Taylor Swift is the queen of vinyl in the United States. Other musicians have found great success on the format in the past few years, but none have come close to performing as well as Swift. Her ability to sell an album–already a feat on its own in 2023–in massive sums on a format once thought dead is incredibly impressive, and it’s on full display this week.
On the latest edition of Billboard’s Vinyl Albums chart–the weekly ranking of the bestselling titles on vinyl across the U.S.–Swift fills eight spaces. That would be a huge win for any artist on any almost list, but considering the Vinyl Albums tally only features 25 spots, it means that the singer-songwriter owns almost one-third of all the available real estate.
Leading the way among Swift’s swath of hit titles is her latest. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) holds at No. 1 for a seventh week on the tally. The set has ruled the ranking ever since it was released nearly two months ago.
Swift nearly conquers the entirety of the top five this week, but for one spot. Nicki Minaj’s new release Pink Friday 2 opens in the runner-up rung, unable to best 1989 (Taylor’s Version). If it wasn’t for the rapper, Swift might have made history by becoming the first woman to fill the full top five spaces herself a second time. She first managed the feat for the first time within the last month, joining only Metallica as the second act to do so.
The superstar sits at No. 3 this week with Midnights, which lifts slightly from last time around. Swift also lands at No. 4 with Folklore and No. 5 with Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). As if that wasn’t enough of a show of dominance on the Vinyl Albums chart, one doesn’t have to look very far to see more of the singer. Swift’s other collections Lover and Red (Taylor’s Version) appear at Nos. 7 and 9, respectively.
Below the top 10, Swift sees two other projects land on the Vinyl Albums chart, including a returning champion. Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is up a few spots to No. 12, inching closer to the top 10 once again. Back on the list at No. 18 is Evermore. If she had managed just one more charting win this frame, she’d have occupied a full one-third of the entire chart—something that she could do in the future.
Read the full article here