SOMEBODY SET UP US THE BOMB: Why Taylor Swift is the new Grateful Dead—and what it means for the future of live entertainment.

After seeing the scene, with thousands of fans setting up camp outside the arena to take in the show, it struck me that there are a number of striking similarities between Swift’s brand and that of one of my favorite bands, The Grateful Dead, including their struggles with ticket scalpers, which could lead to big changes in the future of the live-entertainment business and how it is structured.

On the surface, the two bands couldn’t be more different. Swift is a gifted artist who performs very personal songs for legions of young female fans in a series of highly choreographed set pieces with dazzling outfits; while the Dead, for most of their career, were a bunch of grizzled old, bearded guys who were perfectly content playing songs about cowboys, hustlers, and murdering men, dressed in T-shirts and jeans and barely moving on stage.

But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find some surprising similarities. Artistically, in their early years, both the Dead and Swift drew on similar musical roots in country and bluegrass but then evolved and wove other strains into their musical tapestries, including folk, blues, pop, and psychedelia. Both artists are not only musical innovators, but also singer-songwriters who despite covering vastly different territory are lyrical geniuses who have developed a canon of classic songs. While Swift writes or co-writes all her songs, the Dead wrote by small committee with most of their ditties penned by Jerry Garcia and lyricist extraordinaire Robert Hunter.

Both grew over time into incredibly successful commercial acts with cult followings. Believe it or not, after the Dead released their hit album In the Dark in 1987 and grew their fanbase, they were actually the highest-grossing musical act for two years in the early 1990s. Swift continues to top the album charts, and her latest Eras Tour with its 44-songs setlist, is expected to smash current records and be the highest-grossing tour of all time.

I saw a Taylor Swift sticker on a Cadillac. A little voice inside my head said, “Don’t look back, you can never look back.”