welcom to America today with a new article about Taylor Swift ties Jay-Z for Billboard 200 record after ‘Tortured Poets’ release
The numbers for Billboard’s top 200 albums are out, and Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” propelled the artist, yet again, to No. 1. Swift’s 11th era album is her 14th chart-topping album, tying her with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s by a solo artist. The Beatles have 19.
As far as sales numbers, the album of 31 tracks earned 2.61 million album units in the U.S. with 1.914 million being traditional album sales (vinyls, CDs, cassettes and digital downloads). In 2014, Billboard began ranking the most popular album units (instead of traditional album sales). Since then, Adele and Swift have led the pack for the 10 biggest weeks:
Adele: “25,” 3.482 million, Dec. 12, 2015
Taylor Swift: “The Tortured Poets Department,” 2.61 million, May 4, 2024
Taylor Swift: “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” 1.653 million, Nov. 11, 2023
Taylor Swift: “Midnights,” 1.578 million, Nov. 5, 2022
Taylor Swift: “Reputation,” 1.238 million, Dec. 2, 2017
Adele: “25,” 1.193 million, Jan. 9, 2016
Adele: “25,” 1.162 million, Dec. 19, 2015
Drake: “Views,” 1.039 million, May 21, 2016
Taylor Swift: “Lover,” 867,000, Sept. 7, 2019
Taylor Swift: “Folklore,” 846,000, Aug. 8, 2020
According to Luminate, an entertainment industry data and analytics company, Adele’s album “25” is the only album in the top 10 with more than one successful week of album equivalent units sold.
Swift took to social media on Sunday to thank her fans: “My mind is blown. I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album. 2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed. I was already so fired up to get back to the tour but you doing THIS?? May 9th can’t come soon enough 🤍.”
May 9 refers to her next Eras Tour concert in Paris, France, where fans believe she will incorporate the new album into her colossal set.
For the love of vinyl
From “Fortnight” to “The Manuscript,” Swift has been promoting her newest creation with several partners, inundating the news and social media with the release. Spotify built a library pop-up in Los Angeles full of Easter eggs. Swift became the first artist to reach a billion streams on the platform in just five days. Apple Music featured a game where Swifties could search lyrics for a secret code leading them to the first line of “How Did It End?”: “We hereby conduct this post mortem.” In a tweet, the streaming service said “the album broke the record for biggest pop album of all time by first-day streams.”
As for vinyls, Swift sold 859,000 copies, smashing her previous record of 693,000 for “1989 (Taylor’s Version).” One factor that contributed to the new historic win is she sold four vinyl variants.
The Phantom Clear vinyl of “The Tortured Poets Department” is available at Target.
Solo artist with winning streak
Swift started 2024 beating the King of Rock and Roll for the solo artist with the most weeks spent on top of the Billboard 200 albums chart.
“1989 (Taylor’s Version)” maintained a stronghold at number one, as the Mastermind Queen surpassed Elvis Presley’s 67-week record with 68 weeks, Billboard announced on New Year’s Eve. With “The Tortured Poets Department” Swift now has 70 weeks at No. 1. Only The Beatles have more with 132 weeks.
Taylor Swift
If unsure about what a song is about, people can go to and have a look at the webisodes of each song where Taylor talks about what the song means and how she wrote it.
The songs don’t necessarily have to be about negative aspects in her life. The song “Change” was written when Taylor was told that doing country at the start of her career wasn’t a good idea and that she wouldn’t succeed. It was also used for the 2008 United States Olympic Team. This song was about Taylor wanting to prove those people wrong. She also writes happy songs, and it is always said that the most recent song on an album is how she is feeling at the moment.
For example, the song “Innocent” was Taylor’s way of forgiving Kanye West for taking away her moment when she won her first MTV Music Award. The music video for this song shows her writing a letter to someone who is a young teenage boy and is making mistakes but is misunderstood by many. This is almost identical to what happened at the VMA’s.
Taylor Swift first wanted to be a country singer, but she figured out she could write her own music. This caused her to cross over from country to pop. Her music often tells the story of her life, including her love life, which is often on the front page of many magazines, or what she thinks of what people say about her. Sometimes when reading into her songs too much, you can figure out who or what she is talking about based on what was going on in her life when she wrote the song.