Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are currently busy minding their own concert tours. Justin's Purpose Tour is still going strong while Selena's Revival only began touring this month. Taylor Swift's 1989 concert series, however, ended in December last year. In fact, Swift has already received her paycheck: a whopping $80 million before taxes.
Money aside, how do the concerts of Taylor's much younger counterparts compare against her gold standard? Before we even go there, let us first peer into what makes a Taylor Swift concert tick. And while we're at it, let us use concert reviews to give us an independent audit of what makes a 1989 concert truly exceptional.
A Miami concert review analyzes the winning ingredients of 1989, as follows.
"From the 'surprise guest' appearances by Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade, Pitbull ('Mr. 305' whose smash 'Give Me Everything' turned into a frisky duet) and Ricky Martin (with whom she sang a rousing 'Livin' La Vida Loca') to fans toting signs that rewrote the lyrics to 1989's opener as 'Welcome to Miami/It's been waiting for you,' Swift's two-hour epic concert before 14,000 people at a sold-out American Airlines Arena was a love letter to Miami."
To paraphrase, these are what sets a TaySwift concert apart: Craft and talent, brilliant staging, scrumptious lighting, cinematic visuals, and exceptional ability to connect with the audience.
The source sums up its verdict with "Nobody does it better." Need we say more?
Now it's time to juxtapose the Taylor Swift record against, say, a Justin Bieber slate. And what we've found from most concert reviews is, we're sad to say, mixed reviews. There's no doubt about it. Justin Bieber is a musical genius, and that is the reason why The Biebs has become a superstar at the speed of light. Forget about the looks as well as the personal charisma, Justin's ability to interpret any song and make it his own is simply impeccable.
But when it comes to concerts, we see varying levels of enthusiasm and energy on stage. A case in point: Justin's Purpose in Houston or Ottawa is a different kind of animal from say, the same concert in Montreal. While he nails it in the latter, in regard to the former, he fails miserably in terms of energy and dedication.
There is no doubt in our minds that Justin Bieber knows what we mean by truly connecting with the audience. He has done it in Montreal, according to Montreal Gazette. As the source recounts, it was nothing short of a resurrection from being some sort of a fallen angel.
Next stop, Selena Gomez. The singer totally delivers during the launch of her Revival tour in Las Vegas. And the same goes for the Montreal and Edmonton legs of the tour. However, in most instances, some fans have been so keen as to notice a lot of reliance by the "Hands To Myself" singer on pre-recorded material, which has been mentioned by Edmonton Sun. Mind you, this is also a recurring criticism with regards to Bieber performances.
Taylor Swift never gets this kind of critique. Why? is this because she has way better acoustics or sound system at her concerts? We beg to disagree. Justin Bieber's equipment is definitely more high-tech. In fact, most Purpose concert reviews have pointed this out, citing the excessive use of pyrotechnics and other special effects.
Before she embarked on Revival, Selene Gomez has told her fans that she will never join the Aping Taylor Swift Movement. Instead, she will be her own woman and will not call out some special people to join her onstage. We totally respect that. However, we don't condone excessively resorting to artificial means of boosting vocal prowess when the voice runs out. For all professional singers, the microphone should be adequate to assist in most cases.
Justin Bieber is also guilty of the same thing, which is so unusual. Justin is 22-years-old, Selena is 23, and, Taylor Swift is 26. You would think that when it comes to the natural attrition of vocal strength, the older person in the equation will need more synthetic vocal support, but this is simply not the case. However, the fact remains that the audience is listening.
[Photo by Jim Dyson/Getty Images]
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