---
type: claim
domain: entertainment
secondary_domains: [cultural-dynamics]
description: "Academic analysis frames concert tours as worldbuilding infrastructure that coordinates communal meaning-making at scale through transmedia storytelling"
confidence: experimental
source: "Journal of the American Musicological Society, 'Experiencing Eras, Worldbuilding, and the Prismatic Liveness of Taylor Swift and The Eras Tour' (2024)"
created: 2026-03-11
depends_on:
- narratives are infrastructure not just communication because they coordinate action at civilizational scale
related:
- Collaborative fiction exhibits a fundamental tradeoff between editorial distribution and narrative coherence where distributed authorship produces scalable worldbuilding while coherent linear narrative requires concentrated editorial authority
- Narrative protocols (standardized format plus community voting plus organizational center plus open licensing plus scalable contributions plus passive theme) can replace editorial authority for worldbuilding but not for linear narrative
reweave_edges:
- Collaborative fiction exhibits a fundamental tradeoff between editorial distribution and narrative coherence where distributed authorship produces scalable worldbuilding while coherent linear narrative requires concentrated editorial authority|related|2026-04-17
- Narrative protocols (standardized format plus community voting plus organizational center plus open licensing plus scalable contributions plus passive theme) can replace editorial authority for worldbuilding but not for linear narrative|related|2026-04-17
sourced_from:
- inbox/archive/entertainment/2024-10-01-jams-eras-tour-worldbuilding-prismatic-liveness.md
---

# Worldbuilding as narrative infrastructure creates communal meaning through transmedia coordination of audience experience

Academic musicologists are analyzing major concert tours using "worldbuilding" frameworks traditionally applied to fictional universes, treating live performance as narrative infrastructure rather than mere entertainment. The Eras Tour demonstrates how "intricate and expansive worldbuilding employs tools ranging from costume changes to transitions in scenery, while lighting effects contrast with song- and era-specific video projections" to create coherent narrative experiences that coordinate audience emotional and social responses.

This worldbuilding operates as infrastructure because it creates persistent reference points that audiences use to organize meaning. The tour's structure around distinct "eras" provides narrative scaffolding that millions of people simultaneously use to interpret their own life experiences—what the source describes as audiences seeing "themselves reflected in Swift's evolution." The "reinvention and worldbuilding at the core of Swift's star persona" creates a shared symbolic vocabulary that enables communal meaning-making.

The "church-like aspect of going to concerts with mega artists like Swift" emerges from this infrastructure function: the tour provides ritualized communal experiences where "it's all about community and being part of a movement." This fills what the source identifies as society "craving communal experiences amid increasing isolation"—a meaning infrastructure gap that traditional institutions no longer fill.

The academic framing is significant: top-tier musicology journals treating concert tours as "transmedia storytelling and worldbuilding" validates that narrative infrastructure operates across media forms, not just in traditional storytelling formats. The 3-hour concert functions as "the soundtrack of millions of lives" precisely because it provides narrative architecture that audiences can inhabit and use to coordinate shared meaning.

## Evidence
- Journal of the American Musicological Society (top-tier academic journal) analyzing tour as "virtuosic exercises in transmedia storytelling and worldbuilding"
- "Intricate and expansive worldbuilding employs tools ranging from costume changes to transitions in scenery, while lighting effects contrast with song- and era-specific video projections"
- "Reinvention and worldbuilding at the core of Swift's star persona"
- Audience descriptions of "church-like aspect" where "it's all about community and being part of a movement"
- "Society is craving communal experiences amid increasing isolation"
- Tour as "cultural touchstone" where "audiences see themselves reflected in Swift's evolution"


### Additional Evidence (confirm)
*Source: [[2026-03-18-synthesis-collaborative-fiction-governance-spectrum]] | Added: 2026-03-18*

SCP Foundation with 9,800+ objects and 6,300+ tales demonstrates that protocol-distributed authorship (standardized format + peer review + voting) produces coherent worldbuilding at massive scale without centralized editorial authority. The emergent canonical clusters form organically through community consensus rather than top-down coordination. This confirms that worldbuilding can scale through structural constraints rather than editorial control, though it does NOT produce linear narrative (which requires concentrated authority per the tradeoff claim).


### Additional Evidence (challenge)
*Source: [[2015-00-00-cooper-star-trek-communicator-cell-phone-myth-disconfirmation]] | Added: 2026-03-18*

Martin Cooper, inventor of the first handheld cellular phone, directly contradicts the Star Trek communicator origin story. Motorola began developing handheld cellular technology in the late 1950s, several years before Star Trek premiered in 1966. Cooper stated he had been 'working at Motorola for years before Star Trek came out' and 'they had been thinking about hand held cell phones for many years before Star Trek came out.' Cooper later clarified that when he appeared to endorse the Star Trek connection in the documentary 'How William Shatner Changed the World,' he 'was just so overwhelmed by the movie' and conceded to something 'he did not actually believe to be true.' The technology predated the fiction, making causal influence impossible. The flip phone design (1996) did mirror the communicator's form factor, but this is design influence decades after the core technology existed, not causal commissioning of the technology itself.


### Auto-enrichment (near-duplicate conversion, similarity=1.00)
*Source: PR #1336 — "worldbuilding as narrative infrastructure creates communal meaning through transmedia coordination of audience experience"*
*Auto-converted by substantive fixer. Review: revert if this evidence doesn't belong here.*

*Source: 2026-03-18-synthesis-collaborative-fiction-governance-spectrum | Added: 2026-03-18*
*Source: 2015-00-00-cooper-star-trek-communicator-cell-phone-myth-disconfirmation | Added: 2026-03-18*

### Additional Evidence (extend)
*Source: [[2025-11-01-scp-wiki-governance-collaborative-worldbuilding-scale]] | Added: 2026-03-18*

SCP Foundation demonstrates worldbuilding as infrastructure at massive scale: 9,800+ articles create 'intersecting canons' where each canon is a cluster with internal coherence but no canonical hierarchy. The 'no official canon' policy is a deliberate design choice that enables infinite expansion without continuity conflicts. This is worldbuilding as coordination protocol, not worldbuilding as authored universe.


### Auto-enrichment (near-duplicate conversion, similarity=1.00)
*Source: PR #1381 — "worldbuilding as narrative infrastructure creates communal meaning through transmedia coordination of audience experience"*
*Auto-converted by substantive fixer. Review: revert if this evidence doesn't belong here.*

### Additional Evidence (challenge)
*Source: [[2015-00-00-cooper-star-trek-communicator-cell-phone-myth-disconfirmation]] | Added: 2026-03-19*

Martin Cooper, inventor of the first handheld mobile phone, directly contradicts the Star Trek communicator origin story. Motorola began developing handheld cellular technology in the late 1950s—before Star Trek premiered in 1966. Cooper stated he had been 'working at Motorola for years before Star Trek came out' and 'they had been thinking about hand held cell phones for many years before Star Trek came out.' Cooper later clarified that when he appeared in 'How William Shatner Changed the World,' he 'was just so overwhelmed by the movie' and conceded to something 'he did not actually believe to be true.' The technology predated the fiction, making causal influence impossible. The flip phone design (1996) did mirror the communicator's form factor, but this is aesthetic influence decades after the core technology existed, not commissioning of the future through narrative.


### Auto-enrichment (near-duplicate conversion, similarity=1.00)
*Source: PR #1395 — "worldbuilding as narrative infrastructure creates communal meaning through transmedia coordination of audience experience"*
*Auto-converted by substantive fixer. Review: revert if this evidence doesn't belong here.*

### Additional Evidence (extend)
*Source: [[2025-11-01-scp-wiki-governance-collaborative-worldbuilding-scale]] | Added: 2026-03-19*

SCP Foundation demonstrates that worldbuilding-as-infrastructure can operate at massive scale (9,800+ objects, 16 language branches, 18 years) through protocol-based coordination without central creative authority. The 'no official canon' model — 'a conglomerate of intersecting canons, each with its own internal coherence' — enables infinite expansion without continuity errors. This is worldbuilding as emergent coordination infrastructure, not designed master narrative.


### Auto-enrichment (near-duplicate conversion, similarity=1.00)
*Source: PR #1434 — "worldbuilding as narrative infrastructure creates communal meaning through transmedia coordination of audience experience"*
*Auto-converted by substantive fixer. Review: revert if this evidence doesn't belong here.*

### Additional Evidence (challenge)
*Source: [[2015-00-00-cooper-star-trek-communicator-cell-phone-myth-disconfirmation]] | Added: 2026-03-19*

Martin Cooper, inventor of the first handheld cellular phone, directly contradicts the Star Trek communicator origin story. Motorola began developing handheld cellular technology in the late 1950s, before Star Trek premiered in 1966. Cooper stated he had been 'working at Motorola for years before Star Trek came out' and 'they had been thinking about hand held cell phones for many years before Star Trek came out.' Cooper later clarified that when he appeared in 'How William Shatner Changed the World,' he 'was just so overwhelmed by the movie' and conceded to something 'he did not actually believe to be true.' The technology predated the fiction, making causal influence impossible. The only confirmed influence was design aesthetics: the Motorola StarTAC flip phone (1996) mirrored the communicator's flip-open mechanism decades after the core technology existed.


### Auto-enrichment (near-duplicate conversion, similarity=1.00)
*Source: PR #1449 — "worldbuilding as narrative infrastructure creates communal meaning through transmedia coordination of audience experience"*
*Auto-converted by substantive fixer. Review: revert if this evidence doesn't belong here.*

*Source: 2026-03-18-synthesis-collaborative-fiction-governance-spectrum | Added: 2026-03-18*
*Source: 2015-00-00-cooper-star-trek-communicator-cell-phone-myth-disconfirmation | Added: 2026-03-18*
*Source: 2015-00-00-cooper-star-trek-communicator-cell-phone-myth-disconfirmation | Added: 2026-03-19*

### Additional Evidence (confirm)
*Source: [[2025-11-01-scp-wiki-governance-collaborative-worldbuilding-scale]] | Added: 2026-03-19*

SCP Foundation is the strongest existence proof for worldbuilding as coordination infrastructure. The 'conglomerate of intersecting canons' model with no official canonical hierarchy enables infinite expansion without continuity errors. Hub pages describe canon scope, but contributors freely create contradictory parallel universes. The containment report format serves as standardized interface that coordinates contributions without requiring narrative coherence. 18 years of sustained growth (9,800+ articles) demonstrates that worldbuilding infrastructure can scale through protocol-based coordination where linear narrative cannot.

---

Relevant Notes:
- [[narratives are infrastructure not just communication because they coordinate action at civilizational scale]]
- [[creator-world-building-converts-viewers-into-returning-communities-by-creating-belonging-audiences-can-recognize-participate-in-and-return-to]]

Topics:
- domains/entertainment/_map
- foundations/cultural-dynamics/_map