (Taylor’s Version) answered those questions with a definitive no and yes, respectively. The re-recording debuted with a near-unthinkable 1.653 million units, including 1.359 million in pure sales: both numbers passing every other Taylor’s Version, passing Midnights, even passing the debut week for the original 1989. (Passing every other release of the 2020s as well, though Swift beating everyone else had ceased to be as impressive as besting her own marks.) The set’s five new bonus tracks were also well-received by fans and critics, particularly “Slut!,” which offered a new look at Swift’s vulnerability under the peak media glare of the 1989 era, and “Is It Over Now?,” which debuted atop the Hot 100, becoming her third song to hit No. 1 in 2023.
89重录用首周数据打碎所有质疑。重录版专辑首周销量为165.3万，实销占135.9万：这两个数字都超过了泰勒丝的所有专辑，超过了《Midnights》，甚至超过了原版89.（也超过了2020s的所有专辑，尽管泰勒丝击败其他人已经不再像超越她自己的成绩那样令人印象深刻）随专辑发布的五首新歌也广受好评。尤其是“Slut!,”让人重新审视了泰勒丝在89盛世时的脆弱。以及“Is It Over Now？”空降B榜榜首，成为泰勒丝在2023年的第三支冠单。
The Eras Tour finally wrapped for the year in late November, with Swift scheduled to pick things back up in Tokyo in February. Official Box Score numbers have yet to be reported for the tour’s 53 dates so far, but Billboard projects the total number to be upwards of $900 million – already enough to zoom past Elton John’s current mark for the highest-grossing North American tour of the Box Score era, with his Farewell Yellow Brick Road trek taking in $567.7 million over 135 shows – and that she might double that number with her 2024 dates. In fact, between her music sales and streams, tour receipts and box office returns, Billboard estimates that Swift made nearly $2 billion in 2023 alone, numbers which don’t even account for her financial wins from synchs, sponsorships and merchandise.
时代巡回演唱会终于在11月下旬结束，斯威夫特计划于2月在东京重新启程。到目前为止，巡演 53 场的官方票房尚未公布，但 Billboard 预计总收入将超过 9 亿美元——已经足以超越现有5.677亿美元的记录——而且2024 年票房数字可能还会翻番。事实上，Billboard预计泰勒丝在2023年收入高达20亿美元，仅在音乐领域。这个数字还不包括她从赞助、广告和周边中的收益呢。
Still, while the staggering numbers certainly suggest the enormity of Taylor Swift’s 2023, they don’t totally capture it. It’s also about going to any airport, any city center, anywhere with a large gathering of people – not even necessarily music fans – and seeing multiple Eras Tour tees and hoodies. And it’s about looking at the current pop landscape and seeing Swift’s impact absolutely everywhere. It’s in the breakout of singer-songwriter Noah Kahan, who’s acknowledged that the pandemic-era acclaim for her Folklore and Evermore albums helped open a mainstream lane for his brand of alt-folk. It’s in the sophomore success of Olivia Rodrigo, who’s been following in the Taylor Swift career mold so well through her first three years of recording that she even just released an eerie Hunger Games ballad. It’s in the first-ever Hot 100 hits for obvious acolytes like Lizzy McAlpine and Gracie Abrams. It’s even in the recent triumphs of stars like Zach Bryan and SZA, whose musical trees don’t branch up to Swift, but who are certainly benefiting from the raised commercial ceiling she’s allowed for artists whose emphasis is first and foremost on detailed, personal songwriting.
尽管如此，虽然惊人的数字肯定表明了泰勒斯威夫特 2023 年的巨大成功，但数据并没有完全捕捉到泰勒丝的统治。泰勒丝的统治体现在，任何市中心、任何人流聚集的地方——甚至不一定是演唱会——你都能看到一堆人穿着巡演周边；泰勒丝的统治体现在，她的影响力在我们当今的流行乐界无处不在；体现在Noah Kahan公开表示，泰勒丝的民谣双专的成功，使得这位民谣歌手更加为人所知；体现在Olivia Rodrigo在大二走红，她的三年职业生涯就是对泰勒丝的模仿，甚至还刚给《饥饿游戏》写了一首民谣主题曲呢；体现在Lizzy McAlpine和Gracie Abrams这些众所周知的霉粉首次B榜入榜；体现在Zach Bryan和SZA这些明星所取得的成功，他们的音乐流派并非与泰勒丝直接相关，但他们一定受益于泰勒丝为那些在歌曲中描绘细节、强调个人创作的歌手们所打破的商业天花板。
It’s not totally clear how her year relates to the past, but what’s abundantly clear is that Swift’s 2023 will now be the year that all future pop stars will be measured against. Swift has shown that as powerful as a viral hit can be, it’s absolutely nothing compared to a viral tour, a viral catalog, a viral… everything. Really, Taylor Swift spent 2023 in a perpetual state of virality – something that sounds like it would be unsustainable if not outright dangerous for most pop stars, but something that after 15 years in the spotlight, she seemed absolutely ready and game for. Consequently, she is on a level of pop stardom right now that no other contemporary artist is even approaching, and remarkably few would be able to hold onto if they ever got there.
目前尚未完全清楚，泰勒丝的2023年在历史上会占据什么地位。但毫无疑问的是，泰勒丝的2023年将是未来所有流行歌手将会与之相比的里程碑。泰勒丝表明，尽管一首热单可能很重要，但与一场热门巡演、热门话题……相比，真的算不了什么。说真的，泰勒丝在2023年一直处于几何级传播的状态。这听起来像是不可延续的，而且对大多数明星来说是很危险的。但站在聚光灯下15年后，泰勒丝似乎完全准备好了。如今的泰勒丝星光熠熠，处于乐坛巅峰，没有哪位歌手能接近她的位置。即使他们能接近，也少有人能保持下去。
But if you do have to hand it to Taylor Swift’s 2023 for one thing, it’s this: Pop history is littered with frustrating what-if stories. Artists who made a major miscalculation with a song or album, artists who changed their sound or style too soon (or not soon enough), artists who took a couple years off at the worst possible time, artists whose personal lives overwhelmed their musical output or vice versa. And there is something not just awe-inspiring, but deeply satisfying, about watching an artist who made every single right decision for years and saw it all come together in one year of total untouchability. There is no wasted potential with Taylor Swift, no what ifs – the chance was there for her to have one of the greatest years any pop star has ever had, and you know that she grabbed it. Taylor was here. No one who was around for her 2023 will ever forget it.
但如果一定要用一句话来总结泰勒丝的2023，我们会说：流行乐充斥着令人沮丧的假设叙事：对一首歌或专辑做出重大误判的艺术家，过早（或不够快）改变声音或风格的艺术家，在最不应该的时候休息几年的艺术家，个人生活压倒了他们的音乐输出的艺术家，反之亦然。目睹一位艺术家多年来做出每一个正确的决定，并在一年内看到一切决定不可抵挡地汇成今日盛世，这不仅令人敬畏，而且令人深感满足。泰勒·斯威夫特（Taylor Swift）没有浪费潜力，没有假想如果——当她有机会占据流行音乐史上最伟大的年份之一时，她抓住了机会。泰勒来了。没有任何一个经历过 2023 年的人会忘记这一年。
Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2023:
Rookie of the Year: Peso Pluma |
Comeback of the Year: Miley Cyrus |
No. 10: Drake |
No. 9: Doja Cat |
No. 8: Bad Bunny |
No. 7: Olivia Rodrigo |
No. 6: Karol G |
No. 5: Morgan Wallen |
No. 4: Ice Spice |
No. 3: Beyoncé |
No. 2: SZA |