Prior to Sunday (October 30), Pop Queen Janet Jackson reigned as the only female act in history to have at least two albums produce 5 or more top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
That changed this week thanks to Taylor Swift’s new album, ‘Midnights.’
After her older brother, King of Pop Michael Jackson, saw his 1982 album ‘Thriller’ become the first LP overall to crank out more than 4 top 10 hits (7 total), Jan became the first female in 1987 when hits from her breakthrough project – 1986’s ‘Control‘ – pushed five of its tunes, “What Have You Done for Me Lately, “Nasty,” “When I Think of You,” “Control,” and “Let’s Wait Awhile,” to the same chart territory.
When MJ moved an additional 6 top 10 hits out of 1987’s ‘Bad,’ the follow-up to ‘Thriller,’ Janet repeated the feat with her magnum opus, 1989’s ‘Rhythm Nation’ (7 top 10s) then again with 1993’s ‘Janet.’ (6 top 10s). And while the latter made her the first (and only) artist overall to see three albums pump out 5 or more top 10 hits, it would be nearly 30 years before another female act came close.
As reported here, the refreshed Billboard Hot 100 shows Swift occupying the entire top 10 by herself – a first-time feat (for any artist) made possible thanks to gargantuan first-week streams and digital downloads of her latest LP, ‘Midnights.’
Among a plethora of records broken by the accomplishment, a standout is her becoming the second female act to boast pushing 5 or more top 10 hits from an album for a second time. By occupying the entire top 10, ‘Midnights’ – by default – becomes the first album to own top 10 top hits. Her first time garnering 5 or more top 10 hits from a single opus came courtesy of the 9x Platinum fifth studio album, 2014’s ‘1989,’ which boasts the top 10 hits “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” “Style,” “Bad Blood,” and “Wildest Dreams.”
Poetic company, we think, as ‘Midnights’ contains a toast to Jackson on the song “Snow on the Beach” which includes the lyric: “I’m all for you like Janet.”
Look below to see how many times Taylor is listed on this week’s TGJ Chart Check: Hot 100.
Hot 100 This Week
*click here to see full list*
Congratulations Taylor. Well deserved!!
Taylor is taking so many records from older artists. She’s showing how it’s done basically. Rewriting the history books.
Taylor Swift shut Beyoncé and that horrible album all the way down!! Go Taylor!
Janet Jackson Remains Unbothered As The ONLY Female Act To Score 5 or More Top 10 CLASSICS From One Album Twice 🤣🤳🏽🎶💋
IMPOSTER ALERT🚨, No wait it’s just me. 🤣🤳🏽🤣🤳🏽🤣🤳🏽🤣🤳🏽🤣🤳🏽
wheres diabetes UNBOTHERED at?? I miss her
You go Taylor!
Nope the rules have changed so it’s not the same record. When Janet did it the songs had to be actual singles in order to chart. So 7 top 5 SINGLES from 1 album is a much harder feet now that any song can be on the charts now through streaming
This part.
Nah. This don’t count and it’s no comparison to Janet Jackson’s accomplishment.
Janet did it when the only songs from album that will eligible to chart were songs that we officially released, available to be purchased as a commercial single separate from the album, released to radio as a single to be played, and had an accompanying music video. Album cuts were not eligible to chart like they are now.
So Taylor’s feat comes nowhere near Janet’s and it continues to be wild that y’all think pre-streaming and post-streaming records can be compared when they are a CLEAR case of apples and oranges.