The Tortured Poets Department
Charlie Puth was convinced his shout-out on Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department was the result of an artificial intelligence hoax. Swift’s Billboard 200-topping Tortured Poets featured the lyric, “We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” on its title track. The “Attention” singer sat down with SiriusXM this week, where he admitted that his first reaction […]
While the pop music world has been buzzing the past three months about everything from Brat summer to Kendrick Lamar’s Juneteenth takeover to Post Malone’s country pivot, Taylor Swift just keeps racking up weeks atop the Billboard 200.
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The Tortured Poets Department, which first reigned on the Billboard 200 dated May 4, enjoys a 15th week at No. 1 on this week’s chart (dated Aug. 24). She continues to hold off the ascendant Chappell Roan, who climbs 3-2 on the listing this week with her breakout The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess album, and she is now just four weeks away from tying Morgan Wallen’s 19-week mark for the longest-ruling No. 1 album of the decade.
Will Swift match that Wallen mark? And why has the pop discussion seemingly sidestepped Swift while her album remains this dominant? Billboard staffers discuss these questions and more below.
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1. While the pop discussion this summer has largely revolved around Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has now reached 15 weeks atop the Billboard 200, one of just two albums this decade to reach that mark. Why do you think Swift’s dominance has felt so (relatively) quiet this season?
Rania Aniftos: While nothing Swift does is ever really quiet, we’re in a new era of pop music where there isn’t just one artist dominating the charts at a time, which I think music fans have been craving for a long time. While Swift has been holding steady on the Billboard 200, the Hot 100 has given us a look into the next generation of pop. That’s why the rising popularity of stars like Sabrina, Charli and Chappell is getting so much attention this summer, while Swift maintains her reign as expected.
Katie Atkinson: Taylor’s loudest moment came when the album debuted in April, and then when she kicked off the European leg of her Eras Tour in May, so she was more so the pop story of the spring instead of summer. But her Eras Tour hasn’t slowed down in the months since, with the Euro leg wrapping Tuesday (Aug. 20) back in London. So even if she wasn’t getting all the headlines that Chappell, Sabrina and Charli were, she was still plugging away weekend after weekend, debuting new Tortured Poets songs onstage, releasing new physical versions of the album, and quietly staying the conversation, racking up 15 weeks at No. 1 along the way.
Rylee Johnston: I think it comes down to two things: Taylor Swift’s level of superstardom vs. Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX’s and the type of music that was released. When looking at Roan, Carpenter and Charli, this summer has been monumental for their careers and arguably a pivotal moment for them as artists. Swift has already solidified herself as one of the biggest artists out there — so much so that it’s almost expected that she have a big opening due to the span of her reach; a flop on the charts would attract higher attention. When looking specifically at the music released, The Tortured Poets Department doesn’t have that “summertime” feel quite like the music off Brat, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and the two singles we’ve gotten from Carpenter’s upcoming Short n’ Sweet. If Swift had created a more summer-feeling album and marketed it in that way, there may have been a more prominent presence than what we see now.
Jason Lipshutz: While Chappell, Sabrina and Charli are exciting new stars whose respective rises have invigorated popular music with new (or renewed, in Charli’s case) perspectives and fresh aesthetics, Taylor Swift remains the commercial pinnacle, a superstar in a class of her own when it comes to consumer interest. As such, our collective focus as pop purveyors has naturally gravitated toward the new crop of A-listers, while Swift has remained dominant in the relative background. And there’s nothing wrong with that! Swift has been on top for so long that it makes sense for the cultural conversation to slightly shift to other subjects, even as she logs more weeks at No. 1 and continues breaking records (in some cases, her own).
Andrew Unterberger: The other artists released and/or developed major hits more recently than Swift has from Poets — which certainly helps them feel more current, in additional to the natural excitement surrounding them as artists on the come-up rather than artists maintaining their throne. Also worth noting that Swift has mostly kept on the sidelines so far as far as election season is concerned, while Chappell and Charli both got huge exposure bumps from being involved (directly or not) with vice president Kamala Harris’ early presidential campaigning.
2. Speaking of Roan, her Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess album climbs to No. 2 on the chart this week. Do you think it will pass Tortured in the next week or two, or will Poets be able to hold it off until the album begins to lose momentum?
Rania Aniftos: Knowing Taylor, she’ll stay on the top of that chart no matter what. Maybe she’ll drop another music video or release another special edition vinyl, giving the album the boost to stay at that No. 1 spot.
Katie Atkinson: Looking ahead at the album release calendar, Swift might be the least of Chappell’s worries. Post Malone put out his first country album last week and fellow summer “it” girl Sabrina Carpenter puts out Short n’ Sweet this week – not to mention Travis Scott’s 10th-anniversary mixtape reissue coming Friday too. Roan’s little-album-that-could making it all the way to No. 1 would have been a great cherry on top for her star-making summer, but taking it to No. 2 alone, almost a year after its initial release, is still a massive accomplishment.
Rylee Johnston: Honestly, Roan’s album could stand a chance unless a new set of TTPD variations comes out for Swifties to collect. It’s also worth noting that Swift’s album has already begun a descent in album units compared to Roan’s rise this week. And, if the latter decides to drop the new music she’s been teasing on the road, she could find herself with a top spot — as it seems her fanbase only continues to grow with every live performance she puts on.
Jason Lipshutz: The next few weeks on the Billboard 200 should be pretty topsy-turvy, with the debuts of new albums from Post Malone and Sabrina Carpenter, among others. I’m not sure if and when Rise and Fall will shift above Tortured on the chart, either at No. 1 or elsewhere lower in the top 5 — Chappell has the new-school momentum, while Taylor has the longstanding commercial power — although I am rooting for Chappell to log at least one week atop the Billboard 200, to cap the remarkable ascent of a singular artist. Now that it’s reached the runner-up spot, I’m hoping Rise and Fall can hit No. 1 sometime in the next month or so.
Andrew Unterberger: I think Chappell will get there eventually, but it may have to take it by force — with a deluxe version or reissue or some other method of actively boosting consumption. If Roan’s team just expects she’ll grow into the No. 1 naturally based on her pre-existing momentum…. Taylor Swift doesn’t really lose by default very often, y’know? It’ll have to be a specific push, maybe centered around the album’s one-year anniversary in late September.
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3. While Tortured Poets doesn’t have the singles-based propulsion of some of the other albums defining the pop summer, it does have a single that’s grown in recent weeks in “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” which continues to rise through the chart’s 30s this week. Do you see it continuing to swell into a big enough hit to extend Tortured Poets’ chart shelf life, or do you see it fading along with the album in the weeks to come?
Rania Aniftos: I see it fading only because I have a feeling she’ll be announcing Reputation (Taylor’s Version) very soon, giving other songs time to shine.
Katie Atkinson: This was the song that originally stuck out to me when the album was released, mostly because (despite its heartbreaking lyrical content) it was the happiest, poppiest track among a more, well, tortured project. I’m not surprised to see it rise as the favorite on radio and streaming in the months since, and maybe it could have a similar Eras Tour-fueled journey back to the upper reaches of the Hot 100 (following its debut-week No. 3 high) like “Cruel Summer” did last year. Looking at the Adult Pop Airplay chart, where it sits in the top 10 this week at its No. 8 peak, there’s still room to grow.
Rylee Johnston: It helps that the Eras tour is still going on, but with how long the album has been out now, timing is really going to need to be on her side. One way she could most likely get a jump on the chart would be a surprise appearance during “Broken Heart,” similar to what she did with Travis Kelce joining her to do the number on stage. If another big single comes out, then it’s very possible that it’ll overshadow “Broken Heart” and prevent it from reaching the top. We can’t forget that Carpenter’s album is dropping this week, and that will also certainly have an impact on the charts.
Jason Lipshutz: The chart prospects of “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” have been tricky to nail down. I expected the song to go full “Karma” on the Hot 100, quickly growing into a top 10 Hot 100 hit and radio mainstay once lead single “Fortnight” had subsided a bit — and while “Broken Heart” hasn’t gotten there yet and might not at all, the song has slowly been rising, a top 40 hit that’s now 16 spots above “Fortnight” on the tally. At this point, I think it will keep climbing into the top 20 and make a strong imprint on pop radio but fall a little short of the top 10 — something closer to a “Delicate” this time around.
Andrew Unterberger: The song climbing back into the top 40 is already more than I was expecting, to be honest. I like the song but it seemed like the moment had passed for it, and I wasn’t really convinced that massive radio airplay was ever in the cards for it. But if “Broken Heart” gets a new remix, with the right guest? I still don’t see it challenging for a second Tortured Poets No. 1 hit, but it could probably get top 20 at least.
4. With its incredible endurance atop the Billboard 200 and its historic first-week performance, do you think we will look back at The Tortured Poets Department as Taylor Swift’s peak of popularity a couple decades from now?
Rania Aniftos: Yes, but there’s nuance here. I don’t think Poets on its own will stand as peak of popularity in Swift’s career, but Poets in the context of the Eras Tour will. Dropping a 15-week Billboard 200 chart topper in the midst of a massive, record-breaking tour with your Super Bowl-winning boyfriend cheering you on from the crowd is definitely a peak I’d like to stand on.
Katie Atkinson: I think that the concurrent Eras Tour will be remembered as the symbol of Swift’s stratospheric popularity right now more so than this album. To me, this album’s domination is because of all the attention and goodwill and community that has been built up by this once-in-a-lifetime tour. She has an unparalleled opportunity to immediately share these new songs with stadium crowds, and unlike a lot of veteran acts whose fans don’t want to hear the new stuff and just want the hits, she’s able to give them both and they eat up both voraciously. So Tortured Poets has become the 15-week No. 1 phenomenon that it is with the weight of the biggest tour possibly ever behind it.
Rylee Johnston: Maybe if the Eras tour wasn’t going on at the same time, but I think her tour will overshadow the album. Even when TTPD was released, the buzz wasn’t just about the music, but whether she would incorporate it into her tour and how the drop would impact her set list. I would even group the album more underneath the tour’s umbrella whereas her previous albums had air to breathe and a moment for itself. I don’t really see this period as her TTPD era, like I would with albums like Reputation or Red, and think her next album would potentially be more impactful, as it would be singular and not lumped in with a decade-spanning tour.
Jason Lipshutz: My guess is that we will view these past three years as that peak — from the first re-records to Midnights to the Eras tour to The Tortured Poets Department — an incredible cultural force that extended into all facets of popular music, from the touring industry to awards ceremonies to social media reach (don’t forget that “Cruel Summer” went viral, all the way to No. 1, in the middle of that span!) to studio output. And to that lattermost aspect, The Tortured Poets Department may serve as the crown jewel, as a sprawling, idiosyncratic, highly vulnerable project that scored the biggest first-week debut, and has now spent the most weeks at No. 1, of any Swift album. She has blown away the competition on her own terms.
Andrew Unterberger: It’s possible the history books will paint it as such — and it would certainly fit, with the numbers and everything — but having lived through both years I don’t think there’s really any question that Taylor Swift’s 2023 was much, much bigger than her 2024. Which isn’t to take away from Swift’s 2024, which has still been massively successful on every conceivable level. But her 2023 was a once-in-a-lifetime pop year, not to ever be repeated — by her, or possibly by anyone else either.
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5. Yes or no: Does Tortured Poets ultimately match One Thing at a Time’s 19-week run atop the 200?
Rania Aniftos: Yes. Team Taylor!
Katie Atkinson: I wouldn’t count Swift out, like, ever, but she has a much more challenging road ahead to snag four more weeks. I think there’s a strong chance she could get a few more – especially with some physical shipments still looming and the potential for an Anthology vinyl release – but I predict she’ll fall shy of 19.
Rylee Johnston: No, but mostly because the two albums are in different categories. What’s impressive about One Thing at a Time’s success is how the country album has been able to overshadow pop music. Whereas Swift’s global reach has enabled her to generate a level of stardom that results in immediate domination of the charts for a longer period. What’s worth calling out though, is that both artists have very loyal fans, and I think they all are willing to put in the work to help both artists remain at the top.
Jason Lipshutz: I’m going to say yes, because, even if other projects sneak into the top spot in the coming weeks and months, I have to imagine that The Tortured Poets Department will remain a massive physical product around the holidays. Who needs a shiny new toy from Santa when you can have “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” on vinyl? My prediction is, before the end of 2024, TTPD will have notched 20+ weeks at No. 1.
Andrew Unterberger: Do you remember that One Thing at a Time racked up its 17th, 18th and 19th weeks this year — most recently in March? I don’t think we’re anywhere near Swift reaching the end of her run here; she could go 10 straight weeks without hitting the top spot and still be a considerable threat to hit it in Week 11. Bottom line: I’d be pretty surprised if she doesn’t get to 19 at some point.
Taylor Swift is dropping another limited time treat for Swifties. On Saturday (Aug. 3), the 34-year-old pop star shared on social media that a digital version of her The Tortured Poets Department album will be available with bonus track “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” (First Draft Phone Memo) for 24 hours only. Swift […]
Taylor Swift is celebrating her recent success on the Billboard charts.
On Saturday (July 20), the 34-year-old pop superstar thanked Swifties for helping her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, reign for 12 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
“I also wanted to say to everyone who’s supported The Tortured Poets Department, I am completely blown away by what you’ve done,” Swift wrote on Instagram alongside a gallery of recent Eras Tour photos. “It stayed at #1 for the first 12 weeks of its release and that’s never happened to an album of mine before, not even close!! You’re just the greatest.”
Earlier in the week, Swift’s 31-track collection surpassed Whitney Houston’s 1987 album, Whitney, to become the only album by a woman to spend its first 12 weeks atop the Billboard 200. It also marked a career-best for Swift, whose 1989 and Fearless releases spent 11 weeks each at No. 1. Only two other albums have spent at least their first 12 weeks at No. 1: Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life.
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Swift’s celebratory social media post arrived after her trio of Eras Tour concerts at Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, from July 17-19.
“Those 3 Gelsenkirchen crowds were AMAZING, and so thoughtful??? There were signs and paper hearts, the ‘betty’ wave, and tons of DIY “willow” orbs made out of balloons + phone flashlights. Thank you!!!” Swift wrote on Instagram.
The “Anti-Hero” singer’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce, has been in the audience for all of her performances in Germany. Fans spotted the Kansas City Chiefs tight end dancing along to the concert and proudly filming his superstar girlfriend singing “So High School” at her opening night in Gelsenkirchen, and escorting her out from the backstage area at night two.
Next up, Swift will travel to Hamburg for two concerts at the city’s Volksparkstadion from July 23-24 and Munich’s Olympiastadion from July 27-28. Paramore will open on each of the dates. Once the European leg of her Eras trek is over, she’ll return to the U.S. and Canada for one final victory lap in November and December.
See Swift’s post on Instagram here.
Joe Alwyn is opening up for the first time about his split from Taylor Swift.
In an interview with The Sunday Times Style Magazine, published Saturday (June 15), the 33-year-old actor, who stars in Yorgos Lanthimos’ upcoming film Kinds of Kindness, broke his silence about his breakup with the pop superstar in April 2023.
Alwyn, who dated Swift for six years, called their relationship “long, loving” and “fully committed.” The “Anti-Hero” singer, 34, has not yet publicly commented on the breakup, but many believe that her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, was inspired by the split.
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Earlier this year, fans speculated that the title of Tortured Poets — which has spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — resembles a group chat between Alwyn and fellow actors Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal called “The Tortured Man Club.”
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When asked if he’s listened to his ex-girlfriend’s new album, Alwyn told the Times, “In thinking on what I was going to say, I would think and hope that anyone and everyone can empathize. … This isn’t a direct answer to your question, but just thinking about what I want to talk about.”
He continued, “I would hope that anyone and everyone can empathize and understand the difficulties that come with the end of a long, loving, fully committed relationship of over six and a half years. That is a hard thing to navigate.”
Alwyn and Swift broke up in April 2023 around the time the pop star launched her launched her record-breaking The Eras Tour in North America. The Conversations With Friends actor reflected on aftermath of the split, saying, “What is unusual and abnormal in this situation is that, one week later, it’s suddenly in the public domain and the outside world is able to weigh in.”
“So you have something very real suddenly thrown into a very unreal space: tabloids, social media, press, where it is then dissected, speculated on, pulled out of shape beyond recognition,” he told the Times. “And the truth is, to that last point, there is always going to be a gap between what is known and what is said. I have made my peace with that.”
Alwyn noted that he and Swift “mutually” agreed to “keep the more private details of our relationship private.” He added, “It was never something to commodify and I see no reason to change that now.”
Swift and the Favourite actor first started dating in 2016, and mostly kept a low profile. During their six years together, they rarely made public outings. They did, however, speak lovingly about each other in occasional interviews, and the 12-time Grammy winner opened up about falling in love with Alwyn in her Netflix documentary, Miss Americana.
Alwyn told the Times that he’s been doing well following the breakup. “Look, this is also a little over a year ago now, and I feel fortunate to be in a really great place in my life — professionally and personally. I feel really good,” he said.
After ending things with Alwyn, Swift started dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce last summer. The athlete is another rumored Tortured Poets muse, with fans suspecting that “The Alchemy” and “So High School” were both written about him.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department spends a sixth straight and total week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated June 8), as the title earned 175,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in the week ending May 30 (down 54%), according to Luminate.
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Tortured Poets is the first album to spend its first six weeks at No. 1 since Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time led for its first 12 weeks a year ago (March 18-June 3, 2023-dated charts). Among Swift’s collection of No. 1s, Tortured Poets ties Folklore for the most weeks at No. 1 from its debut with six weeks each.
With 175,000 units earned in Tortured Poets’ sixth week, the set scores the largest sixth-week for any album since Adele’s 25 earned 363,000 units in its sixth frame (chart dated Jan. 16, 2016).
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Swift adds her 75th career week at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, extending her record among soloists. (Elvis Presley has the second-most among soloists, with 67.) The total encompasses her 14 leaders. (She’s tied with Jay-Z for the most No. 1s among soloists.)
Also in the top 10 of the new Billboard 200, Twenty One Pilots’ Clancy debuts at No. 3 with the biggest week for any rock album in 2024 (in either equivalent album units or traditional album sales), while RM’s Right Place, Wrong Person launches at No. 5 with his biggest debut week (in both units and sales).
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units, compiled by Luminate. Units comprise album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). Each unit equals one album sale, or 10 individual tracks sold from an album, or 3,750 ad-supported or 1,250 paid/subscription on-demand official audio and video streams generated by songs from an album. The new June 8, 2024-dated chart will be posted in full on Billboard‘s website on June 4. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Of The Tortured Poets Department’s sixth-week unit sum of 175,000, SEA units comprise 133,000 (down 20% — it’s No. 1 on Top Streaming Albums; its SEA units equal 173.65 million on-demand official streams of the deluxe edition’s 31 songs), album sales comprise 41,000 (down 81%) and TEA units comprise 1,000 (down 30%).
Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft is a non-mover at No. 2 in its second week on the list, earning 145,000 equivalent album units (down 57%). It’s the largest second week for any Eilish album, a week after she scored her top weekly career total with the set (339,000).
Twenty One Pilots’ new studio album, Clancy, bows at No. 3 with 143,000 equivalent album units earned. Of that sum, albums sales comprise 113,000 (making it the top-selling album of the week and No. 1 on Top Album Sales), SEA units comprise 29,000 (equaling 38.64 million on-demand official streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise a negligible sum. Clancy scores the biggest week, by both units and album sales, for any rock album in 2024. (Rock albums are defined as those that are eligible for, or have charted on, Billboard’s Top Rock Albums chart.)
Clancy marks the fourth top 10-charting set for Twenty One Pilots. The band previously visited the region with Scaled and Icy (No. 3 in 2021), Trench (No. 2, 2018) and Blurryface (No. 1, 2016).
The new album was led by the single “Overcompensate,” which reached No. 2 on the Alternative Airplay chart in May, marking the 16th top 10-charting song for the act. The track also hit No. 64 on the all-genre, multi-metric Billboard Hot 100 in March. The new album was announced on Feb. 29 as the final chapter of the band’s conceptual series which began with Blurryface.
Clancy’s first-week sales were bolstered by its availability across 11 vinyl variants, signed and unsigned zine/CD journal editions and digipak CDs, deluxe CD boxed sets containing branded merch, and a deluxe digital album with four bonus live tracks.
Morgan Wallen’s chart-topping One Thing at a Time falls 3-4 on the Billboard 200 with 73,000 equivalent album units earned (down 3%).
RM collects his second solo top 10-charting album as Right Place, Wrong Person debuts at No. 5 with 54,000 equivalent album units. Of that sum, album sales comprise 43,000, SEA units comprise 7,500 (equaling 10.16 million on-demand streams of the set’s songs) and TEA units comprise 3,500. The album yields the BTS member his best debut position on the Billboard 200, as well as his largest opening week by both units and traditional album sales.
Right Place, Wrong Person was preceded by the single “Come Back to Me,” which reached the top 30 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excluding U.S. charts. The album’s first-week sales were supported by its availability across 13 different CD variants, all containing branded paper merch and other collectibles.
RM previously hit the top 10 with Indigo (No. 3, December 2022).
Wallen’s former leader Dangerous: The Double Album is stationary at No. 6 with 45,000 equivalent album units earned (down less than 1%); Future and Metro Boomin’s chart-topping We Don’t Trust You dips 5-7 (43,000; down 11%); Gunna’s One of Wun falls 4-8 (42,000; down 25%); Noah Kahan’s Stick Season is pushed down 7-9 despite a gain of 4% (to 40,000); and Zach Bryan’s self-titled former No. 1 falls 8-10 (37,000; down 2%).
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Charlie Puth seems to be taking Taylor Swift‘s recent lyrical shout-out as a sign to release his new song.
On Friday (May 3), the “See You Again” singer teased his upcoming single “Hero” just days after responding to Swift name-dropping him on the title track of her record-breaking double album, The Tortured Poets Department.
“These last couple weeks have been really crazy for obvious reasons, but I wanted to share something with you,” Puth wrote over a TikTok clip of himself crooning his forthcoming track.
“This is a song I wrote about my friend called ‘Hero.’ Sometimes I get a little nervous being overly honest in my music which is why this was sitting on my hard drive for awhile,” Puth added. “But I think someone out there was giving me a sign that I needed to release it.”
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The “Light Switch” single concluded his post, writing, “So…. I declare ‘Hero’ will be out everywhere on May 24th as the first single of my new album. Thank you for your support…you know who you are.”
Swift references Puth in the title track of her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, which dropped on April 19.
“You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate/ We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” she sings on the song, which many fans have speculated features veiled references to Taylor’s reported brief 2023 fling with The 1975’s Matty Healy.
Puth first reacted to Swift’s unexpected mention in a post through social media on April 28. After Swift posted an image of the herself in the studio with TTPD scrawled in sharpie across the CD version of the sprawling collection, Puth put his own spin on it by grabbing one of the other studio images of a smiling Swift at work with the album’s title scrawled in black marker across the front.
“My mind is blown. I’m completely floored by the love you’ve shown this album,” Swift wrote alongside behind-the-scenes photos of images taken during the album’s recording.
“2.6 million ARE YOU ACTUALLY SERIOUS?? Thank you for listening, streaming, and welcoming Tortured Poets into your life. Feeling completely overwhelmed,” she continued. “I was already so fired up to get back to the tour but you doing THIS?? May 9th can’t come soon enough.”
Puth’s image came from Swift’s celebration of TTPD‘s record-setting run after Swift learned that the album marked her 14th debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
See Puth tease his upcoming single “Hero” on Instagram below.
This week, Taylor Swift made history in more ways than one with the release of her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. But perhaps the most mind-boggling of all the records she set was the first-week vinyl sales for the album, which came in at 859,000 — by far the largest sales week for a vinyl album in the modern era, blowing past the second-largest week by more than 160,000 units.
That second-largest week, by the way? The debut frame of her last release, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which sold 693,000 vinyl copies in the week ending Nov. 2, 2023. In fact, Swift has the top four biggest vinyl sales weeks in history — all of which have come in the past 18 months — and six of the top eight, reflecting not just the industry-wide popularity boom for the format, but her own evolving strategy and emphasis on physical media and fan-focused collectibles.
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For Tortured Poets, Swift released six different vinyl variations (in addition to nine CD versions and four cassette versions), four of which were available widely and two of which were exclusives, one signed iteration through her own web store and one through Target. Of the four widely available, each included a different bonus track, and each have individually sold enough copies to top the vinyl sales charts for the week: the Manuscript edition (342,000); the Bolter edition (85,000); the Black Dog edition (79,000); and the Albatross edition (62,000).
That’s a continuation of the strategy she’s deployed in force since her, for lack of a better phrase, pandemic albums, Folklore and Evermore. And it’s a shining success story for how artists have been capitalizing on the resurrection of vinyl as not just physical art piece but also merch item, as the format has continued to surge for 18 years in a row, having hit 43.2 million U.S. sales in 2023, amounting to $1.35 billion in revenue, according to the RIAA.
Swift’s own career, in terms of album output, has grown along with that trend. Her self-titled debut album was released 18 years ago, in October 2006, a year when vinyl revenue sales in the U.S. were a mere $23.7 million. At that point, vinyl was such a niche market (and Swift was such a new artist) that for Taylor Swift and her second album, Fearless, Swift didn’t even release vinyl editions until May 2016, when they sold 500 copies and 1,000 copies, respectively, in their first week of availability. By the time of 2010’s Speak Now, Swift’s star power was much more formidable, but vinyl was still pretty niche; all vinyl sales in the U.S. that year accumulated $124.2 million, according to the RIAA, and Speak Now moved 500 copies in its first week.
Red, in 2012, was a true breakthrough moment for Swift in terms of her pop career, and the vinyl business had itself added nearly $100 million in value in just two years, to $213.3 million; Red sold 1,000 copies in the first week it came out in the format. Two years later, when she released 1989, the vinyl industry had added another $100 million per year, and the standard vinyl moved 11,000 copies in its first week of availability. For 2017’s Reputation, a slightly delayed street date release led to a 9,000 sale week in what was technically its second week of availability, with Swift still sticking to the standard vinyl option.
It was for Lover that Swift’s strategy first began to change, as she began experimenting with vinyl offerings beyond the standard black record, and the numbers began to really jump. When the album came out on the format in November 2019, it was as a colored double-vinyl, sold exclusively at Target, which helped boost that first-week number to 18,000 copies — at the time, the largest vinyl sales week by a woman since Adele’s 25 during Christmas week 2015 (reflected on the Jan. 9, 2016, chart). By 2019, vinyl sales in the U.S. had reach the half-billion-dollar mark — and the real jump for the format was on the horizon.
The figures for Folklore — 9,000 copies week one — at first may seem like a regression. But the pandemic brought about two competing trends: both an aggressive jump in the popularity of vinyl, and vast, industry-wide supply-chain issues related to the production of it. Since Folklore was a surprise release on July 24, 2020, the vinyl was delayed until November; but Swift sold digital-physical bundles when the album was first released, meaning that the digital sale was counted during the July release week, but when the vinyl finally shipped in November — the first-week availability tracked here — the sales were not counted as vinyl, as they had already been counted as digital. (The chart rules have since changed so they are no longer counted together.) So while Folklore’s first week as a wide release had 615,000 album sales, there’s no clear way of delineating how many of those sales included vinyl copies; and the first-week figure in November, of 9,000 copies, represents the number purchased during that week, when many of Swift’s die-hard fans were receiving the album, though it was not tracked that way.
Nonetheless, Folklore was the first Swift album to really lean in to the vinyl-as-collectible trend, with seven alternate covers in addition to the standard black pressing available. Evermore would follow suit, with another pandemic-related delay helping its first week: The album was released in December 2020, but the vinyl came out in May 2021, allowing for five months of banked pre-orders, and with a collectible tweak: It was available in two green-colored variants and a red-colored Target exclusive, resulting in a then-record 102,000 vinyl sales in its first week of availability.
What followed was the furious slate of re-releases of her older albums, as well as her own new releases, many of which followed similar strategies — and led to truly eye-popping, record-breaking numbers. Fearless (Taylor’s Version), also with a delayed physical release, came with two vinyl versions, a gold variant and a red Target exclusive, leading to a 67,000-copy first week; Red (Taylor’s Version) followed shortly after with two versions, both of which were four-LP sets that sold for $49.99 and led to a 114,000-sale first week, re-setting her own record.
By the time Midnights rolled around a year later, Swift’s playbook was complete: multiple covers, multiple colored vinyl variants and multiple vinyl editions of each album. Midnights had four variant editions sold widely, as well as another as a Target exclusive, while each of the wide releases were also available as signed copies. The result: 575,000 LPs sold in a week. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), the following July, had three colored variants, one of which was a Target exclusive; 268,000 vinyl sales later, it also entered the pantheon. And 1989 (Taylor’s Version) completed the pre-Tortured Poets set: five color variants, one a Target exclusive with an extra bonus track, and 693,000 LPs sold in its first week.
Since the pandemic year of 2020, vinyl sales in the U.S. ballooned from $820 million to the 2023 peak of $1.35 billion in revenue. And while that’s an industry-wide trend, Swift’s strategies, and successes, have surely had plenty to do with it, too.
It’s zero shock that Taylor Swift finishes her first frame for new album The Tortured Poets Department: After all, she already boasted the decade’s two biggest debuts, for 2022’s Midnights (1.578 million equivalent album units) and 2023’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (1.653 million units), and has only kept getting bigger in the months since those releases. Still, the exact opening number for Poets is staggering: 2.61 million units, according to Luminate, more than any album since Adele’s 25 bowed with 3.48 million in late 2015.
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The 16-track set — which Swift expanded to 31 with its Anthology edition — also debuts all of its songs on the Billboard Hot 100, while occupying each of the chart’s top 14 slots. The Hot 100 takeover is led by the album’s leadoff cut, the Post Malone collab “Fortnight,” which becomes Swift’s 12th No. 1 on the chart. Despite all its early commercial achievements, the album’s critical reception has been more mixed to start, with many criticizing the set’s length and repetitiveness.
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How did the album achieve its eye-popping first-week numbers? And will Swift’s album releases likely get smaller or even bigger from here? Billboard staffers debate these questions and more below.
1. The final first-week number for The Tortured Poets Department is 2.6 million, easily the best number of Swift’s career and the finest single-week tally since Adele’s 25 nearly a decade ago. Is that number higher, lower or about what you expected for the TTPD debut?
Hannah Dailey: I don’t think anyone could’ve predicted that the number would be so insanely high, but I did expect that TTPD would earn Swift her biggest opening week yet. It’s well established that the pop star’s spotlight has never been brighter than in the past year, thanks to the Eras Tour, her high-profile breakups from Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy and even higher-profile romance with Travis Kelce, as well as the chart/awards success of Midnights — so it was a given that more people than ever would be tuning in.
Stephen Daw: It feels strange to say that record-breaking numbers felt “expected,” but this is Taylor Swift we’re talking about. With every subsequent release — which seem to be coming more and more frequently for the singer/songwriter — she manages to break the records that she set with her last release, so it stands to reason that Tortured Poets would manage to best her Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) sales numbers.
Kyle Denis: Around what I expected. Swift is undeniably at her commercial peak right now, and she was able to leverage the breadth of that power with gargantuan 31-song tracklist and 19 different variants of the album.
Jason Lipshutz: Much higher. Considering the expectations-shattering run that Taylor Swift is on right now, I shouldn’t be surprised that The Tortured Poets Department scored the biggest bow of the 2020s with ease… but still, 2 million is a stratosphere that not even Swift herself has approached in the past, let alone an additional 600,000 units on top of that. I mean, TTPD blew the Midnights debut out of the water — and Midnights really wasn’t that long ago? This No. 1 feat demonstrates just how much higher Swift’s superstardom has climbed recently, her music becoming a monoculture unto itself that everybody needs to check out or purchase.
Andrew Unterberger: Yeah higher. Over two million felt realistic, but I still thought it would be more of a peeking-its-head-over-two-million figure than one actually even closer to three million. It wasn’t even two years ago we were legitimately wondering whether another one-million-unit first week would happen again this decade; for Swift to come within shouting range of triple that is pretty wild.
2. What would you point to as being the biggest factor in Swift not only beating the already-historic first-week tallies of Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) with her TTPD debut, but clearing both by around a million units each?
Hannah Dailey: I think TTPD would have blown Midnights and 1989 out of the water no matter what, if nothing else because of how excited fans and haters alike were to scour the new lyrics for clues about her mystifying private life and famous love interests. But there’s no doubt in my mind that Swift’s surprise double album announcement is what sent the project over the two-million mark, inciting some listeners to purchase twice as many copies as they would have otherwise. She’s playing the numbers game, and she’s winning.
Stephen Daw: The short answer is the fact that the album was made available in more than 20 different formats certainly helped that Swift reach that astronomical figure. The much longer answer is that timing played a very key factor here. Between the ongoing Eras Tour and her extremely high-profile celebrity romance, Taylor Swift is currently dominating cultural discussions across the wide spectrum of what we consider entertainment. Fan interest in all things Taylor Swift has never been higher, and from the moment she announced Tortured Poets at the Grammys, Swifties have remained in a near-constant state of frenzy over the album’s release. To me, there was no world in which this album wouldn’t beat Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) by some ridiculous margin.
Kyle Denis: This is Swift’s first LP of all-new material since kicking off the Eras Tour. Since the record-breaking tour began – and her subsequent high-profile relationships with Matty Healy and Travis Kelce – she’s had her star grow even bigger, as impossible as that might have seemed. Her celebrity, brand and audience reach are bigger than ever – and she was already operating at pop music’s pole position before any of that.
As an album, Tortured Poets is also acutely aware of how deeply it delves into nearly two decades of Taylor Swift lore at a level that, a lot of the time, only die-hard fans understand. While the growth of her celebrity broadened her general reach, the material on Tortured Poets intensified how fans interacted with the album – whether that be countless listens on a streaming site or multiple purchases of the album’s different configurations to ensure every last song is in their possession.
Jason Lipshutz: The biggest tangible factor is probably the length of the album — more than twice as long as Midnights, which was always going to boost the TTPD streaming totals by comparison. Yet the most important factor here is intangible: Swift is just so much more enormous now than she was even 18 months ago — thanks in large part to the record-shattering Eras tour, as well as all of the success she’s achieved with her recent re-recorded albums, plus “Cruel Summer” becoming one of the biggest hits of 2023 after being released four years prior. Simply put, the numbers keep ballooning because Swift’s dominance in popular music keeps growing. Forget the track list length, vinyl production and romantic-drama intrigue; no matter how this album came out, it was likely becoming the biggest debut of Swift’s career.
Andrew Unterberger: It’s timing and planning. Any Swift album would have done massive numbers released a year after she set the new standard for contemporary pop superstardom, and the same year that she dominated both music’s biggest night and sports’ biggest night in consecutive weekends. But 31 tracks and nearly as many physical variants also helps, certainly.
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3. “Fortnight” leads the pack for Swift on the Hot 100 with its No. 1 debut, but she owns each of the 13 spots beneath it with TTPD tracks as well. Do you see “Fortnight” as a long-lasting hit from this album — and which of the other tracks do you think has the best chance of challenging it as the set’s biggest hit?
Hannah Dailey: Two years ago, I thought that “Anti-Hero” would fall from No. 1 after its first week on the chart. It ended up staying there for eight weeks. So, this time, I’m going to trust Swift’s instincts, if not my own, and say that “Fortnight” is smash hit potential and will indeed remain at the top for a while. But if another song were to give it a run for its money, it would be “Down Bad” or “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” — both of which debuted in the top 3 and have boundless opportunities for TikTok virality.
Stephen Daw: Of the songs off TTPD, “Fortnight” feels like one that will stick around for a while — Taylor and Posty sound great together, and the song’s mid-tempo, atmospheric feel brings something a little bit different to pop radio. But I feel fairly confident that “Down Bad” will end up being the breakout hit from TTPD. It’s got the pure pop sensibility of 1989, the seething pettiness of Reputation and the more laid-back sensibilities of Folklore and Evermore. A seamless blend of the things fans are looking for in a Taylor Swift hit, “Down Bad” can only go up from here.
Kyle Denis: I think “Fortnight” will stick around for a bit, but I doubt it truly follows in the footsteps of “Anti-Hero.” With “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” already going viral on TikTok, there’s hit potential there. I’d also put my money on “Down Bad” and “But Daddy I Love Him” to make something shake.
Jason Lipshutz: Maybe it won’t replace “Anti-Hero” as her longest-lasting Hot 100 No. 1 hit, but yes, “Fortnight” is positioned for a lengthy run at or near the top of the Hot 100, with strong harmonic chemistry between Swift and Post Malone and a hook that sneaks up on the listener after fully blooming in the back half of the song. It’s the most obvious single choice from TTPD to me, although I do think “Down Bad” is going to have a pronounced commercial moment — let’s get that tear-soaked gym-set music video rolling ASAP.
Andrew Unterberger: “Fortnight” sounds like a smash to me, but it will not be able to simply dominate the Hot 100 for months (or even multiple weeks) by default like it might have in years past — not with rising hits from Sabrina Carpenter, Shaboozey and Tommy Richman already nipping at its heels, and not with a world-stopping Kendrick Lamar diss record entering the fray today as well. It will need to maintain momentum at streaming while growing rapidly at radio — something it certainly has the potential to do, but which we can’t necessarily assume, even from Taylor Swift’s new single.
If it fades, I could see “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” passing it. The fact that “Heart” debuts at No. 3 on the Hot 100 despite appearing 14th in the album’s tracklist shows that fans are already isolating it as a favorite from the project in huge numbers.
4. While the commercial response to TTPD has of course been overwhelming, the critic and fan response has been a little more mixed this time around for Swift, with many citing a lack of quality control among the set’s 16 tracks (31 in the deluxe Anthology version). Do you think the mixed response will have any impact on Swift’s ever-growing superstardom, or will her unprecedented rise just continue upwards from here?
Hannah Dailey: I wouldn’t be surprised if positive public opinion about Swift ebbs a little bit after TTPD, but her superstardom will be just fine. It doesn’t matter if people are saying good or bad things about her; as long as they continue discussing her at length in any capacity, she’ll stay at the forefront of pop culture and find even more ways to use that discourse to springboard herself to previously unheard-of heights.
But, if quality control of her image as an artist – and not just a celebrity — is important to her, then she may want to take criticisms about quality control in her music seriously. TTPD is very good. But just imagine what she could make alongside a few new collaborators with fresh perspectives and a less heavy-handed approach, one that forces her to leave room only for her bestest ideas.
Stephen Daw: How does one stop a runaway train? Especially with the way that some of Swift’s fans have been mercilessly going after music critics for doing their jobs over the last two weeks, I think it’s fair to say that her stardom isn’t cooling down any time soon. With a two more re-recordings still due to come from Taylor, as well as the European dates of her Eras Tour, Taylor is not in any danger of losing relevance for the foreseeable future.
Kyle Denis: Everyone and everything hits a ceiling, and Swift might be approaching hers. I think the mixed response can be easily mitigated by a new re-recording – the circumstances are certainly starting to align for Reputation (Taylor’s Version) — or a new album with more quality control and a new sound. Nonetheless, I do think the mixed reactions are slightly indicative of Taylor fatigue across the board. The Swifties will always be there, but I can see a scenario in which casual listeners feel less inclined to check in post-Tortured Poets.
Jason Lipshutz: Following a little more than a week of discourse, it’s even more clear to me that TTPD is going to function like the 2020s version of Reputation — mainstream listeners will continue to be polarized, but Swift diehards will wrap their arms around it as an idiosyncratic opus that captures their favorite superstar’s psyche, messy sprawl of the track list and all. In the same way that Reputation didn’t slow down Swift’s commercial enormity one bit, TTPD is a behemoth that also feels like a personalized note to the most attentive fans, a combination that will keep Swift growing ever still.
Andrew Unterberger: I think it’s not so much about the quality of TTPD and its dozens of tracks as it as about the sheer amount of Swift we’ve been inundated with the past four years — not just in the pop-culture ubiquity sense, but in the mind-boggling volume of new tracks she’s released over that time. A little time and distance will be kinder to a lot of these songs, and certainly it’s not like folks are gonna be likely to brush off new Swift music anytime soon, but it still might be a good idea for her to chill on the new releases (or at least downscale ’em a little bit) for the next couple years or so.
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5. Adele’s 25 moved 3.48 units in its first week — a still mind-boggling number that many of us thought would never even be approached again. Swift has gotten closer than many would have expected, but she still has a decent gap to make up. What percentage chance would you give her of passing Adele’s seemingly unreachable first week at some point in her career?
Hannah Dailey: We’ve all learned not to underestimate Taylor Swift, but at the same time, I feel like TTPD would’ve been the album to surpass 25 if Swift had it in her. So for now, I’ll give her 50%. You never know, especially with her.
Stephen Daw: I’m going to be conservative and say it’s a 50/50 tossup. If anyone is going to manage to beat Adele, it will be Taylor Swift — but if the immediate, ridiculous sales numbers of TTPD aren’t able to stack up to 25, then it’s hard to imagine a future Taylor Swift album that could.
Kyle Denis: Above 50%. Taylor’s a consistent seller and smart businesswoman, it’s really all about timing with her. It’s possible that, with a longer pre-order window and Scorpion-esque playlist takeovers, Tortured Poets could have come closer to 25’s numbers. That said, something tells me that if she was ever going to pass 3.48 million units in the first week, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) and Tortured Poets were her best bets.
Jason Lipshutz: 3%. Never say never, but that number just looks too far out of reach for modern music consumption. At the very least, that number gives Swift something to aim for when the TTPD follow-up arrives.
Andrew Unterberger: Maybe 25%. This does feel like it was her best shot, but Swift didn’t get to where she is by accepting “close but not quite,” so I imagine she’ll continue trying for it. 2.6 million isn’t a world removed from 3.5 million, though it’s still far enough that it’s not a gap to be bridged with a couple more vinyl variants or another bonus disc of leftover cuts. I don’t know how she might do it, but I do know that I wouldn’t feel comfortable betting against her doing so.
Florence Welch is looking back on working alongside Taylor Swift.
The Florence + the Machine leader and Swift co-wrote the song “Florida!!!,” which appears on the pop superstar’s new double album, The Tortured Poets Department. In an interview with British Vogue, published Thursday (April 25), Welch reflects on her collaboration with Swift.
“I almost didn’t think of the scale of it,” Welch told the publication. “There’s the sort of bigness of [Taylor Swift the phenomenon], and then there’s the Taylor I spend time with in the studio, who is just the sweetest and most down to earth.”
The Florence + the Machine singer said that Swift came to her with “a concept and a story” for the song, which is “my favorite way to start songwriting.” She added, “We had such a fun time. And then when it came out I was like, ‘Oh, s—!’”
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Swift previously explained the narrative that inspired “Florida!!!” during an interview with iHeartRadio.
“‘Florida!!!’ is a song I wrote with Florence and the Machine, and I think I was coming up with this idea of like, what happens when your life doesn’t fit, or your choices you’ve made catch up to you,” Swift said.
She added that she’s a fan of Dateline and noticed how “people have these crimes that they commit, where do they immediately skip town and go to? They go to Florida.”
The Tortured Poets Department is Swift’s eleventh studio album and her her first release of new music since 2022’s Grammy-winning Midnights. The 31-track double album also features a collaboration with Post Malone, as well as writing and production contributions from Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner.
Although The Tortured Poets Department is Swift’s first album of new music since Midnights, she has steadily pumped out her re-recorded Taylor’s Version albums in the interim. In between the two aforementioned albums, Swift topped the Billboard 200 with both Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version), the latter of which became the star’s record-extending sixth album to debut with over one million pure sales in its first week.