Taylor Swift fans report “post concert amnesia” after ‘The Eras’ tour
Some Taylor Swift fans are reportedly having “post concert amnesia” after seeing the pop icon perform during her ‘Eras’ tour.
Taylor Swift kicked off her long-awaited ‘Eras’ tour back in Arizona back in March, and has played numerous shows across the US in the time since.
Now, with stops still set to be made in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles and more (tickets available here), some fans who have already seen the singer-songwriter perform live have discussed a strange phenomenon they have described as “post concert amnesia” (via Consequence).
While fans are by no means forgetting that they attended the gigs, some have supposedly forgotten chunks of time during the event, including memories of certain songs being played or moments where the artist addressed the crowd.
According to Dr. Michelle Phillips, a senior lecturer in music psychology at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, the feeling of “amnesia” after an event such as a live performance is not only a real thing, but actually surprisingly common.
“It’s likely to be one of the things they remember attending for the rest of their lives,” she said (via BBC). “[But] it’s simply that they encode some aspects of the event in memory, and not others.”
Essentially, when excited or immersed in a highly stimulating environment, it becomes easy for your brain to become overwhelmed with the level of information it is receiving — leading to key moments being omitted from your memory.
Given the elaborate stage set-ups at previous shows on the ‘Eras’ tour, special guests and the impressively long setlists — which sometimes reach up to 44 songs per night — it makes sense why some attendees may forget chunks of information from each show.
One of the star’s most recent shows was in New Jersey on May 30. In a five-star review of the gig, NME praised the singer for capturing a “full picture of what it means to be human” in her performance.
“Regardless of any preconceptions you may have of Swift, you can’t help but smile at the thought of young women feeling safe to unabashedly scream this loud about what hurts,” it read. “[When] watched for more than three hours straight, her discography seems less painted by moments of easily digestible pop songs… but a full picture of what it means to be human.”
Last week (May 27), Swift also shared a video for the new version of ‘Karma’ featuring Ice Spice.
In the footage, the pop star appears in a host of different locations including on a yellow brick road, trapped in an hourglass and inside a lightbulb. Later, once Ice Spice joins the party, the pair row a boat across the sea.