The fact that the past music year was completely dominated by Taylor Swift (34) should not have gone unnoticed by even the world’s biggest pop grouch. However, the extent to which the superstar steered the fortunes of an entire multi-billion dollar industry in 2023 is surprising. The US site “Variety” has now published official figures from the data collection company Luminate, according to which Swift, rounded up, made up 1.8 percent of the entire US music market.
This dominance is expressed even more in another numerical example. On average, one out of 78 audio streams was a song by Swift. Given the sheer number of artists available on the relevant streaming services, this is an incredible quota.
However, this did not elevate Swift to the throne of the pop genre, as the data collection also shows. In the US, hip hop remains the most streamed music genre, while Afrobeat and K-pop were the fastest growing genres of the past year.
Taylor Swift ended her legendary year with a bang: just in time for the start of 2024, her album “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” claimed first place on the Billboard 200 charts.
This means she is now more successful than Elvis Presley (1935-1977): The total number of weeks she has spent at number one on the Billboard 200 charts – with all her 13 releases – climbs to 68 weeks with her latest success, surpassing Presley. The “King” was the soloist who had spent the most weeks at number one so far. With his ten albums he sat on the throne for a total of 67 weeks.
Only the Beatles were more successful – they spent a total of 132 weeks at the top with 19 number one albums. It will probably take a while for Swift to catch up.
