DENVER, COLORADO – JULY 14: EDITORIAL USE ONLY Taylor Swift performs onstage during “Taylor Swift | … [+]
In just over two weeks, Taylor Swift will release her new album The Tortured Poets Department. The set is already one of the most highly-anticipated of the year, and it’s sure to be one of the biggest and bestselling—and it will likely end 2024 as the top title. The singer is headed for plenty of commercial success, but will she be able to replicate one of her most impressive feats with the forthcoming project?
A year and a half ago, Swift dropped Midnights, which still holds as her most recent collection of entirely original material. Since then, she’s doled out two re-recordings, which featured previously unknown material, though they were largely made up of older hits.
The week that Midnights debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, songs from the set invaded the Hot 100. That frame, she became the first musician to occupy the entire top 10 on the songs chart. Ten tracks from the new full-length opened inside the tier, giving her control over every spot.
Midnights was so successful on the Hot 100 thanks in part to the way in which Swift shared her new music with the world—or the timing of doing so. While the album had been announced weeks before it arrived, the singer never dropped a single from the title ahed of the entire set. She didn’t let anyone hear anything from the project ahead of its arrival, which is not usually her method.
This withholding led to intense anticipation for Midnights. By the time the album dropped, interest in her work was higher than ever before, and historic levels of buying—and especially streaming—led the 10 most popular songs featured on the tracklist to debut as the 10 biggest in the nation.
So far, Swift has yet to produce a single from The Tortured Poets Department. She still has time to do so, but at this point, it seems like she’s planning on holding everything close to the chest before the album is ready to share in full, just as she did with Midnights.
This tactic might be a gamble for someone else, but it’s sure to work for Swift, though whether it will be as massively successful as it was before is yet to be seen. There’s a good chance that The Tortured Poets Department could produce 10 instant top 10 smashes on the Hot 100 when the collection arrives on the Billboard 200. If that does happen, Swift will match her own record as the only artist to claim the entire top 10 at once.
Even if The Tortured Poets Department doesn’t quite see 10 of its tunes launch inside the top 10 on the Hot 100, Swift will certainly command many of the spaces between Nos. 1 and 10. In just a few weeks, she’ll see exactly how much real estate she snags when the album arrives.
