Zach Bryan Michigan Concert Joins Taylor Swift, U2 in Stadium History

Contrary to legend, The Beatles‘ famous show before 55,600 screaming fans was not the first-ever stadium concert — Elvis Presley drew 26,000 people to the Cotton Bowl in 1956, and The Beatles themselves managed 20,000 at a half-filled Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., the previous summer. But it was the first successful rock show in a stadium, even if The Beatles’ speakers seemed like toys compared to the gear Bryan and Beyoncé regularly haul in today. And it changed the music industry. “It was very big and very strange,” Ringo Starr would say, but within years, promoters figured out how to handle acoustics and security as well as convincing sports teams that rock could raise cash. 

The reunion of The Jackson 5’s Michael, Tito, Jackie, Marlon and Jermaine (plus Randy!) racked up 135,000 tickets in its three opening dates, but it wasn’t easy. The shows cost $160,000 owing to their 375 security guards, 170 local police officers and 70 metal detectors, while stadium officials also had to bulldoze a roadbed to accommodate a tractor-trailer. (Later, Giants Stadium officials had to hire engineers to cut a concrete beam to make way for the big rigs loading in concert equipment.) The Jacksons wound up blazing a logistical trail for other stadium acts to follow for decades.

The one-two stadium punch of Wembley in the U.K. (102,000 capacity) and JFK in Philadelphia (72,000) showed the international power of rock, drawing a reported 1.9 billion viewers of Paul McCartney, Elton John, The Who, Madonna, a reunited Led Zeppelin with Phil Collins on drums and dozens of others, raising more than $100 million to fight famine in Ethiopia. It turned organizer Bob Geldof (briefly) into a saint and Queen into rock gods (its Live Aid version of “Bohemian Rhapsody,” dramatized thoroughly in the band’s 2018 biopic, has 270 million YouTube views).

In addition to selling 39,000 total tickets to two shows, the Grateful Dead turned Vegas into a mass-market rock destination for the first time after years of Frank Sinatra, schlock-era Elvis Presley and other lounge and lounge-friendly acts. The 1991 shows were Nevada’s biggest entertainment event to that point, leading U2 to play the same venue the following year. Within a few years, as per Vegas tradition, pop and rock acts from Elton John to Britney Spears shifted to lengthy residencies at Strip casinos.

After performing for almost 90 minutes, Axl Rose took issue with a fan in one of the front rows: “Take that! Take that!” the singer shouted, then dove into the crowd. The ensuing “violent and bloody riot,” as attendee Daniel Durchholz called it, led to 65 injuries, including 25 police officers, and Rose was arrested on five misdemeanor charges. Bad things had happened to stadium acts before — Led Zeppelin prompted a riot at a Tampa stadium in 1977 purely because the band refused to return to the stage during a thunderstorm — but none were as self-inflicted as the GNR riot. The band wouldn’t play St. Louis again until 2017.

For the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show, employing a hold-the-pose move he’d perfected on his Dangerous tour — this time in a dark military jacket with gold tunic and belt — Michael Jackson and his band and dancers performed “Jam,” “Billie Jean,” “Black or White,” “We Are the World” and, while surrounded by 3,500 singing children, “Heal the World.” It was a historic Super Bowl performance, breaking the dam for rock, pop and country stars: Before MJ, the shows were Winter Magic, Be Bop Bamboozled and A World of Children’s Dreams; after MJ, it was Diana Ross, Clint Black, Stevie Wonder, U2, Janet Jackson, Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones. 

Until U2 dragged “the claw,” a massive, spidery contraption, into the center of football fields around the U.S., artists had a rough time achieving “in the round” shows at stadiums. “We have been trying to find a way of doing 360 for years,” Paul McGuinness, the band’s manager, told Billboard. “The engineering to build a temporary structure capable of bearing the weight that this carries, hundreds of tons, nobody had come up with a way of doing that.” That year, the band sold 3 million tickets and grossed $300 million. 

What else can you say about Taylor Swift and Eras, other than repeating the massive metrics? After the last of the pop megastar’s shows on Dec. 8, 2024, the tour had sold more than 10 million tickets and grossed over $2 billion, not to mention what Billboard estimated as $132 million in merchandise sales and hundreds of millions in revenue for host cities.