On a rainy November afternoon two years ago, a queue of conspicuously dressed people wrapped around several city blocks in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. There were sequinned blazers, pink tutus, cottage-core cardigans and people head-to-toe in red, holding bouquets of red roses. When passers-by asked what they were waiting for, they demurred: they had been sworn to secrecy.
They entered an AMC cinema where they were handed tissues branded with the song title “All Too Well”. After an hour of waiting, a Haim sister appeared, and then Taylor Swift, in a purple velvet suit, strutting down the sticky cinema aisle as if it was a red carpet. People began to sob. Swift told the 400 fans that they had been handpicked to hear her perform “All Too Well”, perhaps her most beloved song, in its full length, for the first time. “This stuff has always been between me and you”, she said.
Such is the lore of the Taylor Swift universe. At the time, she was already a famous pop star — beloved by legions of fans, mostly girls and women. But in the two years since, Swift, now 34, has unlocked a new level of stardom. Streams and Instagram “likes” have quintupled. Next week, she is set to tie Elvis Presley for the second-highest number of weeks holding the top-selling US album. From there, she trails only The Beatles.