This thread is mostly about pop eras. Normally a pop star era is very clean and planned out. Release a single maybe two with music videos, do some performances on early and late shows, magazine covers, audience interaction on social media, and then drop the album with a few more singles throughout the year and award show performances during awards season. Pretty simple right. But there are some pop eras that are a bit difficult to explain when they begin or end.

I was thinking about Taylor Swift newest album The Tortured Poets Department, and realized, she literally released this in the middle of a tour. It may seem like we’re in TTPD era but this album was kinda dropped out of nowhere in the middle of a huge tour promoting her past albums. If The Eras Tour is really supposed to represent her previous albums she couldn’t tour for; Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Midnights and her rerecordings that’s being released simultaneously during her tour, were those albums really an era of its own, or is it all part of “The Eras” era? At first it seemed simple that Lover had a full era, Folklore and Evermore were in a pandemic era. But Midnights really co-lives with The Eras Tour and not just a tour promoting Midnights with rerecordings of Speak Now, 1989, and now a new album TTPD as well as singles from those albums being released as well as Cruel Summer being released out of nowhere as a single that came out in 2019. So it seems difficult to know if Midnights and TTPD are true “pop eras”

Another pop star that seemed to have a confusing era is Lady Gaga. The Fame came out in 2008 and I consider that era to end in 2009 after she performed Paparazzi at the VMA’s. Simple right. Because She debuted Bad Romance later after that on SNL and then we got the single and music video and then The Fame Monster came out. But was this era really an extension of The Fame or its own era since the two albums or album and EP were released together. Another thing is, when did it end? She toured for The Monster Ball throughout 2010, released two iconic singles but by later of that year she announces another album at the VMA’s. In her meat dress she announces the title of her new album Born This Way. So you’d think TF/TFM era has come to a close. Well not so fast. She’s still touring for those two albums throughout 2011 in the middle of debuting the new title track at the Grammys, adding the song Born This Way on her tour, and she’s doing promotional appearances and magazine covers promoting a new album while on tour promoting her previous albums. I still can’t figure out when TFM ended and when BTW began.

To a lesser extent Britney Spears had two albums that are kind of connected with each other. Blackout came out in 2007 during her troubled private life at the time and Circus came out in 2008 a year later. There’s still debate on which album is considered her “comeback album” since I’ve seen both albums being referred to it. But these eras are kind of connected because of her song Radar. It was originally supposed to be released in 2008 after her Blackout singles Gimme More, Piece of Me, and Break The Ice. But due to obvious reasons it was canceled. So end of Blackout, right? Not so fast. This Blackout single snuck its way to the album Circus and after three singles from Circus including the title track, Womanizer and If U Seek Amy it got released with a music video. And then another single 3 got released shortly after. I consider 3 to be part of this larger era of Blackout & Circus. And even The Circus Tour felt more like a Blackout tour with more songs from Blackout being performed.

So are there any other confusing pop eras like these?