If you weren’t aware, you can now stream The Eras Tour on Disney+. We reported on it. Taylor Swift’s big stadium tour is still going. It began in March 2023 and is planned to end in 2024. It became a place for friendship bracelets. The tour features secret songs. It has a cool LED swimming pool stage feature. If you have a teen daughter, she’s probably talked about it ad nauseum. It’s been a defining tour for pop music. Now you can experience it with a subscription to Disney+, but while you are at it, there are a ton of other concert films and music docs to see.
Disney+ launched in November 2019, just 4 months before the world would effectively shut down and we’d be sitting at home clicking through various streaming services. For most businesses, it was a devastating time. For Disney+, an international lockdown meant opportunity. There were definitely setbacks. Anything being filmed stopped production. Of course, animation found ways to work from home. The entertainment industry found unique ways to still make movies.
The Disney+ Pandemic Pivot
Disney pivoted to a certain degree. The company has always been known for its musical animated features. On the Disney Channel, the cultivated musicians. Shows like The Jonas Brothers turned kids into household pop stars. In fact, the Jonas Brothers got their own theatrical concert film, at least in more recent times. It ushered in a new era of concert-going. What had once been a DVD-exclusive genre, is now a theatrical powerhouse. Look no further than Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.
The Eras Tour concert was a phenomenon. Over the last few years, Taylor Swift has become an inescapable name and the concert on film proves her staying power. Of course, when it came time to move the movie to streaming, Disney+ was there to showcase it. It’s been heavily promoted to be coming to the streaming service. Now that it’s available, it joins an eclectic set of films for Disney. A genre Disney doesn’t seem to have originally thought to showcase.
Unintentionally, Disney has become the place for concert films and documentaries. With the world in lockdown, shooting a “studio session” or “at-home concert” became a viable option. It’s one that Taylor Swift took. She shot The Long Pond Studio Sessions for her album Folklore. Disney+ gained the rights for it and it became a major deal. An even bigger deal was the Broadway hit Hamilton. Hamilton was meant to have a theatrical run, but due to the pandemic, it ended up on Disney+. Not exactly a concert, but not a regular film. I wish Disney would add more Broadway shows to their roster. I think it’s unique, but I digress.
Beyond Taylor Swift
The Beyoncé concept film Black is King was another 2020 release. It had plenty of advertising and set up Disney+ as a viable place for musicians. I mean, wherever Beyoncé is, many are soon to follow. She’s been a trendsetter most of her career.
The Beatles documentary Get Back became a major talking point for fans online. Everyone was discussing the moment Paul McCartney pulled a masterpiece out of nowhere. It eventually spawned the last Beatles song as well! The editing and digital updating of the footage were fantastic. Peter Jackson did an incredible job piecing it together. As of it’s release in 2021, the only place to ever see it is on Disney+.
Ed Sheeran, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Elton John, and BTS have all had concert films premiere on Disney+. Some with fanfare, some without. Regardless, the catalog of music-related films has grown in the first 5 years of the streaming service. Now with The Eras Tour, it feels more or less like a complete genre. When you log into Disney+ you see the usual categories: Disney, Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, NatGeo. You can add Hulu to that mix these days too. I think there is an argument to be made for music. It could have its own category at this point. Maybe it will happen in the next few years.
Disney Leads the Music Film Genre
Personally, I’d love to see it happen. I think music and film have been connected for decades. MTV gave us the music video, but even before that musicians were performing on TV. The Tonight Show was built around music performance. In the streaming age, this can be a new way for musicians to earn income. It can revitalize interest in older artists. Just look at what Get Back did for the Beatles. Not just highlighting concerts either. They could showcase the making of albums. (ie. Metallica’s Some Kind of Monster). They can always film live Broadway shows too. Heck, Disney has created enough Broadway shows to have a playlist of them.
Maybe it’s the part of me that loves playing guitar. Maybe it’s my hope to see Disney+ diversify more. (Seriously they can’t just put out MCU and Star Wars shows forever.) I’m not even a Taylor Swift fan, but I love that concerts are finding their way to streaming. I love that a streaming service is creating a space for music. Maybe you can’t afford the expensive tickets to a stadium tour. I know I definitely can’t. Luckily, now we can watch from home.
