How three female artists lead this summer's billion-dollar pop culture revival
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
First came hot girl summer, then hot vax summer. And now...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BEYONCE: Welcome to the Renaissance.
SUMMERS: It looks like 2023 has ushered in billion girl summer. We are talking about the epic trifecta of Beyonce's Renaissance tour...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BEYONCE: (Singing) Oh, baby, baby, you won't break my soul.
SUMMERS: ...Taylor Swift's Eras Tour...
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TAYLOR SWIFT: (Singing) It's me. Hi.
SUMMERS: ...And Greta Gerwig's box office record-smashing "Barbie" movie.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BARBIE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As Barbie) Hi, Barbie.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As Barbie) Hi, Barbie.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As Barbie) Hi, Barbie.
SUMMERS: All three already have or are on their way to earning more than $1 billion globally. And all three have felt inescapable in the pop culture landscape. We want to dig into these experiences that have really seemed to define this summer, so we are bringing this conversation to our group chat. Today, we've got Brittany Luse, host of NPR's It's Been A Minute, and Bilal Qureshi, senior editor on NPR's Culture Desk. Hey, y'all.
BRITTANY LUSE, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
BILAL QURESHI, BYLINE: Hey, Juana. It's so nice to be here.
SUMMERS: Good to have y'all. Bilal, I want to start with you, because you wrote this incredible analysis piece for npr.org. And you called the "Barbie" movie and Beyonce and Taylor's tours this epic trifecta. What made this summer different for you?
QURESHI: Well, you know, I think, for me, it was because even though at times when I heard about all of these things happening, I didn't feel like I was the target audience. And I felt so excited to be part of it, which feels very unusual in a lot of ways because (inaudible) of us - we've all gotten used to these very personal habits of consuming media and doing things on our own and obviously the lockdown years. So there was an obviousness to kind of the mass culture of it. But then also, I just found these three events, I mean, the reason they've grossed so much money is not just because they're, you know, a hot billion girl summer, but because they're so good. And they've been such incredible events that people have felt really satisfied and inspired by.
SUMMERS: Brittany, what about you? What made the summer feel different for you when it comes to these three works?
LUSE: I think the two biggest things are - there's like a desire, I think, among a lot of us for a collective experience. You know, Bilal, you know, mentioned, whether it's our music, podcasts, what TV we're streaming, who we're following on TikTok, these are all now highly individualized, private experiences. And with Beyonce and the Renaissance Tour and Taylor in the Eras Tour and, of course, the "Barbie" movie, whether you like them or whether you don't like them, you feel like you must take a stance, and also, taking that stance, it unites you with other people. The other thing is - which kind of brings me to the other point - all of these things are inescapable, as you mentioned.
(LAUGHTER)
LUSE: I am not even a Taylor fan. Every time I - every day, every time I open up TikTok at night before I go to bed, somebody is livestreaming. I have seen 10-second bits of that tour from every single angle, from every single city that Taylor has been to in the past year.
SUMMERS: I also want to talk about the women who are at the center of these explosive cultural moments. What do you think, Brittany, made this combination of Greta Gerwig and all of the women who starred in "Barbie," Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, Beyonce's Renaissance, what makes them, these women, different than perhaps other hot it-girls of summer that we've seen in the past?
LUSE: That's a really good question. I think part of it has to do with the length of their careers. These are all three people who are influential, who have long-spanning careers and the fan bases to go with them, right? But also, I think there are many on-ramps to getting into each of these women's, like, oeuvres. Like, we can dissect them as cultural figures the same way that we can dissect Barbie as a cultural figure. They are, in the public's eyes, industries unto themselves. These are not just people who are releasing a hot song for the summer, like maybe Katy Perry or something like that with "California Girls," all those summers ago. Katy Perry obviously is a huge pop star, but not a cultural icon in the same way, if that makes sense.
QURESHI: The other thing I want to add is that, you know, they've all had this incredible summer against the backdrop of, like, years of all of us who've covered the entertainment industry talking about, you know, women's place in their various industries, what credit they receive and don't receive and how much ownership they have. Of course, Taylor Swift having this meta narrative around rerecording her music and reclaiming the rights to her music. Finally, a lot of women are getting both the financial and the, like, industrial power to do things that are really in their control. And they're - I mean, Margot Robbie produced the "Barbie" movie, chose, you know, Greta Gerwig. Like, these are kind of important moments in the business story of women in the entertainment industry.
SUMMERS: I want to talk about the element of this that is about that feeling, that need to be there, to be in community with people, to experience this movie and these two tours. I mean, I am not a person who spends a lot of money on concerts normally, but I remember sitting literally in the studio while we were waiting for the show to start when the Beyonce presale started so I could get those tickets. I've sadly been waylaid as a Swiftie and won't be able to see the Eras Tour until next year. But, like, for you, I know we've all seen some of these experiences firsthand. For y'all, what was the mood like? What was the vibe like at the shows that you saw or at the screenings that you were at? How did it feel?
LUSE: (Laughter) Well, we actually pregamed to see Beyonce opening night in Stockholm together.
SUMMERS: Love it.
QURESHI: Yeah. We were migrating for this, which was - but I have to say, because the tickets were substantially cheaper in Europe than they were in America and easier to get, weirdly, but that's a different story.
LUSE: Even just speaking for a Stockholm, Stockholm is a much smaller city than where either of us live. I live in New York, obviously. And, Bilal, you live in LA. But so was almost easier to see the takeover in Stockholm. You could see Beyonce fans from a mile away in Stockholm. People were dressed up. And people were excitedly speaking in American English accents. The energy around those experiences, at least the energy around Renaissance for me and going to see the "Barbie" movie was pure joy as a nice respite, I think, from, like, this past summer of just relentless news and climate grief.
QURESHI: And I wanted to say, you know, I think we have to get back at some point to the cost factor...
SUMMERS: Oh, yeah.
QURESHI: ...Because we're talking about our, you know, financial predicaments to get to these places. And this is inaccessible to lots of people. And I think it's important to mention that because you don't gross a billion dollars without, you know, selling product. And so there is a component to this that is a lot of economic activity around it, some of which people may think was really, you know, not in people's interest or whatever.
But my point is that, you know, from various kinds of tie-ins, to merchandising, to all of that, there was a kind of - yeah, there was a kind of exuberance to a lot of this which felt like a lot of escapism slash retail therapy. The tickets became kind of this game. Like, it was like - I was looking at Ticketmaster for concerts. I wasn't going to, to be like, what's happening on this - and that's how I accidentally stumbled into a Taylor Swift resale ticket.
SUMMERS: Any time anything is successful on this sort of a scale in the entertainment world, you always see attempts by people to repeat it. Do either of y'all think we're going to see another season, another summer like this billion girl summer in the future, or is this a singular event?
LUSE: I think we're going to see a lot of unflattering imitation (laughter).
QURESHI: Yeah, a lot of cheap imitations, but very few alien superstars, which are what these three, I think, are. I think there was something kind of quite otherworldly and incredible about them doing it all and it all being released in this moment.
SUMMERS: That was NPR's Bilal Qureshi, a senior editor on NPR's Culture Desk, and Brittany Luse, host of NPR's It's Been A Minute. Thanks, y'all.
LUSE: Thank you.
QURESHI: Thank you so much for the group chat.
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