Taylor Swift once said women in pop are discarded in their 30s. Now she's 36 and bigger than ever.

Taylor Swift's docuseries, "The End of an Era," captures the cultural phenomenon of the Eras Tour. Swift says she's glad the tour took place in her 30s after she had the "privilege of developing." In her late 20s, Swift said she felt her opportunities for pop stardom were running out. Taylor Swift didn't expect her career to get this big. Just ask Taylor Swift. In the sixth and final episode of her new Disney+ docuseries, "The End of an Era," Swift reflects on the unprecedented success of the Eras Tour , which traversed 21 countries and grossed over $2 billion by the end of its two-year run. "This tour will live on as probably the pinnacle, foremost, important thing that I've done," she tells the camera. "I get very depressed about pop culture's obsession with youth culture," Swift continues. "We designate extremely young people to be the ones who have to tell us where culture is going, and the idea that an artist had, in my case, the privilege of developing - to the point where you're in your 30s and you know yourself a bit more, and then you were able to make the thing that they'll know you for. There's something very special about that." Swift was days away from turning 35 when the Eras Tour concluded on December 8, 2024 - the same age that Swift once believed would be her ceiling as a pop star. The 2019 Netflix documentary, "Miss Americana," focused on the creation and rollout of Swift's seventh album, "Lover," which was released when she was 29. In one particularly memorable scene, Swift discusses her age in relation to her stardom. "It's a lot to process because we do exist in this society where women in entertainment are discarded in an elephant graveyard by the time they're 35," she says. "Everyone's a shiny new toy for like, two years. The female artists that I know of have reinvented themselves 20 times more than the male artists. They have to. Or else you're out of a job." "This is probably one of my last opportunities as an artist to grasp onto that kind of success," she continues. "As I'm reaching 30, I'm like, I wanna work really hard while society is still tolerating me being successful." Swift helped popularize the idea of albums as "eras," a concept that describes the synergy between songs, music videos, outfits, performances, and marketing choices to curate an immersive experience for fans. Swift has continued to use this strategy well after "Lover," adopting new aesthetics and alter-egos for albums like "Folklore" (2020), "Midnights" (2022), and " The Tortured Poets Department " (2024). With the Eras Tour, Swift tried something different: Rewinding the clock. Each segment of the set list was framed around a different album from Swift's catalog, dating back to her 2008 sophomore release, "Fearless." The segments were each embellished with distinctive costumes that recalled what Swift wore at the time of the album's release. Swift designed the tour...

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