Shattering Records Year after Year
November 14, 2023
This week’s Tuesday Newsday is an update from the one I posted on November 14, 2017. At the time I could never have imagined that this artist who was, in 2017, the most successful female recording artist of all times, could soar even higher. Back to that in a minute.
It was on November 14, 2009 when six songs from her album, Fearless, were all in the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 40.
That artist: Taylor Swift.
She has inspired TWO generations of young women, capturing the angst and emotion of the teenage years through her catchy country tunes, and has since grown up to become a bona-fide pop diva.
Amazing to think, that at the ripe old age of 20, the Fearless album spawned 12 songs which reached the top 40, the most ever for any album.
During her career, she has (thus far) had 52 singles chart on the Billboard Hot 100, the most of any female performer ever. According to the Infallible Wikipedia, she comes in fifth place as follows:
No doubt that number will increase this week as her latest album, Reputation, was released on November 10th and sold over 717,000 copies on the first day alone. It is expected that by the end of the first week it will have been purchased over one million times.
All of that information was from 2017. What she’s accomplished SINCE then has blown all of that out of the water. Perhaps the most impressive feat is something she achieved that no other recording artist has ever done:
“On the chart dated November 5, 2022, Taylor Swift became the first act to simultaneously occupy all of the top-10 positions, doing so with tracks from her tenth studio album Midnights. Male artists were absent from the top 10 for the first time ever; Swift and Lana Del Rey were the only artists present in the region. It also marked the least amount of artists present in the top 10 (two).”
As I started working on the updates to this article I found myself exclaiming out loud at the accomplishments of this young woman who will turn 34 years old in December.
A few are: Eleven #1 singles and Nine #2 singles. She is second only to the recording artist Drake in the number of top 5 and top 10 singles. Drake has 41 and 76 while Swift has 31 and 49… more than the Beatles at 59 for Top 5 and Madonna with 38 for Top 10.
And just this week, she vaulted back to the top of the chart as follows:
“Taylor Swift’s ‘Is It Over Now? (Taylor’s Version) [From the Vault]’ launches at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart. The track is from Swift’s newest rerecorded album, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which blasts in atop the Billboard 200, becoming her 13th No. 1 set, extending her mark for the most among women.”
My daughter has been a huge fan of the artist since about age 12. During those years, as an advisor for the Rainbow Girls, my car was often filled with Taylor Swift’s music and the girls – along with their chaperone – always would sing along.
Taylor Swift mania reached its peak in our household, though, in 2013 when it was announced the artist would be coming to the Tacoma Dome at the end of August. My daughter sprang into action and sent out the all points bulletin to her network of friends and gathered a group who wanted to attend the concert with her. I bought the 6 tickets (all that were allowed any one purchaser) and then my daughter collected the funds from her friends. At some point prior to the concert, she was entered into a ‘drawing’ for the opportunity to purchase two additional tickets. But these were not just ANY tickets. These were tickets to the Pit, the coveted area at the base of the stage. She won! Now two additional lucky girls were added to the mix.
The day of the concert, we held a going away party for my daughter, as she was literally leaving to move to Nashville the next day. I drove some of the girls to the Tacoma Dome and the rest rode with my daughter. No doubt that concert was a highlight for all of them.
The next day, on September 1, with the hubby and I in one car and our son and daughter in another, all made our way east on Interstate 90. It was just outside of George when the most amazing thing occurred. The hubby and I came up behind and subsequently passed truck after truck which all bore huge photos of Taylor Swift and were, no doubt, carrying the staging, lights, sound, and other equipment. It became a game to see how many Taylor Swift trucks were on the road. We saw the biggest number in Post Falls, Idaho, late in the afternoon as a six pack of them were parked in a trucker’s lot just to the north of the freeway.
We spent the night near Coeur d’Alene and the next day stopped at a rest area just east of the Continental Divide on I-90. There in the parking lot was an unmarked tour bus, its darkened windows a detriment to prying eyes. Was Taylor Swift on that bus? I like to think so. It is highly possible as the next stop on her tour was just five days away, September 6th, in Fargo, ND.
The tour bus was the last thing we saw that might possibly be related to Taylor Swift before we dropped south to go to Lewis and Clark caverns and Yellowstone National Park. From there me and my daughter traveled on through Wyoming, Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky and, finally, arriving in Tennessee.
It was a magical week and a memory worth keeping. In the two years our daughter lived in Nashville, however, not once did she ever see Taylor Swift.
As always, a couple links for your further education:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Billboard_Hot_100_chart_achievements_and_milestones
That artist: Taylor Swift.
We spent the night near Coeur d’Alene and the next day stopped at a rest area just east of the Continental Divide on I-90. There in the parking lot was an unmarked tour bus, its darkened windows a detriment to prying eyes. Was Taylor Swift on that bus? I like to think so. It is highly possible as the next stop on her tour was just five days away, September 6th, in Fargo, ND.
barbaradevore.com 