With 1989 (Taylor’s Version) once again landing at the top spot on Billboard 200 this week, Taylor Swift has surpassed Elvis Presley for the most No.1 weeks of any solo musician in music history.
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To date, Swift has logged 68 weeks with the No.1 album in America. That number tops Elvis’ previous record of 67 weeks at the top of the charts. Now, Swift sits behind only The Beatles, who spent 132 weeks at No.1 over the course of their career. It was just last week that Swift tied second place record for most weeks spent at the top of the charts.
Earlier in December, Swift was named TIME’s Person of the Year. In the introduction for this year’s decision, writer Sam Lamsky explained, “As a tradition, Person of the Year springs from the Great Man Theory of history, a belief that individuals have the power to transform society. The selections over the years have tended to follow certain patterns. The person chosen has typically been a ruler over traditional domains of power. He—and yes, usually it has been a ‘he’—is very often a politician or a titan of industry. Fourteen U.S. Presidents, five leaders of Russia or the Soviet Union, and three Popes have all been recognized.”
He continued: “And yet the person whose singular influence was revealed throughout 2023 has held none of these roles—or anything remotely similar. Every year contains light and dark; 2023 was a year with significant shares of darkness. In a divided world, where too many institutions are failing, Taylor Swift found a way to transcend borders and be a source of light. No one else on the planet today can move so many people so well. Achieving this feat is something we often chalk up to the alignments of planets and fates, but giving too much credit to the stars ignores her skill and her power.”
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