Another day, another Billboard milestone for Taylor Swift
For the first time in her career, Swift has seven records in Billboard’s Top 40, including Midnights, Folklore, and other albums with single-word titles
In between managing her vast cult of Swifties and leading a rebellion against something called the Ticketmaster, Taylor Swift managed to find and break another record. For the first time in her career, Swift has seven albums in the Top 40 of Billboard’s Top 200 charts. Now, this might seem like an easy feat, but it actually requires releasing seven albums that millions of people like enough to keep buying years removed from their debut. It also might sound like a lot of numbers, but trust us when we say she also has two more albums in the Top 200.
The April 1 charts include Midnights (no. 3), Lover (no. 13), Folklore (no. 14), 1989 (no. 19), Red (Taylor’s Version (no. 22), Reputation (no. 26), and Evermore (no. 31). For what it’s worth Fearless (Taylor’s Version) landed at 52 and Speak Now at 69. (We can hear readers worldwide whispering “nice” to themselves over that last one. Grow up.) Billboard also notes that earlier this year, Swift had 10 albums in the Top 200, so maybe she’s slipping a little bit.
It is undoubtedly an accomplishment that speaks to the unyielding popularity of Swift and/or single-word album titles. Of course, one could argue that the “Taylor’s Version” contingent of her discography breaks that trend—to which we reply, sure, ok, have fun being wrong. Though, we do feel compelled to note that the sudden return of Swift’s albums to the top 200 likely has something to do with her “Eras” tour, which sees the artist who hates long titles spotlighting individual albums across the show. Frankly, no one wants to be the only person during the Reputation portion mushmouth-ing through “Dancing With Our Hands Tied.” We suppose one could step out to the restroom or concessions, but those same people might as well wear a sign that reads “Poser.” The Swifties would eat them alive.
Swift is only the second person in history to accomplish such a thing. And before you can say, “Beatles,” it wasn’t them. Whitney Houston is the only other performer with the distinction. Seven of her albums returned to the charts following her death in March 2021.
It’s possible that Swift is getting bored of breaking or tying records, as it’s been a frequent occurrence throughout her career. Why, it only seems like last year that every song in the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100 was a Swift. Oh, wait, it was. Taylor Swift grows more powerful with each passing day.