Taylor Swift's Eras isn't the only big pop tour this summer

Despite what your timeline, feed or For You page might suggest, Taylor Swift is far from the only touring artist hitting arenas this summer. Other huge names across genres are also taking the stage, some after long absences, with fewer restrictions than we've seen since pre-pandemic days. Check out our picks of the best U.S. summer tours, and consider a trip to a stadium near you to relive '90s nostalgia, bask in revamped rap or sway to summery folk.

1. Janet Jackson

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Janet Jackson has spent a half-century in the spotlight, but her star hasn't dimmed. Her sugary voice floats above dance beats that still feel young, and her set lists regularly stretch to 40 songs. Jackson knows that she reached diva status long ago; she proved as much when she started a recent performance with a video montage titled "50 Years ... Of Me." But her most recent release, a remastered deluxe edition of "The Velvet Rope," which dropped in 1997 after three upbeat blockbuster records, explores the darker side of her early stardom: What is it like to have the world try to figure you out before you know who you are? In the age of social media, her 25-year-old questions feel, for better or worse, new again. But this time, Jackson knows exactly who she is.

Through June 21 at various venues. janetjackson.com/tour.

2. Paramore

"This Is Why," Paramore's first recording in five years, feels carbonated. Pressurized by the pandemic and a hiatus, it's clear that the trio is refreshed when it finally explodes on anthemic choruses in "Running Out of Time" and "Thick Skull," singer Hayley Williams's commanding vocals soaring. She released two intimate solo albums during her time away from Paramore with collaborators such as boygenius, but it's on "This Is Why" that she finally stretches out again, erupting with an energy that has been building for years. Paramore is joined on the back half of this tour by the post-punk band Linda Lindas, whose all-female members are between 12 and 18 years old.

Through Aug. 2 at various venues. paramore.net/tour.

3. Fleet Foxes

In a statement accompanying "Shore," Fleet Foxes' latest release, singer Robin Pecknold writes that he "wanted to make an album that celebrated life in the face of death." It's a valiant goal for an album released in the dreary depths of 2020. But Pecknold has a way of turning distress into joy on the folky tracks, which feel sunlight-warm and simpler than older works, even with challenging lyrics that put his three-quarters of a Columbia University English degree to good use. The five piece's summer tour also features Nigerian American indie pop singer Uwade.

June 13-Aug. 24 at various venues.

4. Alicia Keys

For most, time ebbed during the pandemic - but not for Alicia Keys, who spent the lockdown promoting an autobiography, launching a skin-care line, starring in a YouTube docuseries, running an online meditation program and writing a graphic novel. She also released two albums: "Alicia" (2020) and "Keys" (2021). The "Girl on Fire" singer can't be kept down. Keys, a 15-time Grammy winner, has spent much of her time on the road since last June, when she kicked off her first global tour in a decade. She'll hit 19 countries and three continents before she wraps the U.S. leg of the tour in early August.

June 28-Aug. 2 at various venues. aliciakeys.com.

5. Beyoncé

As an artist who stands alone at the top, Beyoncé doesn't just govern - she reigns. That's why her opening night in Stockholm felt less like a concert and more like a royal ball. "Queen Bey" is back on her throne after a bewildering Grammys night where she made headlines for garnering the most awards of any artist ever, but lost the coveted album of the year prize to Harry Styles. This is her first tour in seven years (unless you count couch rewatches of her Netflix concert film "Homecoming"), in promotion of her effervescent album "Renaissance," which was heralded like royalty last year.

July 12-Sept. 27 at various venues. tour.beyonce.com.

6. The Chicks

"Even if we never said another word, I feel like they want us to be controversial," the Chicks guitarist Emily Strayer told The Washington Post in 2020. She was referring, of course, to 20-year running reactions to the 2003 incident in which lead singer Natalie Maines told a crowd that "we're ashamed [President George W. Bush] is from Texas" just before the Iraq War. Despite getting "canceled" before the term went mainstream, the trio seems to have accepted its reputation for provocation with grace, infusing political messages into the mostly apolitical 2020 album "Gaslighter." On "For Her," Maines explains: "I'm not a martyr/ I'm just someone who cares."

July 21-Sept. 1 at various venues. thechicks.com/tour.

7. Maggie Rogers

The title of Maggie Rogers's 2022 album, "Surrender," was also the name of her Harvard Divinity School thesis last year. Studying what Rogers describes as "spirituality of public gatherings and the ethics of power in pop culture" has served her well, as evidenced by the tracks' synth-slathered rumination on fame. "Took me all this long to figure out/ It's not worth it if I can't touch the ground," she considers on the ballad "Horses." Rogers wraps a summer of shows (backed by Alvvways and Soccer Mommy) with a headlining spot at Merriweather Post Pavilion's All Things Go festival in October alongside Lana Del Ray, boygenius and Carly Rae Jepsen.

Tour: July 24-Aug. 18 at various venues. maggierogers.com/tour; All Things Go: Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 at Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, Md.

8. Lil Baby

For a rapper as record breakingly relevant as Lil Baby, it feels impossible that this headlining tour is only his second (or third, if you count a co-headlining spot with Chris Brown). Even his tour announcement video, posted to Instagram in April, has nearly 13 million views. It features the cast of industry favorites, including GloRilla, Gloss Up and Rylo Rodriguez, who will open for Lil Baby on a tour honoring his Atlanta-grown, drawl-wrapped, rapid-fire lyrics as much as his meteoric rise to stardom.

July 26-Sept. 22 at various venues. iamlilbaby.com.

9. Chance the Rapper

It has been 10 years since the release of "Acid Rap," the breakthrough mixtape meditation on youth that skyrocketed Chance the Rapper to fame. The album represented a destructive time in his life - "If I hadn't had my spirit tugged on, literally, and a calling to become a better version of myself, then I would've died. I would just be representative of acid, and I'm so much more," he told Complex. But fans regard "Acid Rap" as one of his best works, perhaps because there's something sinfully pleasing about his depiction of destruction, rapped with an indelible voice that teeters on the edge of a joke. His anniversary tour, marking the release of a deluxe edition of "Acid Rap," makes only three stops, in hometown Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

Aug. 19 in Chicago, Aug. 26 in New York and Sept. 21 in Los Angeles. chancestuff.com/acid-rap-10-years.

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