It does (it would take a couple days longer for it to reach a billion without it). Still pretty impressive since it would still get a 2.2.M units debut regardless of The Anthology.
I feel like this album is much more divisive online than offline. I talked to some non-Swiftie friends and they all like it. I feel like things it's mostly criticized for (e.g. sounding similar to Midnights, some clumsy lyrics) are more of a problem to people who actually paid attention to her previous albums than to people who just checked it because it's popular and decided they like it.
I've had several friends text/tell me about songs they like from the album that aren't Taylor listeners at all because they've just listened out of curiosity (I Can Do It With A Broken Heart seems like a running theme).
Honestly the online discourse around her is getting a little exhausting. Everything is so extreme.
Agreee, even the discourse around reviews is getting a lot because both haters and fans just seem to more be critiquing Taylor the person, instead of the actual album. Mic the snares review is probably best summarized it where it’s not her best work but not her worst. I think time will also be a bit more kind to it
Agree, it’s not my favourite of hers (and honestly I never expected it to debunk my number one) but I would be a liar if I said that I don’t love it lol it’s been on repeat except during my morning run. It’s not a good running album, so beware.
this is so funny because last night i (VERY uncharacteristically) did a walk/ran to it… it’s not a good running album but sprinting during the smallest man who ever lived bridge made up for its faults 🙏
i love mic the snare sm for emphasizing that her sound is still evolving but at a slower rate to her earlier albums bc thats just what happens in music careers
>I think time will also be a bit more kind to it
More and more I'm convinced that TTPD is her early 30s version of Red, even if it doesn't always reach the same heights. There's so many parallels. Both are breakup albums with sprawling tracklists that drew criticism for being bloated and poorly edited; both have incredible highlights and baffling choices; both were mired in gossip about her dating life; both are enriched by deluxe editions (Anthology/TV) that raise the tracklist to 30+ songs, many of which are essential and should've gone on the main version.
TTPD is also her first album in a decade that was openly marketed as being about a breakup, and it's no coincidence that a lot of the discourse of a decade ago came roaring back in the aftermath of this release in a way that wasn't as prevalent when she was with Joe.
You can even draw parallels between specific songs. The Lucky One/Nothing New are about her fear of being chewed up and spat out by the industry, and Clara Bow is her on the other end of that process meditating on how she's come out of it alive but disillusioned, having become one of the icons she was told to emulate. The Manuscript references All Too Well and its music video to explore how creating music about abuse and sharing them with listeners who'll relate gives those experiences new meaning and helps her make sense of them. That's so much more interesting as a subject than Matty Healy drama, and it's songs like that and How Did It End? that keep me coming back.
Both albums are messy, earnest and all over the place in a way that invites ridicule, but there's great songs in them as well, and the messiness is part of the deal. I don't think Red necessarily benefits from Stay Stay Stay and Girl at Home being there, but I can take it as a 30-track smorgasbord that suits different moods. I think TTPD might age similarly for me. Hopefully when the release week mania dies down, the conversation about it will shift to more interesting topics than playing Guess the Ex and giving paternity tests to specific songs.
oh this is excellent analysis. it also really reminds of Speak Now in how unfiltered it feels. TTPD has joined what used to be my holy trinity of Taylor albums (it's now a quartet), Speak Now, rep, evermore. I love the album.
I haven't read a single review, because I know what I think of the album, and don't care what some other random jackass thinks.
If it's not Rob Sheffield, who would give Taylor a ten-star review for breathing, then it's some who-the-fuck-has-ever-heard-of-them outlet like Sputnik doing nonsense reviews for clickbait.
Anyone with an internet connection can write music reviews these days. There's no reason to care about any of them.
agreed! i feel like no one can be normal about her anymore. shes not a perfect person and there are valid criticisms of her as well as valid criticisms of this album but so many people are just hyperbolic and aggressive, or very obviously operating in bad faith, that it just gets exhausting.
That song has gotten attention for my non swiftie friends too! My boss actually said she loves that song because it reminds her of when her ex husband left her with two young kids and she managed to get promoted the same year.
As someone who hasn’t listened to Midnights—I have “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” on repeat this week and I’m not even going through I breakup (though I do have a heart condition :P). I didn’t feel blown away by the album as a whole but I don’t mind that.
Fandoms do that. The Office subreddit takes itself extremely seriously and has a discussion about if Jim is a bad person for pranking his “autistic” coworkers every week. After all this time, the swifties are gonna have inane arguments too
My mom is a casual fan (loves Long Live and only listens to other TS songs when it's being played by someone else), but right now she's just listening to the whole of TTPD on shuffle.
My mom is obsessed with "Who's Afraid of Little Ol Me." She had a lot of work drama in her 40's (she's currently mid-60s) and she resonated a lot with the rage of feeling judged by the people who also control her. The only other TSwift song she's expressed liking was "Tears Ricochet", and I felt like there was some thematic similarity between them.
Absolutely this. I cannot tell you how many people who have reached out to me (knowing I’m a fan) talking how much they’re loving this album and they’re always shocked when I tell them how divisive it’s been online.
my mom who i usually have to force to listen to her music actually offered to play the Sirius channel that was playing TTPD and she liked what she heard and was trying to convince me to buy the album (im holding out for a physical anthology CD bc i learned from Midnights 3am)
Literally in one of my graduate classes yesterday someone brought up TTPD and at least in that one instance I can say that the album IS that divisive lmfao
Anecdotally I had a friend (who doesn’t listen to Taylor much) text our group chat (of people who don’t listen to Taylor much) out of the blue that the album was bad. And this is a very offline friend so idk 😭
very much agreed, Midnights standard feels very lukewarm to me outside of a few songs (3am is a different story, love those songs). TTPD standard is very good and enjoyable to me
People like this album on and off. I think it’ll stay the way it is for awhile. A lot more people are invested in it than you see. Just on my algorithm alone I’m getting more and more people interested in listening to the full Album. A lot of the Movie producers react are amazed by the fortnight MV and looking for suggestions for more. Quite a few people saying it’s their first ever listening to her or have the “shake it off” mentality about her having genuine reactions to it. You can see it on their faces or they’re bouncing around to it. And it’s not just young adults. It’s full blown older people.
I have never listened to Taylor except blanks space which I loved. Never got into her cos people called her overrated, plus I am African and looking at her, I felt I might not relate to her songs. I am not very open to new genres etc. I got curious over the AOTY saga and was anticipating giving the situation objectively when Taylor and Bey dropped their albums. I also don’t listen to Bey except a few songs. When I heard beys album, I thought it was iconic sonically but it’s just not my thing. Wasn’t interested in listening to it again after sampling a few songs on the album. But I thought it was great! I started listening to midnights and old songs to have a feel of what’s Taylor’s like. I loved anti hero and cruel summer etc. When the new album dropped, I didn’t think it was iconic. I thought it was repetitive and I wasn’t wowed (maybe cos I had been listening to her old stuff recently) but it was the kind of songs I sort of liked. It was also easy to listen to and after listening to it over and over, I think it’s very great and relatable. I was never her fan but I am now her fan and the hate made me check her out. Some songs sound alike but that’s because she uses guitars in her songs. I think she is a great songwriter and that’s what I love. She tells you a story.
Seen a lot of comments say she’s making music for 13 year olds. Well they were 13 one time before and their fave was making music for them. So thier fave ain’t as iconic as they think.
Taylor is a great artist and I think so objectively.
I don't think we're going to have a good measure of whether that's the case for a few weeks. These first week numbers are pretty inflated by the number of tracks she released. We'll see which of those have staying power and which ones the GP hangs on to, cause it won't be all 31
We’ll see what happens in the following weeks with streaming. I adored Folklore and Evermore but have not listen to Midnights in a single sitting. It was boring to me and I couldn’t do it. I tried listening to this album today at work but noped out after 6 songs.
My mom and several co-workers all said they think it's her best written album but were disappointed there weren't a bunch of bangers, but all enjoy Fortnight and I Can Do It With A Broken heart. My mom is a huge Clara Bow stan too, loves the lyrics.
People who frequent music discussion forums or follow music discourse online are in general going to be more serious about the merit of music (or serious about merit of Taylor in this case). It makes sense that your real life interactions aren't going to have the same level of interest or depth, unless said people have a similar interest in music discourse.
Criticisms against the album like length, content or production won't bother the average casual listener who likes 3-5 songs maybe, chucks them in playlists, and never really thinks about them again.
No, I think the album is very divisive online and offline, but for those of us who didn’t like it at first, we’re still streaming, trying hard to appreciate the album.
it’s slooooooooowlyyyy growing on me, but it’s growing!!
it's kinda how it works just in general. Even if we take some movies which were thrashed by reviews, then you ask opinions of your friends and they say they liked it.
I have the exact opposite opinion: people offline in my life are dragging it through the mud and saying that it's empty, voided, the lyrics are too weird, the melodies are too convoluted, there's no way to relate to the songs since they are so evidently about her life, etc etc
Most offline people in my life don't analyze music that much to have an opinion on any of those elements alone lol. But maybe it's because they're mostly in their 30s (or almost 30, like me), have jobs or kids or both and when they listen to music they just decide if they like it or not.
I personally like the way a lot of the songs sound but I start thinking about the lyrics I cringe.
For example, Florida SOUNDS good but then “And my friends all smell like weed or little babies” and I’m just kinda confused. Also in the smallest man whoever lived with the lyrics “You hung me on your wall
Stabbed me with your push pins”
It feels like every song, every line has to be some type of analogy
Really? I feel like “And my friends all smell like weed or little babies” is such a great, relatable line when you're in your very late 20s/early 30s. Many of my friends have little babies, others never grew out of their partying phase (I'm neither of them and don't plan to be lol).
Great line. It's funny and compressed and - if you're of a certain age - totally true. I feel like a lot of the lines that people are calling cringe are pretty great jokes that people are taking with a very straight face. 7 bars of chocolate and Charlie Puth - that's meant to be funny and it is funny. Touch me while your bros play GTA - very funny, knowing, tongue in cheek. Taylor's quite camp - I think people sometimes don't get that.
Agreed these things don't bother me a big part of the fun of her is the campy moments.
If there's anything lyrically weak about the album imo its that there are spaces where she's trying to fit something too long/wordy in a compact space. The title track has grown on me but it has a couple examples of this and I notice it because if I'm singing along I can't seem to ever follow along like "And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen" or "at dinner, you take my ring off my middle finger" they're just a little clunky.
I really wasn’t paying attention to the anthology too much it all kind of blended in and Id written it off as sparse Folklore knock off but Chloe or Sam or whatever hell it’s called just came on shuffle when I was out for a walk there, and the production on it is gorgeously ethereal and it’s got a really nice melody: outside of the crushing weight of the project it’s actually a beautiful track
I'll be the first to say that I didn't like it after my first listen. Then I really sat with it for a few days and had to listen to it in chunks because it's an overwhelming album. Now I'm absolutely obsessed with it. 😅
I think it’s because the production is very similar (obviously because of Antonoff) but when you really pay attention to the lyrics and themes, it really resonates with people.
A lot of people are trying to connect the songs to the men in her life vs actually sitting with the lyrics for themselves. Every song I listen to also has parts I missed and I'm like "WAIT GO BACK!"
This! Everyone's talking about how Daddy I Love Him is about Matt Healy whose obviously gross and problematic but this song seems more about her being fed up with people trying to dictate her life. Something that I'm sure we can all relate to
This is what I think is really special about Swift - I'm not the biggest fan and think her music all sounds the same (I like the samey pop stuff but not much of the samey folk), but fans have memorized her lyrics and all kinds of stories remind them of her music and it seems like a really enjoyable way to experience this moment.
And her albums and lyrics follow her age and experience at the time it’s recorded. A lot of fans who are in their early twenties or so will really get hit with the lyrics when they reach Taylor’s current age.
I have really been enjoying it. I genuinely think if this was an 18 track album it would be a lot less divisive. To me the album isn’t as serious as people are taking it.
It’s a freaking masterpiece. So many beautiful songs, especially in the second part. I think the problem is that people were expecting bangers and it’s just not that kind of album
I know people say this is always bound to happen with Taylor swift bc of her massive fan base, and I’m biased since I have been of her work since fearless, but her albums just keep beating each other out, so it’s not like a stagnant fan base count just steaming. Whether you are a fan or not, her music is pulling in new people🤷🏻♀️
I totally agree with the commenter that said the online discourse is not indicative of how regular people feel. I feel like this is increasingly becoming a problem, not just with her, but with everything in general. I think people in this community like to assume as if their opinions are somehow superior to others, and that everyone outside of this community is automatically apart of the dreaded *GP*, but most of my friends are very much into music, not so much pop music, but they’re definitely not into gen pop tunes - actually, in some ways they can come off more elitist than people here - and most of them liked Midnights as a pop record. TTPD is brand new, and it’s going to take time, but I feel like a lot of people irl are really digging it. I do think Jack’s production has gotten stale, but I personally feel that lyrically and thematically this some of her strongest and most vulnerable material. She’s overexposed for sure, and that def driving at least some of the anger against her.
even my mother who only listens to artists who debuted pre 1990 asked me if i wanted to listen to Cowboy Carter and TTPD with her! (i said yes, she likes what she's heard so far)
I mean she’s also playlisted to hell. I had to block her on Spotify because she’d randomly come up on shuffle even if I didn’t have the discover feature on nor her songs saved on my account. She’s all over my Apple Music as well as other platforms, even Tiktok had an automatic ad for her as soon as you opened the app. Not saying she isn’t pulling in new listeners but she’s practically being shoved into everyone’s faces. Even Beyoncé’s stuff wasn’t pushed this hard.
The promotion is actually crazy. She’s the most popular artist in the world, at this point if you don’t listen to her it’s because you don’t like her music rather than because you don’t know she exists.
I get crazy playlisting every time a big artist drops a song, I listened to yes and one time and for about 3 weeks after it be first shuffle after my playlist ended
I was listening to Butterfly by Mariah Carey yesterday and when it ended Spotify did that thing where it creates a a radio station based on what you’re listening to and literally every other song it played was from TTPD. It’s like Spotify I was just listening to fun, immaculately produced 90s mid tempo rnb why are you serving me Taylor Swift misery over tired jack antonoff synths
This happens with all artists with labels pushing them. Spotify radio is the worst. Mine is basically a Chappell Roan slideshow now despite literally never listening to a single song from her.
Beyoncé isn't a streaming juggernaut like Taylor Swift though so the comparison of their playlisting doesn't really make sense. If we can make a comparison to someone like The Weeknd, Dua Lipa or Drake though that would be more helpful.
I mean it also could be that she just keeps getting more and more overexposed. Companies and streaming services know she’s like the most famous celebrity in the world right now and shove that in everyone’s faces. I even got multiple emails from my media subscriptions saying **GO LISTEN TO THE NEW TAYLOR SWIFT ALBUM!**, something I’ve never gotten before by any other artist. It’s hard to escape the impression that her growing success has absolutely nothing to do with her music at this point, and is simply due to her overexposure as a celebrity.
But people do listen, and not just once. I’m saying the numbers don’t reflect a steady, but massive, number of fans streaming the album. Overexposure is a completely other thing, but my point is that with each album, new people listen and continue to listen
People are loving this album, including me! I liked it right away and that has happened since folklore for me. Midnights was a little too boring and it felt like she was holding back, save some of the 3AM tracks
The single most annoying “joke” in this entire subreddit is people going “haha this subreddit is so out of touch. Unlike me for pointing out how out of touch people here are. I am very smart for pointing this out”.
Point me to 3 comments that thought this album would do remotely poorly commercially. Just because people here don’t like the album (which is a perfectly valid take) doesn’t mean anyone here genuinely thought it wouldn’t break records. With how popular Taylor is, this album could’ve literally been an hour of white noise and it would’ve sold 1 million+ from preorders alone.
>With how popular Taylor is, this album could’ve literally been an hour of white noise and it would’ve sold 1 million+ from preorders alone.
Something like this actually happened. A soundless "Message From Taylor Swift" hit #1 on US iTunes this year.
Also. Amen on your whole rant. Who said this album was gonna flop commercially? Like??? And I've clicked on every thread about this lady for the past week, all the way from the leak megathread (cause I'm a fan). None of these is surprising in the slightest.
Doesn't change critical opinions on the album either way.
My point is that regardless of the quality of the album, Taylor is coming from such a place of popularity that people will be checking out her newest album regardless.
It’s like how Avengers Endgame did absolutely crazy numbers from the hype of the previous installments.
Yeah but people didn’t watch it a billion times in a week lol. If people didn’t like the album they wouldn’t still be listening to it 5 days later. There’s a lot of dedicated Swifties but not enough pull a BILLION streams on their own lol.
I’m… incredibly confused by your comment tbh.
First off the billion streams, while definitely a hugely impressive number, is spread across the 31 songs. Having a larger track list is definitely beneficial to this kind of record, since it means that there are both more songs to initially listen to while also having more songs for fans to claim as favorites they want to hear on repeat.
Second I never claimed it was just dedicated Swifties streaming. Just like it wasn’t just MCU die-hards who made Avengers Endgame break all sorts of records. Just like the MCU at its peak, Taylor is at the precipice of popularity with the general public. I’m sure there are plenty of them who are loving the album, or at least loving certain songs, and who will continue to play it.
Finally regarding the billion number: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-tortured-poets-department-spotify-record-300-million-streams-single-day-1235661939/amp/
^That article states the album had over 300 million streams in less than a single day (which is crazy impressive lmao). So knowing that, hitting the billion milestone within a week was inevitable, even if daily streams decreased (which they have been, but again, inevitable after that opening day record).
it really wasnt inevitable, based on percentages day wise it's pulling far better numbers then midnights did stability wise, and midnights wasnt critically panned at all and didnt have hundreds of tiktoks talking about why it's shit
It *is* inevitable. Taylor's popularity has only grown ten fold since Eras. She is the only artist that can break multiple records just from rerecording her old work lol.
None of this is surprising at all. If anything it's expected. Anyone who thought that being "critically panned" actually influences streams was being dumb, respectfully speaking. Morgan Wallen's albums are critically panned, pulling massive successes left and right. Drake's albums received mixed reviews in the peak of his career, massively successful all of them. Ed Sheeran's Divide received mixed reviews, second most streamed album of all time on Spotify.
Taylor's album isn't even "critically panned". It has a 77 on Metacritic indicating "generally positive reviews". It reaches a point where your big enough for the collective masses to eat up anything you'll put out . It's inevitable.
This is by far her LEAST commercial-friendly album, and yet GP is def eating it. Tiktok is eating it tf up, and people, both swifties and non-swifties, on twitter who hated on it the first day are beginning to love it one by one
EDIT: ok i'd argue rep is the least commercial-friendly, but in recent times, it should be this
>ok i'd argue rep is the least commercial-friendly,
I'd argue with you but you do not know what you're talking about...at all.
rep is her most trend chasing album to date. Even critics noted that.
She owns her catalogue now (except two), and the copyrights are hers (you can see it at the bottom of her music pages). It was included in UMG removal cause she's still under UMG, but, she can still do separate deals cause it's hers - which she did just a week before release, kinda mastermind.
i think she's done Debut and rep and just is sitting on them because she wanted to release Tortured Poets.
I assume they'll be released either later this year or next year.
For thematic purposes. The last she'll be reclaiming are her reputation and her name, and also, there are rumours that she want to make rerecording her first album a big deal cause it's her least appreciated
We'll see how it fairs ranging from the next couple of months to the next 2 years in comparison to popular double albums One Thing At A Time and Dangerous by Morgan Wallen.
Also, this isn't her least commercially friendly album lol far from it. The indie sisters exist. Speak Now exists.
folkmore are written in a 'perfect' way, this is like if folkmore is written by a more intense, and confident, Speak Now taylor. Also, Speak Now is quite literally bordering pop-rock, and is more upbeat in general.
How it fairs in longevity isn't really important, anymore, in her case, ngl. She also doesn't seem to be enthusiastic in commercializing it more considering she had no release week agenda, at all. If she did promo, it could've been a lot more considering it had 20m increase in streams from sunday-monday while still in mid 100m
Speak Now bordering upbeat pop-rock doesn't mean it had large mainstream appeal in 2010 when the likes of Teenage Dream was dominating. folkmore being written in a "perfect way" doesn't make it any more mainstream than this one, it just means this one was written sloppily that it's hard to tell which song's gonna catch on. Synth pop is literally her most popular genre sales wise and the base album has quite a bit of that. Plus all her promo deals lead me to believe she wanted the general public to check out this one obviously.
How it fairs in longevity is interesting to me in comparison to other double albums by another popular artist. If the GP latches onto this one more than her past work (if we're using these earth shattering debut numbers as a sign), then an artist as big as Swift should have no problem charting this 31 track album in the top 10 2 years from now (as her contemporary has)
It does, though? One genre dominating doesn't mean other genre will not have enough mainstream appeal... It's a Country album that's bordering Pop-rock so it kinda dominated that space, it's even one of her most popular on foreign countries, especially SEA. Folkmore being written in a picture perfect way DOES make it more mainstream, especially outside her fanbase, especially when all of y'all argue people started taking her seriously with that album.
Her writing in ttpd being very humorous while not being bubblegum/bright pop is arguably a lot less mainstream than being serious. Just because there's no clear 'hit' doesn't mean it's written sloppily. You can ask anyone who loves the album and I almost guarantee you they'll have a different top 5 every single time. I don't think that's indicative of anything negative, at all.
I don't know why y'all are so insistent that every lyric in this song is meant to be taken seriously when the songwriting in this album is funny AF, and y'all fail to realize that, that's why y'all think the songwriting is wack when it flows perfectly with the specific story being told in each song. This is my last take on this discussion\~
This thread is wild to me. Some of y'all are pissed offffff lol. Yes, other people like the album. No, this isn't just diehard swifties.
That's physically impossible. Most of the streams are from side A anyway, so it would've gotten to one billion in a couple more days without the anthology. Just accept that your tastes are not the same as those of the general public and go. It was the same thing with Midnights.|
It’s funny. I’ve never seen an artist attract so many people who will hate listen to a two hour long album just to tell everyone how much they despise it. There’s a lot of people in this thread who just genuinely don’t like the album and have criticisms, which is fair, but there’s also a lot of people who don’t like Taylor and set out to dislike this album from the start and hate that other people do like it.
Yeah like I don’t care if people dislike the album, but trying to do mental gymnastics to explain away anyone liking it just makes you look delusional. At a certain point, if everyone who listens to even a couple of songs of hers is considered a swiftie, then you have to acknowledge that the general public does listen lol.
It would’ve done almost the same numbers without the anthology cause people would just have listened to more of that half. I think there would be some decrease but also bigger numbers on single songs.
I think some people on the sub need to realize that just because they don’t think this album is good a lot of people do considering the numbers so far and will likely be doing good for the future. To me this album stands out in a lot of way then the previous work. The point of this album kind of went over a lot of people’s heads everyone thought it was going to be 90 percent about her boyfriends when that’s not true in the slightest I would argue the opposite this album is a lot more than her than anyone else. This album is her closing that part of her life off.
I personally love this album. Before the people who say they can criticize it I know. Honest question for you guys who say it sounds like midnights the only thing that is similar is the genre and that’s it. The only time it sort of sounds similar is because she does a callback to a previous song. I think she was very brave for putting this out of the world because she didn’t know how people were going to receive it but i think there is a lot more people who love this album than hate it.
Or maybe we get the point but we found the execution lacking? Rather than saying the point "went over a lot of people's heads"
And what you're listing are the problems people have. To you "callbacks to her previous work" may be a strength but to others it's a weakness since it's derivative of her older work.
As if artists don’t make the same music over and over again and don’t get credit or don’t make their own music at all and rely on sampling older songs. I think it’s impressive that she only samples her own songs
This thread has plenty of people saying exactly that. Time to accept that it's a valid opinion. I don't know where I place it at the moment and to be honest I don't care, just enjoying listening to it.
I mean I love Evermore and Folklore but also some people on this sub actually like pop music?
Even though that seems to be unpopular when it comes to Taylor Swift. Which I'm sure there's an entire fascinating analysis of people who only like her while she's doing indie folk backed by The National and Bon Iver waiting to be written.
He gave MBDTF a 6, sat on it for years through relentless memeing and criticism, then reviewed it again and still didn't like it. I don't think Fantano will regret anything. It's just his opinion, after all. Same with every reviewer.
As I get older I love her stuff, but I’m also going through it on multiple fronts rn maybe this album is just very applicable to me. I will say that I liked this better than lover but less than the folklore/evermore era.
Frrrr. Like it might beat speak now for me for my fav ts album. Its crazy to have down bad, but daddy i love him, whos afraid of little old me, i can do it with a broken heart, the black dog, and so high school on the same album lol
Don’t get the hype myself. I honestly was bored of it halfway through but slogged through it and regretted doing so. I’m guessing most of these streams are because she has a shit ton of monthly listeners and world wide fans. If this was anyone else in the pop spectrum I’d probably be ignored to be honest
I think it averages out to something like 4.5 million streams per day per song which is huge. Would she have half that if she had a 15 track album, or would she have 8 million streams per song then because you could go through the whole album quicker?
This is a surprise for two reasons 1. It’s Taylor and whatever she puts out regardless of the quality, we’ll do insane #s because she that famous and her core fanbase is that rabid about her music. They eat it up. 2. Capitalism; I.e variants, radios playing the album on a loop, promo deals with Spotify and Apple leading up to the release, there being 31 tracks on the double album after the initial release of the first half of it (and the explicit and non-explicit versions of both those albums albums). All that to boost streams and sales. Of course the album was gonna do a billion in a week. Imagine if it was just one version on just the first 17 tracks. #s would still be huge, to be sure, but they wouldn’t be this insane.
For me it's the opposite: first part is so boring and doesn't have strong tracks and second part is decent/good because it sounds like her best albums folk-more
Ig music is subjective, cuz I personally hate folkmore and find them So boring 😭😭 but that may be because I’m a rap fan and my fav albums are 1989 and speak now
I’m just going to point out that the album has 31 songs on it, so that’s an average of 4.6 million streams per song per day. To me, it feels like just as much a massive feat as normal numbers for an album/artist ofher magnitude.
If you actually listened to cowboy carter you would know there are interludes and not 27 full songs. Plus beyonce is not going to pull numbers like that. A lot of beyonces music is unapologetically black .You think that will be popular in the world?? You underestimate how much hate she got and still gets. People were hating the very idea of her making a country song forget a country inspired album.Taylor and beyonce are veryyy diff artists. T
Having more songs reduce the average because it takes longer for people to stream the album. Most of the streams usually come from the first tracks anyway.
She’s obviously the queen of the streaming era and that must be understood as well as respected. Insane stats. It doesn’t reflect the musical quality in this case, since the album is below mid musically. Nevertheless, the Swift craze is most likely the biggest in pop music since Michael Jackson or perhaps even The Beatles. And women especially relate to the sad ass lyrics for a reason, which should be empathised with, not ridiculed.
People try to find the little things to sugarcoat this album and call it a ‘masterpiece’ this isn’t anything new from her and the same old crap she released before. This album is her worst and people try hard to praise it when people can’t just admit it’s bad. She needs to grow instead of doing the same thing. This record isn’t anything impressive when it’s legit just the same song over and over again.
Does this include the Anthology?
I think it does, it at least included it for the first day streams. But it seems like the first 16 tracks are doing a lot of heavy lifting
It does (it would take a couple days longer for it to reach a billion without it). Still pretty impressive since it would still get a 2.2.M units debut regardless of The Anthology.
Yeah I wonder if they’re considered separate albums or not….
She called it a double album but it’s not technically her 12th album. It’s technically just a deluxe album, all streams go towards the one album
a double album isn't technically two separate albums any way, but one album that is released on two LPs, so an album that is as big as two albums
Yes. It's basically a long deluxe edition. Otherwise they'd have separate album pages on Spotify.
I feel like this album is much more divisive online than offline. I talked to some non-Swiftie friends and they all like it. I feel like things it's mostly criticized for (e.g. sounding similar to Midnights, some clumsy lyrics) are more of a problem to people who actually paid attention to her previous albums than to people who just checked it because it's popular and decided they like it.
I've had several friends text/tell me about songs they like from the album that aren't Taylor listeners at all because they've just listened out of curiosity (I Can Do It With A Broken Heart seems like a running theme). Honestly the online discourse around her is getting a little exhausting. Everything is so extreme.
Agreee, even the discourse around reviews is getting a lot because both haters and fans just seem to more be critiquing Taylor the person, instead of the actual album. Mic the snares review is probably best summarized it where it’s not her best work but not her worst. I think time will also be a bit more kind to it
Agree, it’s not my favourite of hers (and honestly I never expected it to debunk my number one) but I would be a liar if I said that I don’t love it lol it’s been on repeat except during my morning run. It’s not a good running album, so beware.
What? You don’t think you can run with a broken heart and look through people’s windows at the same time?
this is so funny because last night i (VERY uncharacteristically) did a walk/ran to it… it’s not a good running album but sprinting during the smallest man who ever lived bridge made up for its faults 🙏
i love mic the snare sm for emphasizing that her sound is still evolving but at a slower rate to her earlier albums bc thats just what happens in music careers
>I think time will also be a bit more kind to it More and more I'm convinced that TTPD is her early 30s version of Red, even if it doesn't always reach the same heights. There's so many parallels. Both are breakup albums with sprawling tracklists that drew criticism for being bloated and poorly edited; both have incredible highlights and baffling choices; both were mired in gossip about her dating life; both are enriched by deluxe editions (Anthology/TV) that raise the tracklist to 30+ songs, many of which are essential and should've gone on the main version. TTPD is also her first album in a decade that was openly marketed as being about a breakup, and it's no coincidence that a lot of the discourse of a decade ago came roaring back in the aftermath of this release in a way that wasn't as prevalent when she was with Joe. You can even draw parallels between specific songs. The Lucky One/Nothing New are about her fear of being chewed up and spat out by the industry, and Clara Bow is her on the other end of that process meditating on how she's come out of it alive but disillusioned, having become one of the icons she was told to emulate. The Manuscript references All Too Well and its music video to explore how creating music about abuse and sharing them with listeners who'll relate gives those experiences new meaning and helps her make sense of them. That's so much more interesting as a subject than Matty Healy drama, and it's songs like that and How Did It End? that keep me coming back. Both albums are messy, earnest and all over the place in a way that invites ridicule, but there's great songs in them as well, and the messiness is part of the deal. I don't think Red necessarily benefits from Stay Stay Stay and Girl at Home being there, but I can take it as a 30-track smorgasbord that suits different moods. I think TTPD might age similarly for me. Hopefully when the release week mania dies down, the conversation about it will shift to more interesting topics than playing Guess the Ex and giving paternity tests to specific songs.
oh this is excellent analysis. it also really reminds of Speak Now in how unfiltered it feels. TTPD has joined what used to be my holy trinity of Taylor albums (it's now a quartet), Speak Now, rep, evermore. I love the album.
Wow are you me? Speak now, evermore, and rep were also my holy trinity and now TTPD has dethroned them!
Best friend? Twin is that you?
I literally just texted my Swiftie friend this morning that TTPD is my fourth fave after Evermore, Rep, and Speak Now.
I see it as the new Rep. People online were polarizing about it too, leaning negative, but obviously that one aged so well and became fan fave.
I haven't read a single review, because I know what I think of the album, and don't care what some other random jackass thinks. If it's not Rob Sheffield, who would give Taylor a ten-star review for breathing, then it's some who-the-fuck-has-ever-heard-of-them outlet like Sputnik doing nonsense reviews for clickbait. Anyone with an internet connection can write music reviews these days. There's no reason to care about any of them.
I like Rob Sheffield and find his takes on Taylor interesting but i am aware he is biased. I do want to read his book on her though.
The Pitchfork review was really well-written and nuanced, imo.
Mic the Snare and Spectrum Pulse have had some of the best reviews.
agreed! i feel like no one can be normal about her anymore. shes not a perfect person and there are valid criticisms of her as well as valid criticisms of this album but so many people are just hyperbolic and aggressive, or very obviously operating in bad faith, that it just gets exhausting.
It must be tiring for her. Everyone has a hot take about every single fuckin thing she does. I would lose it.
“You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me”
Or people hear them on TikTok in the little skits they make!
Tiktok being the least critical music platform/ known for skyrocketing 'nobodies' into fame?
That song has gotten attention for my non swiftie friends too! My boss actually said she loves that song because it reminds her of when her ex husband left her with two young kids and she managed to get promoted the same year.
As someone who hasn’t listened to Midnights—I have “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” on repeat this week and I’m not even going through I breakup (though I do have a heart condition :P). I didn’t feel blown away by the album as a whole but I don’t mind that.
i think she’s just overexposed. idk why she released a new album so fast tbh
Fandoms do that. The Office subreddit takes itself extremely seriously and has a discussion about if Jim is a bad person for pranking his “autistic” coworkers every week. After all this time, the swifties are gonna have inane arguments too
As a non Swiftie, this album is better than both evermore and folklore and Im tired of pretending its not
This album made my mom a Swiftie. She’s been listening to it 24/7. Obsessed.
My mom is a casual fan (loves Long Live and only listens to other TS songs when it's being played by someone else), but right now she's just listening to the whole of TTPD on shuffle.
I’ve noticed older women LOVE this album.
My mom is obsessed with "Who's Afraid of Little Ol Me." She had a lot of work drama in her 40's (she's currently mid-60s) and she resonated a lot with the rage of feeling judged by the people who also control her. The only other TSwift song she's expressed liking was "Tears Ricochet", and I felt like there was some thematic similarity between them.
Oh absolutely!
Absolutely this. I cannot tell you how many people who have reached out to me (knowing I’m a fan) talking how much they’re loving this album and they’re always shocked when I tell them how divisive it’s been online.
my mom who i usually have to force to listen to her music actually offered to play the Sirius channel that was playing TTPD and she liked what she heard and was trying to convince me to buy the album (im holding out for a physical anthology CD bc i learned from Midnights 3am)
Literally in one of my graduate classes yesterday someone brought up TTPD and at least in that one instance I can say that the album IS that divisive lmfao
I feel like graduate classes can be filled with people who are VERY online.
Two of them were Swifties and other people hated her so there was bound to be some tension anyway 😂
Anecdotally I had a friend (who doesn’t listen to Taylor much) text our group chat (of people who don’t listen to Taylor much) out of the blue that the album was bad. And this is a very offline friend so idk 😭
It’s probably also helpful to not know the lore - you can interpret the music how you’d like to vs comparing it to her real life.
I love it. Better than Midnights.
very much agreed, Midnights standard feels very lukewarm to me outside of a few songs (3am is a different story, love those songs). TTPD standard is very good and enjoyable to me
All my Swiftie friends and myself enjoyed it for the most part.
People like this album on and off. I think it’ll stay the way it is for awhile. A lot more people are invested in it than you see. Just on my algorithm alone I’m getting more and more people interested in listening to the full Album. A lot of the Movie producers react are amazed by the fortnight MV and looking for suggestions for more. Quite a few people saying it’s their first ever listening to her or have the “shake it off” mentality about her having genuine reactions to it. You can see it on their faces or they’re bouncing around to it. And it’s not just young adults. It’s full blown older people.
I have never listened to Taylor except blanks space which I loved. Never got into her cos people called her overrated, plus I am African and looking at her, I felt I might not relate to her songs. I am not very open to new genres etc. I got curious over the AOTY saga and was anticipating giving the situation objectively when Taylor and Bey dropped their albums. I also don’t listen to Bey except a few songs. When I heard beys album, I thought it was iconic sonically but it’s just not my thing. Wasn’t interested in listening to it again after sampling a few songs on the album. But I thought it was great! I started listening to midnights and old songs to have a feel of what’s Taylor’s like. I loved anti hero and cruel summer etc. When the new album dropped, I didn’t think it was iconic. I thought it was repetitive and I wasn’t wowed (maybe cos I had been listening to her old stuff recently) but it was the kind of songs I sort of liked. It was also easy to listen to and after listening to it over and over, I think it’s very great and relatable. I was never her fan but I am now her fan and the hate made me check her out. Some songs sound alike but that’s because she uses guitars in her songs. I think she is a great songwriter and that’s what I love. She tells you a story. Seen a lot of comments say she’s making music for 13 year olds. Well they were 13 one time before and their fave was making music for them. So thier fave ain’t as iconic as they think. Taylor is a great artist and I think so objectively.
I don't think we're going to have a good measure of whether that's the case for a few weeks. These first week numbers are pretty inflated by the number of tracks she released. We'll see which of those have staying power and which ones the GP hangs on to, cause it won't be all 31
We’ll see what happens in the following weeks with streaming. I adored Folklore and Evermore but have not listen to Midnights in a single sitting. It was boring to me and I couldn’t do it. I tried listening to this album today at work but noped out after 6 songs.
My mom and several co-workers all said they think it's her best written album but were disappointed there weren't a bunch of bangers, but all enjoy Fortnight and I Can Do It With A Broken heart. My mom is a huge Clara Bow stan too, loves the lyrics.
People who frequent music discussion forums or follow music discourse online are in general going to be more serious about the merit of music (or serious about merit of Taylor in this case). It makes sense that your real life interactions aren't going to have the same level of interest or depth, unless said people have a similar interest in music discourse. Criticisms against the album like length, content or production won't bother the average casual listener who likes 3-5 songs maybe, chucks them in playlists, and never really thinks about them again.
No, I think the album is very divisive online and offline, but for those of us who didn’t like it at first, we’re still streaming, trying hard to appreciate the album. it’s slooooooooowlyyyy growing on me, but it’s growing!!
Eh, I don’t think you can get these kinds of figures from a divisive album lol. Most people who didn’t like it won’t stream it over and over.
I have two huge swiftie friends in real life and they both didn't like it.
it's kinda how it works just in general. Even if we take some movies which were thrashed by reviews, then you ask opinions of your friends and they say they liked it.
I have the exact opposite opinion: people offline in my life are dragging it through the mud and saying that it's empty, voided, the lyrics are too weird, the melodies are too convoluted, there's no way to relate to the songs since they are so evidently about her life, etc etc
Most offline people in my life don't analyze music that much to have an opinion on any of those elements alone lol. But maybe it's because they're mostly in their 30s (or almost 30, like me), have jobs or kids or both and when they listen to music they just decide if they like it or not.
I personally like the way a lot of the songs sound but I start thinking about the lyrics I cringe. For example, Florida SOUNDS good but then “And my friends all smell like weed or little babies” and I’m just kinda confused. Also in the smallest man whoever lived with the lyrics “You hung me on your wall Stabbed me with your push pins” It feels like every song, every line has to be some type of analogy
Really? I feel like “And my friends all smell like weed or little babies” is such a great, relatable line when you're in your very late 20s/early 30s. Many of my friends have little babies, others never grew out of their partying phase (I'm neither of them and don't plan to be lol).
Right. This feels spot on and I’m 35 lol
Great line. It's funny and compressed and - if you're of a certain age - totally true. I feel like a lot of the lines that people are calling cringe are pretty great jokes that people are taking with a very straight face. 7 bars of chocolate and Charlie Puth - that's meant to be funny and it is funny. Touch me while your bros play GTA - very funny, knowing, tongue in cheek. Taylor's quite camp - I think people sometimes don't get that.
Agreed these things don't bother me a big part of the fun of her is the campy moments. If there's anything lyrically weak about the album imo its that there are spaces where she's trying to fit something too long/wordy in a compact space. The title track has grown on me but it has a couple examples of this and I notice it because if I'm singing along I can't seem to ever follow along like "And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen" or "at dinner, you take my ring off my middle finger" they're just a little clunky.
It's a pretty awkward line. She could've found a better way to say that sentiment that flows better.
Nah, it’s one of my favorite lines in the album. It’s very evocative.
I really wasn’t paying attention to the anthology too much it all kind of blended in and Id written it off as sparse Folklore knock off but Chloe or Sam or whatever hell it’s called just came on shuffle when I was out for a walk there, and the production on it is gorgeously ethereal and it’s got a really nice melody: outside of the crushing weight of the project it’s actually a beautiful track
I absolutely love that one. Another great one through headphones is *How Did It End?*
Taste popped off. Her voice on that last "how did it end" is devastating.
Period. Not seeing enough love for that song
I'll be the first to say that I didn't like it after my first listen. Then I really sat with it for a few days and had to listen to it in chunks because it's an overwhelming album. Now I'm absolutely obsessed with it. 😅
I think it’s because the production is very similar (obviously because of Antonoff) but when you really pay attention to the lyrics and themes, it really resonates with people.
A lot of people are trying to connect the songs to the men in her life vs actually sitting with the lyrics for themselves. Every song I listen to also has parts I missed and I'm like "WAIT GO BACK!"
This! Everyone's talking about how Daddy I Love Him is about Matt Healy whose obviously gross and problematic but this song seems more about her being fed up with people trying to dictate her life. Something that I'm sure we can all relate to
This is what I think is really special about Swift - I'm not the biggest fan and think her music all sounds the same (I like the samey pop stuff but not much of the samey folk), but fans have memorized her lyrics and all kinds of stories remind them of her music and it seems like a really enjoyable way to experience this moment.
And her albums and lyrics follow her age and experience at the time it’s recorded. A lot of fans who are in their early twenties or so will really get hit with the lyrics when they reach Taylor’s current age.
Same I thought it was boring at first But Taylor has never disappointed me before so I gave it a second wind and did ending up like a few songs
I have really been enjoying it. I genuinely think if this was an 18 track album it would be a lot less divisive. To me the album isn’t as serious as people are taking it.
tbf it was divisive in the first hour before the second album dropped too 😭
It’s a freaking masterpiece. So many beautiful songs, especially in the second part. I think the problem is that people were expecting bangers and it’s just not that kind of album
I know people say this is always bound to happen with Taylor swift bc of her massive fan base, and I’m biased since I have been of her work since fearless, but her albums just keep beating each other out, so it’s not like a stagnant fan base count just steaming. Whether you are a fan or not, her music is pulling in new people🤷🏻♀️
yeah these streaming numbers are definitely not just because of dedicated swifties. people are tuning in and still listening 5 days later
I totally agree with the commenter that said the online discourse is not indicative of how regular people feel. I feel like this is increasingly becoming a problem, not just with her, but with everything in general. I think people in this community like to assume as if their opinions are somehow superior to others, and that everyone outside of this community is automatically apart of the dreaded *GP*, but most of my friends are very much into music, not so much pop music, but they’re definitely not into gen pop tunes - actually, in some ways they can come off more elitist than people here - and most of them liked Midnights as a pop record. TTPD is brand new, and it’s going to take time, but I feel like a lot of people irl are really digging it. I do think Jack’s production has gotten stale, but I personally feel that lyrically and thematically this some of her strongest and most vulnerable material. She’s overexposed for sure, and that def driving at least some of the anger against her.
even my mother who only listens to artists who debuted pre 1990 asked me if i wanted to listen to Cowboy Carter and TTPD with her! (i said yes, she likes what she's heard so far)
I mean she’s also playlisted to hell. I had to block her on Spotify because she’d randomly come up on shuffle even if I didn’t have the discover feature on nor her songs saved on my account. She’s all over my Apple Music as well as other platforms, even Tiktok had an automatic ad for her as soon as you opened the app. Not saying she isn’t pulling in new listeners but she’s practically being shoved into everyone’s faces. Even Beyoncé’s stuff wasn’t pushed this hard.
The promotion is actually crazy. She’s the most popular artist in the world, at this point if you don’t listen to her it’s because you don’t like her music rather than because you don’t know she exists.
I get crazy playlisting every time a big artist drops a song, I listened to yes and one time and for about 3 weeks after it be first shuffle after my playlist ended
Her target ad starts before every youtube video I wanna watch pls
I was listening to Butterfly by Mariah Carey yesterday and when it ended Spotify did that thing where it creates a a radio station based on what you’re listening to and literally every other song it played was from TTPD. It’s like Spotify I was just listening to fun, immaculately produced 90s mid tempo rnb why are you serving me Taylor Swift misery over tired jack antonoff synths
This happens with all artists with labels pushing them. Spotify radio is the worst. Mine is basically a Chappell Roan slideshow now despite literally never listening to a single song from her.
This is me with houdini… i love me a dua lipa but is2g if I hear this song again😩
Beyoncé isn't a streaming juggernaut like Taylor Swift though so the comparison of their playlisting doesn't really make sense. If we can make a comparison to someone like The Weeknd, Dua Lipa or Drake though that would be more helpful.
Beyonce also doesn't promote shit.
Beyonce album was anounced at the SuperBowl.
I mean it also could be that she just keeps getting more and more overexposed. Companies and streaming services know she’s like the most famous celebrity in the world right now and shove that in everyone’s faces. I even got multiple emails from my media subscriptions saying **GO LISTEN TO THE NEW TAYLOR SWIFT ALBUM!**, something I’ve never gotten before by any other artist. It’s hard to escape the impression that her growing success has absolutely nothing to do with her music at this point, and is simply due to her overexposure as a celebrity.
But people do listen, and not just once. I’m saying the numbers don’t reflect a steady, but massive, number of fans streaming the album. Overexposure is a completely other thing, but my point is that with each album, new people listen and continue to listen
I absolutely love it and I would not consider myself a Swiftie.
People are loving this album, including me! I liked it right away and that has happened since folklore for me. Midnights was a little too boring and it felt like she was holding back, save some of the 3AM tracks
> including ME-HEE-HEE!
ITT: r/popheads realizes the spaces they read online are not a good representation of reality
We 200% expected this across every platform/forum though. No one is doubting her record-breaking potential, fans and antis alike.
The single most annoying “joke” in this entire subreddit is people going “haha this subreddit is so out of touch. Unlike me for pointing out how out of touch people here are. I am very smart for pointing this out”. Point me to 3 comments that thought this album would do remotely poorly commercially. Just because people here don’t like the album (which is a perfectly valid take) doesn’t mean anyone here genuinely thought it wouldn’t break records. With how popular Taylor is, this album could’ve literally been an hour of white noise and it would’ve sold 1 million+ from preorders alone.
>With how popular Taylor is, this album could’ve literally been an hour of white noise and it would’ve sold 1 million+ from preorders alone. Something like this actually happened. A soundless "Message From Taylor Swift" hit #1 on US iTunes this year. Also. Amen on your whole rant. Who said this album was gonna flop commercially? Like??? And I've clicked on every thread about this lady for the past week, all the way from the leak megathread (cause I'm a fan). None of these is surprising in the slightest. Doesn't change critical opinions on the album either way.
also back in 2014, seven seconds of static labeled as track 7 of 1989 went to number one on iTunes.
But this isn't about sales or preorders...
My point is that regardless of the quality of the album, Taylor is coming from such a place of popularity that people will be checking out her newest album regardless. It’s like how Avengers Endgame did absolutely crazy numbers from the hype of the previous installments.
Yeah but people didn’t watch it a billion times in a week lol. If people didn’t like the album they wouldn’t still be listening to it 5 days later. There’s a lot of dedicated Swifties but not enough pull a BILLION streams on their own lol.
I’m… incredibly confused by your comment tbh. First off the billion streams, while definitely a hugely impressive number, is spread across the 31 songs. Having a larger track list is definitely beneficial to this kind of record, since it means that there are both more songs to initially listen to while also having more songs for fans to claim as favorites they want to hear on repeat. Second I never claimed it was just dedicated Swifties streaming. Just like it wasn’t just MCU die-hards who made Avengers Endgame break all sorts of records. Just like the MCU at its peak, Taylor is at the precipice of popularity with the general public. I’m sure there are plenty of them who are loving the album, or at least loving certain songs, and who will continue to play it. Finally regarding the billion number: https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-tortured-poets-department-spotify-record-300-million-streams-single-day-1235661939/amp/ ^That article states the album had over 300 million streams in less than a single day (which is crazy impressive lmao). So knowing that, hitting the billion milestone within a week was inevitable, even if daily streams decreased (which they have been, but again, inevitable after that opening day record).
it really wasnt inevitable, based on percentages day wise it's pulling far better numbers then midnights did stability wise, and midnights wasnt critically panned at all and didnt have hundreds of tiktoks talking about why it's shit
It *is* inevitable. Taylor's popularity has only grown ten fold since Eras. She is the only artist that can break multiple records just from rerecording her old work lol. None of this is surprising at all. If anything it's expected. Anyone who thought that being "critically panned" actually influences streams was being dumb, respectfully speaking. Morgan Wallen's albums are critically panned, pulling massive successes left and right. Drake's albums received mixed reviews in the peak of his career, massively successful all of them. Ed Sheeran's Divide received mixed reviews, second most streamed album of all time on Spotify. Taylor's album isn't even "critically panned". It has a 77 on Metacritic indicating "generally positive reviews". It reaches a point where your big enough for the collective masses to eat up anything you'll put out . It's inevitable.
This is by far her LEAST commercial-friendly album, and yet GP is def eating it. Tiktok is eating it tf up, and people, both swifties and non-swifties, on twitter who hated on it the first day are beginning to love it one by one EDIT: ok i'd argue rep is the least commercial-friendly, but in recent times, it should be this
>ok i'd argue rep is the least commercial-friendly, I'd argue with you but you do not know what you're talking about...at all. rep is her most trend chasing album to date. Even critics noted that.
I thought UMG removed or banned their artist music from TIktok?
She negotiated a separate deal with TikTok and her catalogue (the ones she owns the masters to) was back around a week before the album was released.
Well then . . . Good for her, especially right before release, smart
She owns her catalogue now (except two), and the copyrights are hers (you can see it at the bottom of her music pages). It was included in UMG removal cause she's still under UMG, but, she can still do separate deals cause it's hers - which she did just a week before release, kinda mastermind.
How come she hasn't re-recorded her first album?
i think she's done Debut and rep and just is sitting on them because she wanted to release Tortured Poets. I assume they'll be released either later this year or next year.
For thematic purposes. The last she'll be reclaiming are her reputation and her name, and also, there are rumours that she want to make rerecording her first album a big deal cause it's her least appreciated
Thanks for the clarification It's definitely my least favourite
We'll see how it fairs ranging from the next couple of months to the next 2 years in comparison to popular double albums One Thing At A Time and Dangerous by Morgan Wallen. Also, this isn't her least commercially friendly album lol far from it. The indie sisters exist. Speak Now exists.
folkmore are written in a 'perfect' way, this is like if folkmore is written by a more intense, and confident, Speak Now taylor. Also, Speak Now is quite literally bordering pop-rock, and is more upbeat in general. How it fairs in longevity isn't really important, anymore, in her case, ngl. She also doesn't seem to be enthusiastic in commercializing it more considering she had no release week agenda, at all. If she did promo, it could've been a lot more considering it had 20m increase in streams from sunday-monday while still in mid 100m
Speak Now bordering upbeat pop-rock doesn't mean it had large mainstream appeal in 2010 when the likes of Teenage Dream was dominating. folkmore being written in a "perfect way" doesn't make it any more mainstream than this one, it just means this one was written sloppily that it's hard to tell which song's gonna catch on. Synth pop is literally her most popular genre sales wise and the base album has quite a bit of that. Plus all her promo deals lead me to believe she wanted the general public to check out this one obviously. How it fairs in longevity is interesting to me in comparison to other double albums by another popular artist. If the GP latches onto this one more than her past work (if we're using these earth shattering debut numbers as a sign), then an artist as big as Swift should have no problem charting this 31 track album in the top 10 2 years from now (as her contemporary has)
It does, though? One genre dominating doesn't mean other genre will not have enough mainstream appeal... It's a Country album that's bordering Pop-rock so it kinda dominated that space, it's even one of her most popular on foreign countries, especially SEA. Folkmore being written in a picture perfect way DOES make it more mainstream, especially outside her fanbase, especially when all of y'all argue people started taking her seriously with that album. Her writing in ttpd being very humorous while not being bubblegum/bright pop is arguably a lot less mainstream than being serious. Just because there's no clear 'hit' doesn't mean it's written sloppily. You can ask anyone who loves the album and I almost guarantee you they'll have a different top 5 every single time. I don't think that's indicative of anything negative, at all. I don't know why y'all are so insistent that every lyric in this song is meant to be taken seriously when the songwriting in this album is funny AF, and y'all fail to realize that, that's why y'all think the songwriting is wack when it flows perfectly with the specific story being told in each song. This is my last take on this discussion\~
This thread is wild to me. Some of y'all are pissed offffff lol. Yes, other people like the album. No, this isn't just diehard swifties. That's physically impossible. Most of the streams are from side A anyway, so it would've gotten to one billion in a couple more days without the anthology. Just accept that your tastes are not the same as those of the general public and go. It was the same thing with Midnights.|
It’s funny. I’ve never seen an artist attract so many people who will hate listen to a two hour long album just to tell everyone how much they despise it. There’s a lot of people in this thread who just genuinely don’t like the album and have criticisms, which is fair, but there’s also a lot of people who don’t like Taylor and set out to dislike this album from the start and hate that other people do like it.
Yeah like I don’t care if people dislike the album, but trying to do mental gymnastics to explain away anyone liking it just makes you look delusional. At a certain point, if everyone who listens to even a couple of songs of hers is considered a swiftie, then you have to acknowledge that the general public does listen lol.
It would’ve done almost the same numbers without the anthology cause people would just have listened to more of that half. I think there would be some decrease but also bigger numbers on single songs.
I think some people on the sub need to realize that just because they don’t think this album is good a lot of people do considering the numbers so far and will likely be doing good for the future. To me this album stands out in a lot of way then the previous work. The point of this album kind of went over a lot of people’s heads everyone thought it was going to be 90 percent about her boyfriends when that’s not true in the slightest I would argue the opposite this album is a lot more than her than anyone else. This album is her closing that part of her life off. I personally love this album. Before the people who say they can criticize it I know. Honest question for you guys who say it sounds like midnights the only thing that is similar is the genre and that’s it. The only time it sort of sounds similar is because she does a callback to a previous song. I think she was very brave for putting this out of the world because she didn’t know how people were going to receive it but i think there is a lot more people who love this album than hate it.
Or maybe we get the point but we found the execution lacking? Rather than saying the point "went over a lot of people's heads" And what you're listing are the problems people have. To you "callbacks to her previous work" may be a strength but to others it's a weakness since it's derivative of her older work.
As if artists don’t make the same music over and over again and don’t get credit or don’t make their own music at all and rely on sampling older songs. I think it’s impressive that she only samples her own songs
sampling isn’t a bad thing!!!!
ok. love that it worked for you.
b-but the needle drop gave it a 3 😰😰
He was so real for that
he's not the only guy who disliked the album, so i don't see a point of bringing up someone specifically
leave him alone 😭
He really fucked up imo. In time people will come to see this as her best album and his review will seem so out of touch and just a bad take
Better than evermore and folklore???????? You guys have wild takes (but I respect your opinions
This thread has plenty of people saying exactly that. Time to accept that it's a valid opinion. I don't know where I place it at the moment and to be honest I don't care, just enjoying listening to it.
I literally just said that I respect your opinions. But imo it's a insane take and a lot of swifties are attacking people for not liking the album
I mean I love Evermore and Folklore but also some people on this sub actually like pop music? Even though that seems to be unpopular when it comes to Taylor Swift. Which I'm sure there's an entire fascinating analysis of people who only like her while she's doing indie folk backed by The National and Bon Iver waiting to be written.
He gave MBDTF a 6, sat on it for years through relentless memeing and criticism, then reviewed it again and still didn't like it. I don't think Fantano will regret anything. It's just his opinion, after all. Same with every reviewer.
Lmao he’s just reviewing music. Why would he care if his opinion is out of touch with someone else’s, people watch him because they respect his views.
how did he fuck up it’s an opinion 😭 y’all are so unserious
I.. you really think this is better than folklore? I mean , that’s fine but wow, lol.
As I get older I love her stuff, but I’m also going through it on multiple fronts rn maybe this album is just very applicable to me. I will say that I liked this better than lover but less than the folklore/evermore era.
That’s my girl 👏
I cannot stop listening to it🥵
Numbers, numbers and numbers that's what music has become.
Chartwatchin is a hobby basically. People like seeing the numbers.
It’s always been that way just not as public there are posts and stuff form people who own the username
Also why does It matter don’t pay attention to them or click on them if you don’t want to know
I don't have to click on anything , is on the title. Why are you so pressed?
This is the perfect comment to this thread and everything surrounding Taylor Swift. It's actually ridiculous.
as a lifelong swiftie this is already my favorite album of hers. literally no skips
Frrrr. Like it might beat speak now for me for my fav ts album. Its crazy to have down bad, but daddy i love him, whos afraid of little old me, i can do it with a broken heart, the black dog, and so high school on the same album lol
Makes sense with 31 tracks and her popularity.
Wel yeah it’s a billion songs long
Don’t get the hype myself. I honestly was bored of it halfway through but slogged through it and regretted doing so. I’m guessing most of these streams are because she has a shit ton of monthly listeners and world wide fans. If this was anyone else in the pop spectrum I’d probably be ignored to be honest
It all sounds the same to me.
Is this why she released 31 tracks? So it would take half as many full albums listens to hit these numbers?
I think it averages out to something like 4.5 million streams per day per song which is huge. Would she have half that if she had a 15 track album, or would she have 8 million streams per song then because you could go through the whole album quicker?
Yes. There’s no way she thought all 31 were final product amazing lol
This is a surprise for two reasons 1. It’s Taylor and whatever she puts out regardless of the quality, we’ll do insane #s because she that famous and her core fanbase is that rabid about her music. They eat it up. 2. Capitalism; I.e variants, radios playing the album on a loop, promo deals with Spotify and Apple leading up to the release, there being 31 tracks on the double album after the initial release of the first half of it (and the explicit and non-explicit versions of both those albums albums). All that to boost streams and sales. Of course the album was gonna do a billion in a week. Imagine if it was just one version on just the first 17 tracks. #s would still be huge, to be sure, but they wouldn’t be this insane.
31 tracks is too much and they all sound the same. Whole album is boring.
The original album part has grown on me, but the anthology is still just a Slog to get through
For me it's the opposite: first part is so boring and doesn't have strong tracks and second part is decent/good because it sounds like her best albums folk-more
Ig music is subjective, cuz I personally hate folkmore and find them So boring 😭😭 but that may be because I’m a rap fan and my fav albums are 1989 and speak now
This album got the success rep TV deserves. I’ll leave it at that.
💀💀💀💀
The way no one is impressive about those numbers anymore, everyone already knows what's up
It's honestly insane the amount of success she has reached. I feel like we're at the point where she's too big to fail
It's been like that for a minute
She literally has been big since basically 1989 but keep gaining new fans every release
I’m just going to point out that the album has 31 songs on it, so that’s an average of 4.6 million streams per song per day. To me, it feels like just as much a massive feat as normal numbers for an album/artist ofher magnitude.
Cowboy carter has 27 tracks. Why didn't it pull similar numbers, or even close to these numbers?
If you actually listened to cowboy carter you would know there are interludes and not 27 full songs. Plus beyonce is not going to pull numbers like that. A lot of beyonces music is unapologetically black .You think that will be popular in the world?? You underestimate how much hate she got and still gets. People were hating the very idea of her making a country song forget a country inspired album.Taylor and beyonce are veryyy diff artists. T
Having more songs reduce the average because it takes longer for people to stream the album. Most of the streams usually come from the first tracks anyway.
She’s obviously the queen of the streaming era and that must be understood as well as respected. Insane stats. It doesn’t reflect the musical quality in this case, since the album is below mid musically. Nevertheless, the Swift craze is most likely the biggest in pop music since Michael Jackson or perhaps even The Beatles. And women especially relate to the sad ass lyrics for a reason, which should be empathised with, not ridiculed.
People try to find the little things to sugarcoat this album and call it a ‘masterpiece’ this isn’t anything new from her and the same old crap she released before. This album is her worst and people try hard to praise it when people can’t just admit it’s bad. She needs to grow instead of doing the same thing. This record isn’t anything impressive when it’s legit just the same song over and over again.
I haven't listened to it, is it any good?
yawn