Seeing all three shows so close together was a surprisingly educational experience. Really! During the three concerts, each singer was a distinct symbol of what it takes to be a sustainable pop star in the 2015 music climate – no matter what phase of musical stardom.

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As the Swift concert emphasized, to gain a rabid fanbase as a millennial celebrity, you have to be relatable and share many details about your life. No one is savvier than Swift at crafting a perfectly universal (yet ultimately unattainable) image, as Swift regularly posts pictures of her cats sprinkled between shots from award shows and expensive vacations. She walks a similar line in concerts: She talks like she’s your best friend, yet she’s the one center stage in front of a sold-out stadium.

“When people were saying things about me that weren’t true, you guys were the ones who were on my side, and I’ll never, ever forget that,” Swift told the crowd at Nationals Park in July, ticking off all the typical ways she tried to shake off a rough year plagued by rumors about her personal life: She moved to New York, got a haircut, surrounded herself with friends. Just like an everyday 20-something, right? Then she continued: “So I went to London and met up with a girl named Imogen Heap, and we wrote this song about what I’ve been through – and we called it ‘Clean.’”

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So while none of her fans can actually relate to turning their pain into a co-write with a Grammy-winning British singer, it didn’t matter — because in that moment, they felt like they could. The crowd erupted for the opening notes of “Clean,” which was an elaborate, sparkly, backup dancer-filled production. The rest of the concert continued to prove why Swift has an unusually loyal fanbase: In between inescapable pop songs (from “Shake It Off” to throwback “You Belong With Me”), she took a large amount of time to bond with the audience, whether chatting about the ominous weather to a long, inspirational speech about how unhealthy it is to compare your life to others.

On the opposite side of the banter spectrum sits Spears, who just extended her “Piece of Me” Vegas residency for two more years. Her spectacle of a show at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino one Saturday night in August went off without a hitch, largely because that was its primary intended purpose. The whole show is scripted to the second, which is entirely the point: For an artist like Spears, none of the mostly adult fans in the crowd cared about bonding. They just wanted to dance to middle school throwback songs.

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Oh, Spears delivered. The set constructions were wild: At one point, Spears dressed like an angel and descended from the ceiling. For songs from her “Circus” album, there was a full circus extravaganza, complete with rings of fire. There was no time to focus on an emotional experience or, frankly, whether Spears was even singing live during her impressive choreography. Instead, it was a dizzying hour of hits of all eras, from “(You Drive Me) Crazy” to “Womanizer.” Her earliest smashes “…Baby One More Time” and “Oops!…I Did It Again” had to squeeze together into a medley.

It’s not like the crowd wouldn’t have been interested in Spears’s personal life. Besides the years when she was a pop sensation when she was a teenager, Spears garnered the most public attention for her breakdown around 2008. She’s since recovered, and apparently learned that the way to stay relevant is to tap into what people loved so much: The bubblegum pop of her past. Between performances, video screens showed off the best of her old music videos. Her audience interaction was minimal (quips like “Oh my GOD, everyone’s so HOT and SEXY tonight!” and “Ready for one more, Vegas?!”) and nobody seemed to mind.

Twain is a different type of nostalgia act. She’s already been the country/pop star at the top of the world, thanks to “Come On Over” in 1997, one of the top-selling albums ever. She’s done her Vegas residency. Basically, she’s set for life. So now, Twain stands out because she doesn’t have to put in an elaborate amount of effort for her farewell tour — but she does just that. Fans would be happy just to belt out hits like “Man! I Feel Like a Woman” and “Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under?” without actual fireworks in the background, yet Twain pulled out all the stops at the Verizon Center in July.

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She flew across the arena on a mechanical bull; someone pushed her around in a cart so she could take selfies with fans; there were sparklers going off on stage. The sets were out of control. Twain pulled an adorable child on stage to sing “Honey I’m Home.” She talked a lot with the audience and even got vaguely personal with an acoustic version of “Today Is Your Day,” a recent song she said she wrote as a positivity mantra during a “particularly crappy time in my life,” which one may assume was when her ex-husband very publicly left her for her best friend. Either way, the wildly enthusiastic crowd appreciated a longtime artist going above and beyond.

Seeing these three influential stars in quick succession was a reminder of the type of artists (no matter what level they are on) who actually cut through the noise of these debates today: The ones who make a real connection to an audience, in a way that’s specific to their true personalities and where they are in life. And the musical landscape continues to splinter in many directions, that’s truly the way to make an impact.