If you thought Taylor Swift‘s jaw-dropping chart command was limited to the Billboard 200 this week, you thought wrong.
As if watching her latest album re-record, ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),’ blast to the top of the tally with the year’s biggest first-week sales yet wasn’t enough to brag about, the GRAMMY winner also became the first woman to simultaneously occupy four spots in the hitlist’s top 10.
That history-making domination spilled over to the Hot 100 as well as revealed by the chart’s updated top 10 on Monday (July 17).
Details inside.
Thanks to content from her blockbuster 10th studio album, ‘Midnights,’ Swift entered Billboard history books in late 2022 by becoming the first artist to occupy the tally’s entire top 10 by her lonesome. And while the entries saw her hop pass Queen of Pop Madonna as the woman with the most top 10 hits, Taylor also tied the longstanding official top 5 record of another Pop royal: Janet Jackson.
Jackson, thanks to megahits like ‘Love Will Never Do,’ ‘Escapade,’ ‘All For You,’ and more, has amassed a whopping 24 top 5 hits on the Hot 100 over her illustrious career – a feat Taylor matched when her ‘Midnights’ cuts ‘Anti-Hero,’ ‘Lavendar Haze,’ ‘Midnight Rain,’ ‘Maroon,’ and ‘Snow on the Beach’ surfed into the chart region (pushing her cumulative count to 24).
Eventually sailing to #2 in 2023 with the Ice Spice-assisted remix to the project’s fan favorite, ‘Karma,’ Swift – by amassing her 25th top 5 hit – broke Jan’s unofficial top 5 record. However, longtime fans of the ‘Rhythm Nation‘ diva know Herb Alpert‘s ‘Diamonds,’ which peaked at #5 on the Hot 100 at the height of its popularity in 1987, features prominent vocals from the legendary songstress despite not listing her on its credits.
This week, thanks to the #5 premiere of ‘I Can See You (Taylor’s Version),’ Swift collected her 26th top 5 hit – thereby smashing Janet’s overall top 5 record. Here are the numbers that powered the placement.
- Streaming: 24.7 million U.S.-based streams
- Digital Downloads: 4,000 sold
- Radio Airplay: 361,000 audience impressions
Pushing herself to the bronze spot on the all-time list (among women), the only female acts to have accrued more Billboard Hot 100 top 5s over their careers are Madonna (28) and Mariah Carey (27). When all acts are considered, Drake leads the all-time fold with 35 top 5 entries and The Beatles follow with 29.
Nah. You can’t compare pre-streaming and streaming stats. In Janet’s day, you had to sell physical copies to chart. Apples and oranges.
FACTS! Artists today have it soo easy due to streaming platforms. Not a fair comparison anymore.
Billboard Hot 100: All-Time Top Black Solo Artists (adjusted all-time Hot 100 points):
1. Mariah Carey 15.8 million
2. Stevie Wonder 14.3 million
3. Janet Jackson 13.4 million
4. Michael Jackson 13 million
5. Drake 12.8 million
6. Whitney Houston 12.6 million
7. Rihanna 12 million
8. Usher 10.3 million
9. Prince 10 million
10. Aretha Franklin 9.9 million
11. Marvin Gaye 8.2 million
12. Diana Ross 7.8 million
13. Donna Summer 7.6 million
14. Beyonce 7.4 million
15. Lionel Richie 7.4 million
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28. Nicki Minaj 4.6 million
Diabetes unbothered has a twitter account you should follow her she go crazy on there
White girls power
It seems like every day there is a new record surpassed or broken. So much so that none of them seem to matter anymore. Good for Taylor’s fans so they have bragging rights on Twitter, but does anyone REALLY care about these stats anymore?
I care because it’s part of a deceptive sales strategy. They want today’s artists to be accepted as legendary because it creates more hysteria and makes the artists more marketable than the older and true legends who face ageism any time they try to do something. The industry is creating the idea of a new standard by going after every record and title from the likes of Michael, Janet, Madonna and Mariah. The industry can only accomplish that with the easy equivalent sales system they created. If they were honest, they would start marking all-new records going forward from 2007 when Billboard started counting streams. No one today is touching those aforementioned names and the impact they have had on generations, but the industry would have us believe otherwise.
Taylors breaking records nearly everyday. Passing artists like Janet is becoming so easy for her.
True Queen