Taylor Swift. Love her? Hate her? Feeling indifferent? Whatever your answer is, you can not deny her success. Said success that became wholly indisputable this past week when Swift became the first artist to claim every top-ten spot in the Billboard Hot 100 Chart in a single frame. That is right. Every single spot. 

This accomplishment also makes Swift the woman with the most top ten songs in the chart’s history, with 40 songs to Madonna’s 38.  Each Swift song in the current top ten are from her tenth and most recent album, “Midnights”, released on Oct. 21. “Midnights” boasted the largest sales week for Swift since her 2017 album debuted in its first week. 

Setting the abundant accomplishments of Swift’s earlier career aside, how can anyone solely attribute these recent feats to the will of enthusiastic fans? 

Lots of popular artists have dedicated fan bases. Drake fans are notoriously loyal. With “Midnights,” Swift soared past Drake’s previous September 2021 record of holding nine of the top ten Hot1 00 spots. A strong fanbase will support an artist’s performance on the chart but they will not singlehandedly bolster an artist to the record-breaking success of Swift. 

Taylor Swift fans are devoted, yes, but their support of her work does not come without incredible mastery of her musical and marketing crafts.

Excitement around the release of “Midnights” felt different than that of “Folklore” and “Evermore,” both released a day after Swift announced the albums on her social media accounts, respectively. It was even different from “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and the more recent “Red (Taylor’s Version),” a 30-track rerecording of 2012’s Red, which finally revealed the long-fabled ten-minute version of Swift’s gut-wrenching breakup anthem, “All Too Well.”

In the two months prior to its release, Swift marketed Midnights as her first entirely new, autobiographical album since reputation. She would be peeling back the curtain on her guarded private life and was making sure people knew it. 

Earlier releases, “Folklore” and “Evermore,” were largely based in fiction, inspired in-part by pandemic-fueled creativity and a self-proclaimed desire to avoid media speculation on her love life. Both re-recorded albums included Vault Tracks: never-before-heard songs written by Swift around the writing of the original albums. They performed well, but lacked fresh insight into Swift’s current life. 

“Midnights” offers fans just that: glimpses into her peaceful, hyper-private relationship with actor Joe Alywn on tracks like “Sweet Nothing” and “Mastermind,” a peak at her intense moments of self-loathing on songs like “Anti-Hero” and “Midnight Rain” and reflections of high-profile loves of her past on “Bejeweled” and “Maroon.” Paired with the promise of fresh mind-bending lyrical bridges, decoding Swift’s revealing prose likely added to the allure of giving “Midnights” a first, second and even a tenth listen. 

Swift is a genre shapeshifter, able to manipulate her songwriting, vocal delivery and production into her genre of choice. The five previously-mentioned Swift albums fall into either alternative, country or pop categories. Swift began her career in country music, releasing four straight country albums from 2006 to 2012. 

Few artists can rebrand themselves from country sweetheart to pop superstar and become more popular than they were previously, with the musical talents to match. Swift is the most prolific of them all. 

Taylor Swift, like many other modern artists, is supported by a loyal fanbase. She has earned their respect and dedication throughout her decade-spanning career. But their dedication does not detract from her inimitable talents in both the musical and business realms.

Image from Taylor Swift via YouTube