Charts analysis: Taylor Swift scores fourth No.1 single and third chart double

Taylor Swift simultaneously registers her 12th No.1 album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), and fourth No.1 single, with lead track Fortnight (feat. Post Malone). It is her third chart double. Far out pacing the chasing pack – including all 30 of the other tracks on the album – Fortnight enjoys a terrific first week, achieving consumption of 93,451 units (1,534 digital downloads, 91,917 sales-equivalent streams), the highest figure for a No.1 single this year. It is also the highest of Swift’s career, replacing the debut week of her introductory (2017) No.1, Look What You Made Me Do (88,247 sales). Swift’s fourth No.1, Fortnight is the second No.1 and 34th hit in all for rapper Malone, who previously reached the summit in 2017 with 21 Savage collaboration, Rockstar. Swift also bags a No.3 debut with the TTPD’s title track (60,243 sales) and a No.4 debut (59,225 sales) with Down Bad. Under primary artist rules, only the top three are allocated chart positions – but the 28 other tracks on TTPD are ‘starred-out’ between No.4 and No.32, while all are among the top 65 titles in the Top 200 Combined Tracks chart, where neither VAR or primary artist rules are in operation. Of those missing the cut, the top titles are: I Can Do It With A Broken Heart (58,271 sales), So Long London (57,946 sales) and My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys (54,959 sales). The least popular track is Robin (14,590 sales). They all help to massively increase Swift’s already incredible career singles consumption, which rises 1,426,710 units week-on-week to 76.689,117. Although all of Swift’s albums suffer reduced consumption as TTPD takes precedence, her career album consumption is up 298,209 units week-on-week to 9,105,235 units. Its two-week run at No.1 rudely curtailed, Too Sweet slips to No.2 (66,073 sales) for Hozier. Swift has now had 73 Top 75 entries, 54 Top 40 and 29 Top 10 hits putting her second to Madonna in the first two categories amongst women, and fourth behind Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Rihanna in Top 10 hits by females. On a more whimsical note, Swift spends much of her time on TTPD dissing two British former boyfriends, if the tabloids are to be believed, and she also seems to have absorbed some English idioms and words, not least Fortnight itself. The term, commonly used here for two weeks or 14 days, is rarely heard in America, and has never been used in the title of a hit song before, although most other words for the passage of time have, with second (first used on a hit title in this context in 1989), minute (1962), hour (1963), day (1953), week (1960), month (1995), year (1965), decade (2004) and century (1973) all preceding it. Fortnight has been used in some hit lyrics previously, including Bitch (No.2, 1971) by The Rolling Stones, Just Checkin’ (No.59, 2000) by The Beautiful South and Samantha (No.63, 2017) by Dave & J Hus. Swift mentioned whiskey in her 2017 No.15 hit Gorgeous but not on Fortnight, ending the sequence of No.1 hits using the word ‘whiskey’ in their lyrics (Texas Hold ‘Em and Too Sweet). The only drink-related lyric in Fortnight is ‘functioning alcoholic’. Espresso became Sabrina Carpenter’s first ever Top 10 hit last week, and continues to grow, advancing 6-5 (58,053 sales). The rest of the Top 10: Beautiful Things (2-6, 49,161 sales) by Benson Boone, I Like The Way You Kiss Me (3-7, 48,067 sales) by Artemas, Lose Control (4-8, 42,174 sales) by Teddy Swims, Texas Hold ‘Em (5-9, 36,133 sales) by Beyonce and Austin (7-10, 35,050 sales) by Dasha. Their chart positions negatively impacted by Taylor Swift’s Top 10 triple, the tracks by Boone, Artemas and Dasha nevertheless increase consumption. Taking their leave of the Top 10: We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love) (8-11, 28,748 sales) by Ariana Grande, Illusion (9-19, 20,526 sales) by Dua Lipa and Forget About Us (10-31, 15,348 sales) by Perrie. Drake’s new diss song Push Ups debuts at No.14 (23,328 sales), becoming the Canadian rapper’s 143rd Top 75 and 94th Top 40 hit. With two joint Top 10 hits to their credit – Audacity in 2019 and Ain’t It Different in 2020 – London rap heavyweights Stormzy and Headie One have joined forces again for Cry No More. Debuting at No.33 (14,471 sales), the track also features US producer Tay Keith. It is Stormzy’s 44th Top 75 single, Headie One’s 28th and Keith’s second. Two foreign language hits impact the Top 75 for the first time this week: Gata Only (76-58, 8,882 sales), is the Spanish language introductory hit of reggaeton artists FloyyMenor (18-year-old Alan Felipe Cepeda Galleguillos) and Cris MJ (22-year-old Christopher Andrés Álvarez García), possibly the first Chileans to make the chart. Meanwhile, Pedro (No.67, 7,953 sales) is an Italian language hit by Jaxomy, Agatino Romero & Raffaella Carra. The first hit for German DJ and producers Jaxomy (from Berlin) and Romero (Hamburg), it is effectively a remix of Carra’s 1980 No.5 Italian hit whose titular hero is cast as a juvenile tourist guide in New Mexico, and is namechecked no fewer than 64 times in the 2m 24s song. It is the second UK hit for Carra - who died in 2021 – exactly 46 years after her first, Do It, Do It Again, which reached No.9 in 1978. Also new to the chart: Malicious Intentions (No.41, 11,443 sales), the second hit for Croydon drill/rap artist Pozer; Starburster (No.62, 8,683 sales), the first hit for Dublin band Fontaines DC; and Joga Bonito (No.69, 7,495 sales), the 30th hit for London rapper AJ Tracey. Shaboozey’s rap/country hybrid, Bar Song (Tipsy) surges 41-16 (22,224 sales), while 19-year-old Philadelphia singer/rapper Lay Bankz’s Tell UR Girlfriend, jumps 31-19 (20,921 sales). Both are first hits on their second week in the chart. There are also new peaks for: Belong Together (13-12, 27,116 sales) by Mark Ambor, Good Luck Babe (33-21, 19,100 sales) by Chappell Roan, We Ain’t Here For Long (52-47, 10,446 sales) by Nathan Dawe, Cry (68-55, 9,582 sales) by Benson Boone and Outside Of Love (62-59, 8,838 sales) by Becky Hill. Overall singles consumption is up 2.22% week-on-week to 29,802,552 units - their highest ever level, and 11.72% above same week 2023 consumption of 26,677,015, units. Paid-for sales are up 15.25% week-on-week at 305,776 – 1.05% below same week 2023 sales of 309,006.

Charts analysis: Taylor Swift's Tortured Poets Department tops 270,000 sales and outsells Top 75 LPs

Swift’s Swiftest: Exploding to a No.1 debut on consumption of 270,091 units, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) is off to the fastest start of any album for more than seven years, and the fastest of Taylor Swift’s career. Securing the best opening of the 2020s, it opens 32.07% above Swift’s own personal best hitherto which came in 2022, with her last album of new material, Midnights, debuted with 204,501 sales. The last album to make a bigger first impression was Ed Sheeran’s ÷ (Divide), which attracted 671,542 sales on debut in 2017. It also sold more copies than TTPD on its second week (303,520). The last album by an American act to have a bigger first week sale was Scissor Sisters’ second album, Ta-Dah, which sold 288,167 copies on debut in 2006. The previous highest weekly sale achieved by an American female solo artist in the 21st century was 245,911, set by Madonna’s 2000 release Music on its 14th week in the chart in 2000. Swift’s 15th album (including four ‘Taylor’s Versions’ re-recordings of earlier releases), TTPD is her 12th No.1. Drawing level with Madonna as the female solo artist with most No.1 albums, she is only the seventh act in chart history to have 12 No.1 albums, and the fifth solo artist. She went from 0 to 12 quickest – a little under 11 years and six months – eclipsing the 14 years and one month that elapsed between the Beatles first (Please Please Me) and 12th (At The Hollywood Bowl). She has had eight No.1 albums in the 2020s, twice as many as nearest challengers, Drake and Liam Gallagher; more in the last 10 years than any other act (11); and more in the 21st century (12) than all but Robbie Williams (13, including one with Take That). All of her No.1 albums have been studio sets, in which category, in all of chart history, she was previously tied for pole position with The Beatles, Robbie Williams, Bruce Springsteen and The Rolling Stones, but now reigns supreme. 2024 is the sixth year in a row in which she has had at least one No.1 – a record of consistency previous only achieved by the Beatles, who did it eight years in a row (1963-1970). Its deluxe edition housing 31 tracks – all new songs which Swift wrote or co-wrote and co-produced – TTPD was issued in a plethora of variants, and racked up first week sales of 109,392 CDs, 66,388 vinyl albums, 4,457 cassettes, 10.948 digital downloads and 78,907 sales-equivalent streams. It sets a new record for most vinyl sales in a week by any album in the 21st century, surpassing the 61,948 sales set by Midnights on its debut. It also surpasses Midnights’ opening sales-equivalent streams tally of 57,964. The only album to achieve higher sales-equivalent streams in a week is Ed Sheeran’s leviathan ÷ (Divide), whose first week sales of 671,542, including 78,944 from sales-equivalent streams – just 37 more than TTPD - on debut in March 2017. With TTPD lead single Fortnight (feat. Post Malone) debuting atop the singles chart, Swift has done the double for the third time in her career having done so with Midnights/Anti-Hero in 2022 and 1989 (Taylor’s Version)/Is It All Over Now (Taylor’s Version) last year. TTPD sold 3,914 copies more than the rest of the Top 75 combined, and outsold the No.2 album by a ratio of 27.46:1, the highest such margin since Kantar (Millward Brown) started plotting the charts for OCC in 1994. The previous highest was 21.48:1, set in 1997 when Be Here Now topped for Oasis on 695,761 sales, with White On Blonde as No.2 for Texas (32,392 sales). The unit margin of TTPD’s victory this week – 260,256 units – is the greatest since the second week at No.1 for ÷ (Divide), when its sales of 303,520 copies were 272,991 higher than the No.2, Rag’n’Bone Man’s Human. The week before, with both on debut in the same positions, the Sheeran/Rag gulf was an enormous 808,807 (671542 units against 64,735). TTPD enters the year-to-date album chart at No.1, toppling Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (150,885 sales in 2024, 276,861 in total). The role of runners-up to Swift falls to Pearl Jam, whose 12th studio album in a career spanning more than 30 years, Dark Matter (No.2, 9,835 sales), matches their previous highest chart placing as achieved by their second album, Vs in 1993 and their 10th, Lightning Bolt in 2013. In total, Dark Matter is Pearl Jam’s 16th Top 75 and 10th Top 10 entry. Celebrating 45 years of UB40, the Birmingham reggae veterans’ new album, UB45, is a blend of new songs and fresh recordings of some of their best-loved hits. Debuting at No.5 (7,381 sales), it is the 17th Top 10 and 34th Top 75 album chart entry credited to UB40. However, there are two versions of the band. This is the one with direct lineage to the original, with charter members Robin Campbell, Jimmy Brown, Norman Hassan and Earl Falconer. Their last new album prior to UB45 was Bigger Baggariddim, which reached only No.137 in 2021. The rival UB40, set up by disaffected members Ali Campbell (brother of Robin), Mickey Virtue and Astro, reached No.8 in 2022 with most recent album Unprecedented, eight months after Astro’s death. A feature of the calendar since 2008, Record Store Day (RSD) made its usual impression on the charts, most notably returning Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (36-9, 5,459 sales) to the Top 10 after a gap of 69 weeks, following its release on picture disc (1,863 sales) for the first time. Rumours still trails the band’s compilation 50 Years: Don’t Stop, which rebounds 15-8 (5,607 sales) despite having no new RSD edition, and suffering a 0.62% dip in sales to 5,607 in the frame. It appears that Taylor Swift’s new album stole streams from many other artists, but most notably impacted her own back catalogue, with all of her albums suffering reduced consumption of at least 7.83% week-on-week while migrating to lower chart positions. The rest of the Top 10, all with falling consumption: Cowboy Carter (2-3, 8,885 sales) by Beyonce?, The Highlights (6-4, 8,344 sales) by The Weeknd, Guts (7-6, 6,843 sales) by Olivia Rodrigo, Stick Season (9-7, 6,508 sales) by Noah Kahan and Gold: Greatest Hits (14-10, 5,291 sales) by Abba. James’ first ever No.1 studio album, Yummy, dives to No.74 (2,127 sales) on its second frame. Also exiting the Top 10 are: Papercuts: Singles Collection 2000-2023 (4-14, 4,689 sales) by Linkin Park, One Deep River (3-33, 3,276 sales) by Mark Knopfler, This Could Be Texas (8-146, 1,416 sales) by English Teacher and – now vacating the Top 200 – last week’s No.5, Halo Effect (542 sales) by Kris Barras Band and last week’s No.10, Hombres (957 sales) by Gun. In an alternative universe, Bruce Springsteen would be claiming his 13th No.1 album or David Bowie his 12th, but we are stuck with the one in which Taylor Swift draws level with Springsteen and ahead of Bowie. Springsteen’s new Best Of debuts at No.15 (4,536 sales), and Bowie’s latest posthumous release, the vinyl only RSD set, Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came), opens at No.16 (4,524 sales). Springsteen has now had 41 Top 75 albums, Bowie 74 (76 including Tin Machine). RSD also impacted the debuts of Pearl Jam and UB40’s new albums, and helped to re-awaken interest in many other catalogue items, including Parklife, Blur’s 1994 chart-topper, now available in a zoetrope vinyl edition (No.16, 5,024 sales); The Dark Side Of The Moon (188-21, 4,176 sales), Pink Floyd’s 1973 No.2 album in a new UV vinyl edition; and Orbital (No.31, 3,675 sales) the eponymous – aka Green album - 1991 debut of the fraternal dance duo – which previously peaked at No.71. Also, Live From Gorilla (No.32, 3,566 sales), the previously uncharted and erstwhile only digital live set from The 1975; Wasteland, Baby! (No.46, 2,660 sales), Hozier’s 2019 No.6 album; and I Was/I Am (No.70, 2,184 sales), Noah Kahan’s previously uncharted second album, dating from 2021. After making their first ever chart entry last October, when their fourth studio album Aces Are High reached No.9, Essex blues rockers When Rivers Meet - husband and wife Aaron and Grace Bond – debut at No.47 (2,656 sales) with Breakers Of Chain Tour Live. This Ain’t The Way You Go Out (No.62, 2,370 sales) is the sixth album and fifth chart entry by folk/indie singer/songwriter Lucy Rose from Surrey. Chappel Roan’s first album, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, debuted last week, 29 weeks after its release. With single Good Luck Babe approaching the Top 20, the album now jumps 68-54 (2,458 sales). Now That’s What I Call Music! 117 spends a third week atop the compilation chart (2,817 sales including 2,453 CDs and 364 digital downloads). Overall album sales are up 12.78% week-on-week at 2,702,211, 16.86% above same week 2023 sales of 2,312,355. The last time overall album consumption was higher was in Christmas week 2019 when it was 2,798,545, although consumption was higher in a further 196 earlier weeks in the 20th century, exceeding 10m. on three occasions. Physical product accounts for 558,880 sales, 20.68% of the total. With RSD and Taylor Swift’s new album providing a massive boost to vinyl, sales of that format grew 160.61% week-on-week to 269,134 units – their highest level since their Kantar (Millward Brown) era (1994 onwards) record of 276,935 set last Christmas.

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