MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — With a net worth of $1.6 billion, Taylor Swift is now the richest female musician in the world, according to Forbes. This fall, Swift is wrapping up the second leg of her Eras Tour, the highest grossing tour of all time, estimated to have had billions of dollars of economic impact on the communities where she stopped.

Adam Gustafson, associate teaching professor of music in Penn State Harrisburg’s School of Humanities, has taught classes on pop music and presented about Swift’s impact on the economy. Gustafson said we should think about Swift as more than a musician — she’s essentially the chief executive officer of a billion-dollar enterprise.

Gustafson’s researches how people consume music and how music plays into their identities — and Taylor Swift makes for an interesting case study, he said. Gustafson answered questions about Swift and how and why her influence is felt so deeply — beyond the music world and not just by those who consider themselves “Swifties.”

Q: Why and how does Taylor Swift have a significant impact on our economy?

Gustafson: In my classes, the first thing I ask students to do is to stop thinking about popular music as an art and to start thinking of it as a commodity. When you do this, your perception of music changes. When we think of Taylor Swift as Swift Inc., a different view emerges. For her tour, literally hundreds of workers came together to create and perform every song she sings, from dancers, to lighting designers, to recording engineers, to Teamsters, right down to the folks who sell trinkets at her concerts.

When Taylor Swift’s tour comes to a city, the economic gains are staggering. Her tour stop in Los Angeles, which included six shows, generated $6.5 million dollars in Airbnb rentals alone. Think about the restaurants, hotels, etc. that benefit from the influx of Swifties, and you start to get an idea of the money floating around her presence. In total, the California Center for Jobs and the Economy estimated that the stop generated over $300 million in revenue throughout Los Angeles County.

Q: “Swifties” bond over their die-hard fandom. Is it about the music, or is it more?

Gustafson: I don’t think it is accurate to understand artists like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Harry Styles, etc., as musicians. These are multimedia artists who are trying to build a branded lifestyle as much as a style of music. Everything Swift does, from her fashion choices to the presentation of her morality, is part of that lifestyle. Becoming a “Swiftie” means adopting an entire identity. The music is just there to reinforce that.

In my classes, I often ask students why they like the music they do. Just as often as not, the answer has nothing to do with the music. Swift’s music catalog runs the gamut in terms of genre, including country, dance, pop and folk music. In the 1990s, the idea that a fan or an artist would jump genres like this was rare. Today, it’s fine because it’s about the brand identity, not the sound.

Q: Is Taylor Swift a cultural icon — and what does that mean?

Gustafson: Taylor Swift is most definitely a cultural icon — one of the biggest, if not the biggest, we’ve had. Certainly, she rivals others like Elvis and Michael Jackson in terms of her cultural impact.

She is someone who has the power to shift the culture. She’s not somebody engaging with the culture or riding a cultural moment. She literally defines culture. When she does a tour, this is something that alters the landscape fundamentally. She’s been doing it successfully now for 20 years.

She’s shifted some of the most unexpected areas — the most notable example now is her experience with the NFL. [Swift is dating Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce]. Just by virtue of being tangentially related, she’s shifted the audience base, and she’s shifted the expectations around who gets to go to an NFL game or who’s watching that sport.

Her recent political endorsement is going to be pivotal for a lot of young people whether they agree with her or not. That statement was crafted so well.

Q: How is she able to harness her influence across such a broad spectrum — culture, politics, economics and even football?

Gustafson: For starters, she’s signed to the biggest record label in the world. The resources at her disposal are staggering. Then there is her work ethic. Say what you will about her music, Swift is a workaholic who is constantly hustling to stay in the public’s eye, whether that be by releasing a new album or going on a world tour.

The way she sustains this influence is due to a cultural shift in music consumption. Fans used to understand the kind of stardom that Swift has as an act of selling out. See Metallica’s 1990s albums as an example. Amassing the wealth that Swift has used to be understood as the corruption of an artist’s voice. Today’s fans don’t think this way. They are typically okay with artists generating huge followings and large sums of money, so long as they feel that the artist is being authentic. In other words, money in and of itself is no longer seen as a corrupting element. Swift is able to harness such influence because her fans see her as authentic. Her relationships feel real. Her attitude seems genuine and is reinforced by her philanthropy and generous payouts to employees.

Q: You study how we consume music and how it plays into our identities. What can we learn about that from Taylor Swift?

Gustafson: Today’s artists and fans are keenly aware of and care about where their money goes. That money trail has a major influence on how an artist is perceived. When we hear stories about Swift giving her truck drivers six-figure bonuses, it feels good from the standpoint of presenting Swift as an altruistic artist, and audiences get to feel good knowing that the tickets they paid a lot of money for are being directly applied to everyday workers like themselves. Knowing this takes some of the sting out of paying $600 for a concert ticket!

It’s a similar case with her “Taylor’s Version” re-recordings of the songs she produced with Big Machine Records. In this case, Swifties understand and feel empowered when they purchase Taylor’s Version recordings because they feel like they are an active part of righting an injustice.