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“People call it Brat Summer — it should be called ‘artist development summer,’ ” Jack Antonoff jokes on a mid-September afternoon, sitting on the rooftop of New York’s Electric Lady Studios and reflecting on the past few months in pop music. Charli XCX, whose brat album helped define the season, is an old friend of Antonoff’s — they co-headlined a 2015 tour called Charli and Jack Do America — and he points out that her 2024 success speaks to a larger movement of artists creating their own mainstream niches instead of latching on to trends.
“Sabrina [Carpenter], Charli and Chappell Roan — the three of them have had this shared experience of artists who have been crystallizing, and that’s where you get gems,” Antonoff says of a trio of pop talents who have dominated recent cultural discourse. “And that’s the story of being an artist. That’s true artist development. And it doesn’t matter where we are in tech or streaming or anything — the only way to win is to create your own language.”
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This year, Antonoff has had a direct hand in abetting artistic evolution at different levels of stardom — helping a longtime collaborator, Taylor Swift, shape-shift while staying on top of the pop world, as well as a rising artist, Carpenter, secure her place on the A-list. For the latter, Antonoff produced and co-wrote four songs on Carpenter’s new album, Short n’ Sweet — including her first Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, “Please Please Please” — allowing the pop singer’s sardonic tics to shine on her way to arena-headliner status.
“No one deserves it more,” Antonoff says of the former Disney Channel star, who has released six albums by the age of 25. “Sabrina’s been quietly growing, and her albums have been getting more awesome, and she’s been honing her sound and performances. It’s not like she just popped onto the scene — this has been a decade of grinding toward it.”
During the week that Short n’ Sweet was released in August, Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department — on which Antonoff contributed to 16 songs across both of its volumes — spent its 15th week atop the Billboard 200, the longest run at No. 1 of any Swift project. Swift announced The Tortured Poets Department on the night of the 2024 Grammys, where previous full-length Midnights was awarded album of the year and she set the record for the most career wins in the category.
Amy Lombard
This year, Antonoff’s work with Swift and Carpenter — along with the self-titled fourth album from his long-running band, Bleachers, which arrived in March — could help him notch his sixth consecutive Grammy nomination for a producer of the year, non-classical, a category that he has won the past three years. If Antonoff takes home the trophy at the 2025 ceremony, he would set a record as the only four-peat in the 50-year history of the award.
“It would be a really [nice] resolve to a really special period,” says Antonoff’s manager, Jamie Oborne. “If it’s based on the work alone and the broad spectrum of work, I can’t imagine anyone else winning.”
Instead of functioning as a victory lap for Swift, The Tortured Poets Department was emotionally unguarded and knowingly messy, dividing critics and inspiring immediate fan devotion on its way to the biggest first-week debut of her career. “The best bodies of work are when people drill into the most personal, the most if-you-know-you-know kind of stuff,” Antonoff says. “I think the depth of [Tortured Poets Department] was surprising to people because I think people are constantly surprised when artists continue to be artists. You see so many people take the wrong turn and pander and become terrified of what they could lose. That’s the recipe for all the worst music, and I can only relate to people who don’t give a f–k. That next body of work — it doesn’t matter how big your audience is, it either comes from the depths of you or it doesn’t. And I love that album so much because the whole thing is so remarkably vulnerable.”
That ethos helps explain why, in the midst of a record-setting run as a pop studio whiz, Antonoff keeps pushing his creativity into unfamiliar areas. After producing the April soundtrack to the Apple TV+ fashion drama The New Look, which included Antonoff pals like Lana Del Rey and The 1975 covering early-20th-century songs, he also signed on to provide original music for a Broadway revival of Romeo + Juliet, which began previews in late September. More recently, he unveiled early plans for his Public Studios initiative, which, with the help of The Ally Coalition, will build studios in LGBTQ+ youth shelters and create a network of engineers to help train those interested in production — free of charge.
Jack Antonoff photographed September 10, 2024 at Electric Lady Studios in New York.
Amy Lombard
Antonoff also deconstructed the first Bleachers album, 2014’s Strange Desire, for a 10th-anniversary rework dubbed A Stranger Desired, released in September. And amid all of the projects, he foremost describes 2024 as “a touring year,” having led Bleachers on a global trek that will culminate with a headlining gig at Madison Square Garden in New York on Oct. 4.
He admits that he gets asked about his schedule by the people around him — friends curious about his balancing act and why he hasn’t zeroed in on the more successful pieces of his artistry. “My hunger to make things hasn’t changed since I was like 14,” Antonoff says with a chuckle, “but the context for people has changed.” When asked about the idea of winning four consecutive Grammys for producer of the year, Antonoff returns to the idea of artist development — that even when he’s receiving what he describes as “a huge honor,” his priority remains “protecting that zone” that allows him to grow as an artist and person.
“I really don’t let anything get in the way of that,” Antonoff says. “I keep my head down and I go back to work.”
This story appears in the Oct. 5, 2024, issue of Billboard.
For any fashion-friendly Swiftie, there’s only one place to go immediately after the pop star releases a music video, attends an award show, is snapped out and about, or supporting Travis Kelce at a Kansas City Chiefs Game: Taylor Swift Style, the fashion blog and popular Instagram account of writer Sarah Chapelle.
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On TSS, Chapelle documents with astonishing detail (and speed) the source and pricing of Swift’s ensembles (down to each ring on her fingers), but also provides insightful, in-depth critical analysis, illuminating how Swift’s fashion choices are often as revealing — and intentional — as her lyrics. “We’re very familiar with these confessional, emotional songs that she gives us about her life, but I always felt that her style is the other half of that story,” Chapelle tells Billboard. “It’s the visual half that icon-ifies her eras, and it creates these memorable moments that stick out in your brain. I think she’s always, in some form, used fashion as a way of carving out identity and saying something about herself.”
Sarah Chapelle
Jade Huynh
On Oct. 8, Chapelle’s already devoted audience (over 300,000 strong on her @taylorswiftstyled Insta) will likely get even bigger when she releases Taylor Swift Style: Fashion Through the Eras (St. Martin’s Griffin), a book encompassing Swift’s career to date as viewed through Chapelle’s “critically-kind” and highly personal perspective. With essays along with commentary on over 200 photographs capturing Swift’s evolution in the public eye, Taylor Swift Style will certainly be catnip for fans – but it also proves to be a fascinating, often surprising lens into this additional layer of Swift’s creativity for anyone watching the artist’s continuing evolution.
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Chapelle spoke to Billboard ahead of her book’s publication about Swift’s style eras, fashion Easter eggs, and why she should always wear more green. When you were starting what would become Taylor Swift Style, how, if at all, was the fashion press treating Taylor? So I have been a fan of Taylor since around 2006, and I’ve been documenting her fashion since 2011. At that time, the social media landscape was certainly not what it is right now, and the celebrity fashion landscape and press coverage of it was also not as hyper-focused, and certainly not on Taylor, as it is now. When I created the blog, I was studying in university to become a journalist, and I was trying to figure out my own identity and navigate, you know, how do I express myself and figure out who I am? And one way that a lot of us would do that is through our clothes. The blog just kind of became an intersection of all of my interests — like a niche within a niche of the fandom — to offer a resource for all of her fashion to other fans who I hoped might feel the same way and have this highly specific interest that I did. I talk about it in the book, and Taylor has talked about it as well, how there was a certain period when her art just wasn’t really taken very seriously or was sort of brushed off as like a teenage girl thing. And now I think we take her art and her power and her business through her artistry, and also, by extension, through her fashion, so, so, so seriously. It’s been an amazing evolution and journey to witness and also document. As you note in the book, at the start of her career, Taylor’s stylist was her label head, Scott Borchetta’s wife. Her current stylist, Joseph Cassell, has now been working with her for many years. Do you see a parallel between how Taylor’s ownership over her creativity and over how she presents herself have evolved? One thing that has always resonated with me about how Taylor seems to approach her business is that it’s, in a sense, always seemed kind of personal — she retains staff and people around her for very long periods of time, obviously a reflection of the mutual understanding she has with the people around her and the level of trust she has in them to help execute her vision and bring her ideas to life. I think one kind of fascinating example of her taking an incredible amount of creative control over her image was in the folklore and evermore era when, due to the circumstances of the pandemic, she self-styled because she didn’t want to inconvenience or endanger her team. So the folklore and evermore eras’ [imagery is] a very undiluted look into her creative process of translating what was going on in her mind into the physical, into the visual of how she wanted that era to look and to feel. And I think that’s especially resonant when you consider how the folklore photo shoot feels like its music — you’re kind of traipsing through this imaginary, wooded place as she’s trying to escape the realities of life. It felt right for that era, for that time, for that music. How did your “critically-kind” ethos come about? I can’t remember exactly when it started, but I didn’t always write commentary. I used to feel that, oh, people don’t want to hear from you, they just want the information — they just want to know where the clothes are from and where they can get it, and you should kind of be like this invisible admin force, like “don’t look behind the curtain!” type of energy. And a few years in, people would just start being like, “You should write more. You should write longer captions.” It almost felt like taking a page out of Taylor’s book, of when you choose to be vulnerable and a little bit more open people resonate with that humanity, and that resonance is the entire reason why there’s a book in the first place. It’s very easy to fall into the internet pit of defaulting to [saying] unkind or cruel things, and that just never felt like the tone that I wanted to hit or the ethos that I wanted to drive conversation with. I think that there are a lot of people who crave the original intention of the internet, which is to connect with other people — and when you carve out an intentional space for those kinds of conversations to happen in a way that’s thoughtful and nuanced and kind, people will come. You are well known for your love of Taylor wearing green. Please explain! When people ask me this I feel like I’m almost disappointing with like, a very boring and underwhelming answer — which is, I just think she looks really pretty! (Laughs) I just think that she looks great in that color, and every time I see it, it makes my heart really happy. Luckily for me, she’s had quite a number of amazing moments in green; there’s like an entire sidebar dedicated to some of my favorite Taylor in green moments in the book. The most relevant from this year was the peridot green Gucci gown from the Golden Globes, which was fantastic.
Taylor Swift at the 81st Golden Globe Awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Jan. 7, 2024 in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Gilbert Flores/Golden Globes 2024
I was very into that long-sleeved crushed velvet green dress she wore out that everyone was very sure was Rep-coded… The Little Lies dress from January, yeah. Here’s the thing: I strongly believe that that outfit was an Easter egg, but it was an intentional misdirect, because — stay with me — [as part of] the Tortured Poets rollout, there was coding in the backend of her website that [when unscrambled] said “red herring.” She’s now comfortable enough playing with fashion, not only as a tool to reflect what’s coming next or her state of mind or her emotions or a vibe about a project, but also to intentionally mislead, because she’s aware that people will pick up on things.
And I believe that she had intentionally been using Reputation (Taylor’s Version) as a red herring, so that nobody would suspect that the bait-and-switch would be a new album, The Tortured Poets Department. Because how much more obvious can you get, wearing a green velvet dress and pairing it with Giuseppe Zanotti boots that have snakes on them? For once, I didn’t think that was a leap — I was like, “I think we are correctly interpreting what we are seeing with our eyes!” (Laughs) She just wanted us to be wrong, which is her right! It’s interesting to see how your readers react to different looks of hers. I noticed that there were very divided reactions to her wearing obvious logos on the recent weekend in New York when she and Travis were photographed together a lot. Why do you think that was? A logo-covered item [a Gucci shift dress Swift wore out] stuck out to my eye, because it’s not typical of her to go for something so ostentatiously branded, so I think it was just surprising to see her, you know, fully Gucci-fied for that particular outing. Especially because one signature of Taylor’s fashion is the high-low — she loves pairing like, a Reformation dress with, say, Louis Vuitton or Christian Louboutin heels, creating this balanced mix of aspirational and attainable, while still looking overall very relatable. So to wear something so obviously luxury-branded stuck out to a lot of people’s eyes. Are there particular eras when you think Taylor’s music and fashion aesthetics have matched especially well – and, conversely, when they’ve felt more incongruous with each other? I think that debut made perfect sense. Folklore and evermore make perfect sense to me. It’s hard for 1989; I look at it and I’m like, yeah, that makes perfect sense — it was her major breakthrough into pop music and so she had this, like, pop girl uniform of crop top and skirt — but also she briefly kind of introduced 1989 as, like, this ’80s album, which it’s not…. so debut and folklore feel more cohesive to me. I really loved how the Reputation fashion captured the duality of the album: I talk about it in the book, but obviously she kind of beats you over the head up front with a lot of leather and snakeskin and camo and combat boots, it’s very clearly a bombastic, quote-unquote revenge album, but then she accompanies it with softer sequins and rainbows and sparkles, kind of the signature Taylor Swift soft feminine aesthetic, which is appropriate for Reputation too, because underneath all of that, it is a falling in love album. For a lot of people, the most incongruous is probably Midnights — a lot of people were confused by this ‘70s aesthetic, like this smoky, hazy, wood scratched floors and vinyl and patchouli scented air…..and then this huge kind of return to shiny pop. Though I think I’ve come around to making sense of it I really like the Midnights album photo shoot visuals quite a lot. A big part of seeing Taylor publicly these days is seeing her with Travis — someone who’s intentional about dressing in maybe a very different way — and of course seeing their individual styles juxtaposed. Do you feel they’re complementary, or even rubbing off on each other in interesting ways? So that’s interesting…do you think that Travis dresses intentionally, or do you think that Travis just thinks fashion is fun?
Taylor Swift arrives at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium prior to a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals on Sept. 15, 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Jamie Squire/Getty Images
Hmm, interesting question. I guess there’s a difference. I do think he finds it fun… I think that there’s a clear difference between somebody who thinks that fashion is a fun thing to play with and to experiment with, and somebody who’s intentionally using fashion as an extension of their artistry and messaging and communication. And I think Travis falls into the fashion is fun [camp]. Having somebody around who obviously injects what she said about him at the VMAs — like, magic and happiness and rainbows and puppies — having that sense of lightness in her life is obviously fun to see, as a fan. But I think watching her show up to Chiefs games has been a fascinating extension of her style, in that it’s the first time that I am analyzing her fashion and her choices not through the lens of “what does this say about her” but in her playing entirely a supporting role. And that’s her choosing Kansas City based businesses, women-owned businesses, choosing vintage — all of those careful, thoughtful, intentional choices kind of create this foundation of “I’m here as a supporting person. I am here to ‘Woooo!’” And I love how she’s made that clear. To me it’s a very clear delineation in her style that still feels very Taylor — like, cute little plaid skirt, little vintage Chiefs sweatshirt? That feels like a very Taylor outfit! It’s very clearly a “I am not the main character” outfit, but the core of the outfit is very recognizably Taylor. She still retains this semblance of recognizability, and I think that that’s one thing that she does incredibly well in all aspects of her branding and her fashion: even as she evolves as an artist, as a person, you can still see her as a human.
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Source: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty / Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift officially has broken Donald Trump.
The Orange Menace, Donald Trump, is not handling the fact that Taylor Swift and her Swifties endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to succeed President Joe Biden very well.
Trump wrote on his bootleg social media platform, Truth Social, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” on Sunday morning, leaving many baffled but not shocked at his unhinged all-caps post.
The former disgraced President’s bizarre post garnered numerous responses, like this one from big-time Trump hater Liz Cheney, who wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Says the smallest man who ever lived.” For those who follow Swift’s music, that was a clever callback to Swift’s latest project, The Tortured Poets Department.
The View co-host, former Republican and proud Donald Trump critic Ana Navarro wrote on X, “Donald Trump has lost what little sanity he had left. Taylor Swift broke him.”
Trump’s swift meltdown came after the pop star announced she was Team Harris/Walz immediately following the VP’s dragging of the convicted felon during last week’s presidential debate.
She shared the post on her Instagram Stories along with a link to Vote.org, which led to “more than 400,000 visitors to the voter-information site in a 24-hour period,” Variety reports.
Taylor Swift Lives Rent-Free In Donald Trump’s Small Mind
Before declaring his hate for Swift on Truth Social, Trump declared his love for Patrick Mahomes’ wife, Brittany Mahomes, who wasn’t shy about revealing her love for Orange Mussolini by liking Trump-related posts during a Fox & Friends interview.
“Well, I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better. If you want to know the truth. She’s a big Trump fan. I was not a Taylor Swift fan,” Trump said.
Users on X clowned Brittany Mahomes for getting love from Trump after her “bestie” endorsed Kamala Harris.
Patrick Mahomes didn’t help beat any allegations that he is in the Trump boat by refusing to endorse any candidate. Instead, he dropped some lame reasoning for not having a political backbone.
In a recent turn of events, Brittany Mahomes is now questioning her support for Trump after his Truth social comments, which, according to The Daily Mail, left her “shaken to the core.”
Social media also clowned Trump for letting the world know that Taylor Swift lives rent-free in his mind.
You can see those reactions in the gallery below.
5. Listen to Kobe
6. Imagine that
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Taylor Swift is not letting her fans get finessed by artificial intelligence. She has formally endorsed Kamala Harris for President of the United States
As reported by The Verge the music superstar is standing on democratic business. After the conclusion of the presidential debate on Tuesday, September 10, the Tortured Poets Department singer took to Instagram and made it clear that she is casting her vote for Kamala Harris. “Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” her caption read. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”
She went on add that “I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.” The rest of the post encourages her followers and fans to do their own research on both candidates and reminded everyone to register. Additionally she featured a link that shared more information on where to register by state in her Instagram Story. The post is a reference to some AI generated images Donald Trump shared back in August that depicted Taylor Swift fans wearing “Swifties For Trump” shirts and an image of the songstress wearing an Uncle Sam outfit with the caption “Taylor Wants YOU To VOTE For Donald Trump.”
As expected the announcement has many republicans in their feelings. JD Vance responded saying “I don’t think many people are going to be influenced by a billionaire celebrity who I think is disconnected from the interests and the problems of most Americans.” One X user wrote “Who the heck is Taylor Swift? Just another pretty face and half clad body that no one will care about in 10 years when she’s filled with botox and plastic. Just ask Madonna.”
You can find more information on how to register to vote here. Check out the reactions to Taylor Swift’s co-sign in the gallery.
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Source: Jamie Squire / Getty / Brittany Mahomes / Taylor Swift
Following Taylor Swift’s swift endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, Brittany Mahomes caught all of the strays.
Taylor Swift is letting the world and her millions of followers know that she wants to be on the right side of history and do her part to help get Kamala Harris to become the 48th President of the United States.
Swift made her very loud announcement after VP Harris was finished clowning the orange menace on the debate stage, writing in her post on Instagram:
I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.
Swift’s endorsement of the Harris/Walz ticket comes after she faced “backlash” for fraternizing with Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who outed herself as a Trump supporter.
Social Media Is Roasting Brittany Mahomes
Following Swift’s endorsement, Mahomes immediately became the subject of conversations on X, formerly Twitter, with users clowning her.
It also doesn’t help that Donald Trump expressed his admiration for Mahomes, telling Fox & Friends Wednesday morning, “I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “She’s a big Trump fan. I was not a Taylor Swift fan,” when asked about Swift endorsing VP Harris.
Trump reacts to Taylor Swift endorsing Kamala Harris: “Well, I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better … I was not a Taylor Swift fan … she’ll probably pay a price for it in the marketplace.” pic.twitter.com/J9Nk56nhEB
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) September 11, 2024
Congratulations, Brittany Mahomes, on getting that shining endorsement.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
2. Accurate
3. She brought this on herself
4. More than likely
Taylor Swift has made a surprising political move, taking to social media to endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.
In a post shared with her millions of followers, Swift expressed her admiration for Harris following today’s Presidential Debate, calling her a “steady-handed, gifted leader” and a “warrior” for causes she holds dear, such as LGBTQ+ rights and women’s reproductive freedoms.
The “Fortnight” singer endorsement follows a moment of reflection, spurred by a false AI-generated image of her endorsing Donald Trump, which had appeared on his website.
Swift’s post reads:
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Like many of you, I watched the debate tonight. If you haven’t already, now is a great time to do your research on the issues at hand and the stances these candidates take on the topics that matter to you the most.
As a voter, I make sure to watch and read everything I can about their proposed policies and plans for this country.
Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.
I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades.
I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early. I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates and info in my story.
With love and hope,
Taylor SwiftChildless Cat Lady
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Taylor Swift’s favorite football accessory is trending online — and we’re not talking about a Super Bowl ring.
The pop star was spotted wearing Mejuri’s Heirloom Ring during the AFC Championship game in January and as Variety pointed out, the “Fortnight” singer wore it almost every time she attended a Kansas City Chiefs game last season.
The dainty, $638 ring, features a semiprecious stone set atop a 14k band. Swift’s garnet ring is selling fast, according to the brand’s website, but the stone is also available honey quartz and sky-blue topaz, and re-stocked in London blue topaz while supplies last.
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Mejuri
Mejuri Heirloom Ring Garnet
Mejuri is a celeb-loved, affordable jewelry brand, and the Heirloom Ring is one of its brand’s bestsellers. The ring earned 4.8 stars on the company’s website from hundreds of customer reviews raving about the “stunning” and “elegant” design.
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“The most beautiful everyday staple piece,” wrote on customer. “No regrets with this purchase at all!”
And of course, Swifties love it too. “I don’t have anything garnet so I treated myself,” reads a review from a self-proclaimed Swiftie. “It’s great. It fits so well. The stone is cut nicely and seated well. I like the design. Wear it all the time.”
Another shopper had been eyeing the ring for a while and finally decided to splurge, “I’m so glad I got it because it’s now a staple. Obsessed!!”
The Heirloom Ring is available exclusively at Mejuri’s website, but if you’re looking for a cheaper alternatives, try this Gemolio 14k ring is $299.99 at T.J. Maxx or this lovely garnet ring on sale for $210 at Etsy.
With football season starting soon, Swift’s ring could be headed to a suite at Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs’ home arena. While it’s unclear if (or when) Swift will attend a game to support her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, the Chiefs will face the Chicago Bears in a preseason game on Thursday. Swift, meanwhile, just wrapped up the European leg of the Eras Tour.
The second leg of the North American Eras tour starts in October. Get tickets here.
Spring of 2022 brought out the superstars: Over the course of three consecutive weeks, Future released I Never Liked You, Bad Bunny put out Un Verano Sin Ti, and Kendrick Lamar returned from a five-year break with Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. Future and Lamar launched four songs apiece in the Billboard Hot 100‘s top 10 during their albums’ debut weeks, while Bad Bunny scored three.
But few of these tracks endured. Nine of them fell out of the top 10 in their second week on the chart. A month later, Future’s “Wait for U,” a melancholy hip-hop ballad with Drake and Tems, served as the only lasting reminder of this blockbuster spurt in the top 10.
That July, Steve Lacy carved out a notably different path on the Hot 100. He is not nearly as well-known as Future, Bad Bunny, or Lamar; as a result, his breezy new wave single “Bad Habit” debuted on the Hot 100 in the lowest possible position. It climbed the chart for five weeks before reaching the top 10. It then remained there for 18 weeks, ultimately peaking at No. 1.
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Songs like “Bad Habit” are becoming hard to find — 75% of 2024’s top 10 hits debuted in that lofty environment as of the third week of July. Ironically, though, the tracks that launch on the upper reaches of the Hot 100, like Future’s “Puffin On Zootiez” and Lamar’s “N95,” tend to be easy come, easy go. They don’t remain as long as the hits which take time to get into that exclusive atmosphere.
Since 2000, the average single that debuts in the top 10 hangs there for roughly six weeks. In contrast, tracks that take two to eight weeks to ascend to that position linger for more than 11 weeks.
This dynamic has become more extreme in the heart of the streaming era. Since 2015, singles that start out in the top 10 last 6.3 weeks on average, while tracks that take two to four weeks to reach the top 10 last more than twice as long — 12.7 weeks. And songs that take five to eight weeks to ascend to the top 10 do even better, lasting for an average of 13-plus weeks.
Singles that erupt high on the chart and then sink immediately are maybe thought of as viral one-offs — tracks plucked out of obscurity, usually by the masses on TikTok, incorporated into millions of videos, streamed by curious listeners, and then discarded. In truth, most of these short-lived top 10 hits are album cuts from superstars like Taylor Swift and Drake.
When artists with large followings release new full-lengths, it’s now common for many of the tracks on the album to debut immediately on the Hot 100 — as devoted fans engage with it for the first time and play it all the way through, sometimes more than once. Listeners have always been eager to devour new releases from their favorite acts, but this activity wasn’t trackable on a song level before the adoption of streaming, other than via sales or occasional radio play courtesy of individual DJs who happened to like a particular album cut.
The initial burst of post-release-week enthusiasm — the thrill of the new — is very difficult to sustain, however, and many of these songs depart the upper reaches of the Hot 100 rapidly. From 2000 to 2015, around 13% of top 10s fell out of the top 10 after one week; that number has rocketed upward, topping 40% in each of the last four years.
Gaining listeners’ interest is hard enough at a time when there is unprecedented competition for attention. Holding on to that attention for extended periods, or building it over time, may be even harder.
Songs that manage this tend to look a lot like singles from the pre-streaming era, in that they have sustained promotion campaigns behind them. The influence of radio on their trajectory is often especially noticeable.
While streams and sales of sought-after projects typically bunch up near a release date and then diminish, airplay tends to rise over time, as more stations see a song working and start to play it, and then play it more often, in tandem with label promotion. A similar progression happens with radio formats, which will often plunder successful tracks from each other, further amplifying their impact on the chart.
“A lot of times, the pop format will just look at other formats and see what’s bubbling up — like a Hozier or a Noah Kahan — and then say, ‘You know what, that feels like a pop record, let’s give it a shot,'” explains Tom Poleman, chief programming officer at iHeartMedia. “Then you can make something a super mass record.”
Many young executives believe airplay has little to no impact on streaming levels, but radio’s slow-burn timeline helps songs climb the Hot 100 — and sustain their position near the top. In fact, from a label’s point of view, this is one of airplay’s primary remaining benefits, as radio continues to face increased competition from streaming services and short-form video platforms. (Some executives also believe airplay can help artists sell tickets and earn brand deals.)
Take Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy):” When it skipped from No. 2 to No. 1 on the Hot 100 dated July 27, streams and sales were down — 6% and 24%, respectively, according to Luminate — but radio listening was up 11%. Shaboozey’s hit drew 77.2 million in airplay audience, as compared to 39 million official streams and 16,000 sales.
For the next two weeks, streaming and sales kept slipping, while airplay audience kept growing, albeit at a declining rate — up 10% in week three, and 6% in week four — and “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” stayed at No. 1. “Radio can still very much move the needle,” says J Grand, an A&R veteran. “Certainly not as much as a decade ago, but I don’t think the fall off is as precipitous as people are making it out to be.”
Promoting songs to radio is costly, however, and radio generally plays fewer current tracks than it used to. It’s good for commercially minded artists, then, that airplay is not the only way to extend a song’s life high on the charts. While the influence of music videos has lessened considerably in the age of TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts, a well-placed clip can still ignite a single. (Though videos can be expensive too.)
Lamar’s “Not Like Us” sprang back to No. 1 nine weeks after it initially came out thanks to its music video, which was widely anticipated due to the avalanche of attention around his nasty public feud with Drake. Streams of “Not Like Us” jumped 20% and sales climbed 16% at a time when they would typically be falling.
And adding a star collaborator to a remix remains a tried-and-true technique for counteracting decaying chart position. Wizkid’s “Essence,” a swaying, flirty collaboration with Tems, grew gradually for months during 2021. “The people connecting first with the song in the States were largely either from Africa or the diaspora,” says John Fleckenstein, COO of RCA Records, which released and marketed the track. “We literally went city by city, focused on targeted radio and digital campaigns to get to those populations.”
But the big boost for “Essence” came when Justin Bieber joined the fight, appearing on a remix that August which bolstered streams, sales, and airplay all at once. Bieber’s presence catapulted the song from No. 44 on the Hot 100 to No. 16. In October, “Essence” glided into the top 10 — again with help from airplay, which kept climbing even as streams and sales decreased.
Engineering the long climb that eventually made “Essence” — or “Bad Habit” — inescapable is increasingly a lost art. But while the majority of top 10 Hot 100 hits now debut on the upper reaches of the chart, the danger of flaring brightly is burning out quickly. As Nick Bobetsky, who manages Chapell Roan, likes to say, “there’s much more meaning in momentum than in a moment.”
Don McLean is a Swiftie.
The iconic singer-songwriter behind “American Pie” and “Vincent” recently spoke about Taylor Swift’s extraordinary success in an interview with The Standard.
McLean, whose song “American Pie (Parts I & II)” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in 1972, is impressed by Swift’s evolution from a rising country artist to a global powerhouse.
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“She is a person who is an example of what talent and really hard work can accomplish,” McLean said, describing Swift as a “monster star, the size of the galaxy.”
McLean continued, “She’s working all of the time, and she does everything that she does better than everybody else, whether it’s a video or a performance or songwriting or records or whatever… The only thing is that she stays happy.”
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Reflecting on his own career, McLean shared, “I have a lot of interests, and they sustain me. I don’t go around thinking ‘Man, why don’t I have this?’ or ‘Why don’t I have that?’ – that is the quickest way to be unhappy I can think of.”
McLean, who has sold over 50 million records worldwide, has been honored with numerous awards, including a Grammy Hall of Fame induction for “American Pie.”
Back in 2021, Swift sent McLean a note and a bouquet of flowers after her 10-minute version of “All Too Well” surpassed his song “American Pie (Parts I & II)” as the longest song to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“What a classy artist!” McLean tweeted at the time, sharing Swift’s handwritten inscription that reads, “Don, I will never forget that I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. Your music has been so important to me. Sending love one writer of LONG SONGS to another. Your fan, Taylor.”
In the most recent interview, McLean also addressed the challenges Swift has faced in the music industry, particularly regarding the ownership of her early albums.
“The record companies are the biggest thieves on the planet. That was their business, stealing. You have to be very careful,” he said, referencing Swift’s legal battles to regain control of her discography from Scooter Braun, which led to her re-recording her first six studio albums.
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Donald Trump falsely claimed that Taylor Swift endorsed his presidential campaign online, sharing AI-generated images in the process.
On Sunday (Aug. 18), Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shared a post on his Truth Social network that he cited as an endorsement from Taylor Swift. The post contained four screenshots of young women wearing “Swifties for Trump” t-shirts in different styles, which was taken from a post on X, formerly Twitter. Another image showed Swift dressed up like the character of Uncle Sam with the text, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump” emblazoned on it. “I accept!!” Trump wrote in the caption of his post. The pop superstar has not publicly endorsed any support for Trump, and it’s since been discovered that all of the images save for one were generated by artificial intelligence.
According to a report from WIRED magazine, the lone image is of a Trump supporter by the name of Jenna Piwowarczyk, who created the “Swifties For Trump” t-shirt, which she wore to his campaign rally in Racine, Wisconsin, in June. Piwowarczyk is selling other copies of the shirt on Etsy. The other images were traced back to Amuse, a conservative news account on X, formerly Twitter. The group cited the cancellation of Swift’s concert dates in Vienna, Austria, due to a thwarted terror attack attempt in their post. The post is labeled as satire.
Swift, who is currently performing at London’s Wembley Stadium during her Eras Tour run, hasn’t commented on the false postings. Stephen Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, said in an email that “Swifties for Trump is a massive movement that grows bigger every single day.” Swift publicly endorsed President Joe Biden in 2020, and blasted Trump after his “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” comment after George Floyd’s murder, condemning his “nerve to feign moral superiority” after “stoking the fires of white supremacy and racism your entire presidency.”
This isn’t the first time that Trump has willingly shared AI-generated imagery online in his campaign against Harris. He also shared one image featuring Vice President Harris dressed in red, presumably speaking to a crowd of Maoists at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, but with the old Soviet Union flag bearing the hammer and sickle hanging up.