Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets Department' makes gigantic debut on the Billboard albums chart with 2.61 million units
- Thread starter kalindana
- Start date
- Entertainment
hey show some respect! while writing this album Taylor went through A LOT
….of jet fuel
How DARE you besmirch the lyrical genius who wrote "I scratch your head, you fall asleep like a tattooed golden retriever." or "We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist."
Swifties are a cult at this point.
This kind of insult is ironically just as bland and eye rolling as how you apparently see her and her fanbase
Not posting in the topic is enough of an assurance for me that you don't like her music. You don't need to shit up a thread about it with this.
It's entirely possible to dislike a musician, or just find them boring, and be happy with life. She has a very diehard fan base that always shows up. Good for her.
haters don't have the artistic training to understand the nuanced tortured poetry like -
"touch me while your bros play grand theft auto" 🎨
"If I mention gta, I'll be more in touch with the kids" - billionaire with multiple jets
Cool call me when she does it with only like 2 variants.
Don't tell me it's not exploitative of the fanbase to release this many versions of 1 fucking album. The swifties just eat it up and act like we're the crazy ones because we don't need to collect 14 albums to get 1 extra song off each version.
Billboard said:
Don't tell me it's not exploitative of the fanbase to release this many versions of 1 fucking album. The swifties just eat it up and act like we're the crazy ones because we don't need to collect 14 albums to get 1 extra song off each version.
The absolutely most shameless thing she did with this album rollout (among countless others, dating back all the way to the super embarrassing but ultimately unsurprising—for her—"surprise" announcement during her Grammy's speech) was releasing the full anthology digitally a mere two hours after the initial album drop. For $1 more than the base digital album. The presumably quite estimable number of people who pre-ordered the digital album had no "upgrade" path and either had to individually purchase the rest of the songs or had to rebuy the entire album (plus $1) to get all the songs in one collection (the one they thought they were paying for).
When you treat your album like a Ubisoft DLC-ridden, collector's edition exploitation vehicle clearly designed to prey upon the undying fealty of your fanbase rather than as a cohesive artistic vision, it's no surprise that you get sales like this.
View: https://x.com/Himu_Art/status/1784672067906044105
like, get real
That's a lot of plastic she is introducing into the world. You know a fanbase is being milked when these are available.
It's more like we've seen way to many people post absurd bullshit with complete seriousness both on this site and elsewhere on the internet that we can no longer trust that anyone is telling a joke when they don't provide sarcasm tags.
Absolutely shameless. Milking the fuck out of her fan base for every last penny
It's quite amusing seeing how each generation's "It" Pop girl, regardless of what her music ends up sounding like, gets similarly dismissed by such a large portion of the population. I can vividly remember a similar "Ugh, this is what's popular?" resentment that was shown towards Britney's music in the early 2000s.
But... I don't like the popular thing! And I really need you to know this.
Pretty insane to have nearly 10x the sales of the #2 beat selling album this year, and your album has only been out for a week.
Imagine being so miserable you have to troll a thread for a musical artist you don't like.
Imagine being so miserable you have to troll a thread for a musical artist you don't like.
Wait that's real? I saw that posted on twitter and thought it was a joke or parody about her lyrics 💀
Yup, specifically when it's a woman too. Lots of internalized misogyny going around. Heartbreak and love are vapid, but drinking and cars are cool and deep.
"lol she said grand theft auto" - ignoring every other line in any song, while also not bringing to the table any of their beloved artists to scrutinize alongside, because they'd lose that debate.
Yes, I think this and the various versions of the vinyl played a role.
For example, I consider myself a fan of Taylor Swift's music. I've been listening since the first album, and some of her music has been very important to me at various points in my life. However, I'm not a mega fan. I probably will never go see her live, and I definitely have my ups and downs with her eras. With the artists I follow, I always buy their albums digitally, and Taylor Swift is one of those artists. I bought this latest album about an hour after it released, thinking "There's no way there'll be another 3 AM Edition situation, and even if there is, I can just buy the extra tracks." But she released the Anthology version and priced it such that it was cheaper to buy the new version of the album than to buy each new track individually.
So, me, a lifelong but casual Taylor Swift fan who has never been comfortable with how she (or her team) motivates and incentivizes her fans to buy multiple versions of each album, ended up buying two copies of this latest album. I hadn't even listened to the first album I bought when the second one popped up. This is not what I would have wanted to do had I known what was coming, but I wanted to listen to the "full" album the next day and buying the second was the cheapest way after buying the first.
Also, totally agreed about the video game comparison. I have an unposted, tongue-in-cheek thread somewhere in which I point out all the parallels between Taylor Swift's business practices (which work!) and controversial video game practices (which also work!). At least Ubisoft announces their versions before launch and I know those games will be hitting deep sales within a year. I feel I know what to expect with Ubisoft these days. With Taylor Swift, I may have to start following a similar "wait" strategy and hold off on buying anything for at least the first 24 hours.
A few notes:
1. Yes, Taylor Swift is INCREDIBLY popular. She would be massively successful with a new album launch, regardless of any practices she has that I may disagree with.
2. Yes, other artists re-release albums and have exclusives to drive sales. Of the pop artists I personally follow closely, none do it as much as Taylor Swift so she does stand out to me, but I know others do this.
3. Yes, I promise, I like a lot of her music.
I only comment here because when we're looking at massive numbers like this, I personally think it's a good idea to discuss the asterisk of what is affecting these results (amount TBC) and share how I begrudgingly ended up part of that.
Last edited:
The idea that extra versions of swift albums is appreciably the reasons for sales is super disingenuous as well. Everyone has multiple versions now, and among buyers the vast majority don't buy more than one. Does it help? Sure, but it's easily 2m seller without that
I find Taylor Swift's career overall fascinating. I think she manages to tap into her fanbase and the casuals in a nerdy way that's similar to something like a Marvel movie or a WWE wrestler who has the crowd wrapped around their finger. She's an event and culture that encourages people to have fun. The atmosphere of the crowd in her concert in Sydney was unlike anything else I had experienced. Most people dressed up in costumes that referenced all sorts of things throughout her career along with people giving out friendship bracelets. It's also incredibly nerdy for an industry that often depicts itself as being cool or sexy. I think that's why people get so engaged with it so easily.
She just has that right balance of knowing how to write her life as a narrative that is approachable enough for the main audience while also giving them a lot to chew on and play with. She has a level of self-awareness and reflection that I think her vocal critics probably don't really know about either. She's heard it all. She's purposefully hamming it up to her lyrics during her concerts. She portrays herself as different characters. She knows how to tap into what her fans want in a way that continues to gain her more and more momentum. I think it's great.
I think the dismissive nature on boards like this is a bit disappointing though considering how most things we are fans of here are also dismissed as being immature or for the lowest common denominator. It doesn't mean you have to like it but I think keeping an open mind only helps with understanding why things are the way they are. People don't luck or manipulate their way into this level of success.
She just has that right balance of knowing how to write her life as a narrative that is approachable enough for the main audience while also giving them a lot to chew on and play with. She has a level of self-awareness and reflection that I think her vocal critics probably don't really know about either. She's heard it all. She's purposefully hamming it up to her lyrics during her concerts. She portrays herself as different characters. She knows how to tap into what her fans want in a way that continues to gain her more and more momentum. I think it's great.
I think the dismissive nature on boards like this is a bit disappointing though considering how most things we are fans of here are also dismissed as being immature or for the lowest common denominator. It doesn't mean you have to like it but I think keeping an open mind only helps with understanding why things are the way they are. People don't luck or manipulate their way into this level of success.
plastic is probably the last thing on a billionaire's mind
View: https://www.instagram.com/p/C6KglZsPIzv/?igsh=MWthdXZ3a2gwZXhpag==
There really is no defending making people buy the album all over again to get the second half of it. The variants are bad but at least you have to be a die hard fan to be milked by them. This would have stung hundreds of thousands, even millions worldwide, of more casual fans. The comparison to predatory videogame practices is apt and yet even they would have told you in advance.
There should have been an upgrade path at the least; unlocking it for free would have been the decent thing to do. After all, it you waited 2 hours, you got it for only $1 extra. But of course, it was very successful for them, and there doesn't seem to be much outcry about it, so I expect it to get even worse. As the sales tactics have continued to get over the years.
I do like her music though.
There should have been an upgrade path at the least; unlocking it for free would have been the decent thing to do. After all, it you waited 2 hours, you got it for only $1 extra. But of course, it was very successful for them, and there doesn't seem to be much outcry about it, so I expect it to get even worse. As the sales tactics have continued to get over the years.
I do like her music though.
I know you're just trolling badly but you literally came into this thread to insult people for enjoying the biggest album in 15 years. Don't clutch the pearls now.
Ah yes, poor tortured poet. It's gotta be hell trying to figure out how badly you can squeeze your fanbase before they say enough is enough. But hey, looks like you're not there yet by a long shot!
Exploitative as fuck.
I like her music. She puts on a hell of a show. But I've dropped games I like because they make money hand over fist playing on peoples fear of missing out. This is no different.
She'll be fine killing the planet, and stans will be mad they are told she is killing it.
Usual mediocre haters stay hating.
Best current pop artist and one of our best living poets stays winning.
Nothing new will change.
Lmao when the lyrics are
It's not even that it's from the same song, it's that you quoted the same verse twice and just reversed the lyrics.
And I'm not saying you're wrong for feeling that, but as someone who likes her music (including this album), she has so many cringe lyrics that practically ruin songs.
Or the all-timer that was so bad she removed it from the official release:
I can't even begin to get into why I fucking hate the 90's trend line in Willow. It's one of the biggest record scratch moments if only because it ruins the entire vibe of the song.
As someone who generally loves her music, I will say the cult comment is something I've felt. It's a lot less her and more the way "Swifties" has become common language. One of my coworkers was using that with no irony and no fandom involved. Like it was just another class of people. It wasn't even about the music or artist, just about their general movements in the world as if they were the Rachni Queen's offspring from Mass Effect.
Honestly gross.Taytay > Planet.
really gross.
But you won't care.
How sad.
It's OK. When presented with her flagrant disregard for climate change you went full Stan. It's completely sad and hopefully somewhere in your modicum of sanity you know this. It's just music.