Queen of digital music – Taylor Swift Fends Off Zach Bryan to Spend 12th Week Atop Album Chart, Breaking an Old Whitney Houston Record and Tying Recent One Set by Morgan Wallen

Bryan’s ‘The Great American Bar Scene’ had a highly successful week, though its 137,000 units were not a match for the 163,000 for ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’

Taylor Swift‘s streak at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with “The Tortured Poets Department” continues unabated, as the album fended off a strong challenge from a new Zach Bryan release to spend its 12th consecutive week atop that chart, breaking or tying a couple of records in the process.

With the latest No. 1 ranking for “Tortured Poets,” Swift’s album broke the record previously set by Whitney Houston’s “Whitney” for the most initial consecutive weeks at No. 1 from an album by a female artist. That 1987 Houston album spent its first 11 weeks on top of the chart before dropping off

As more contemporary benchmarks go: “Tortured Poets” is now tied with Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” for the collection that has spent the most consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 in this century. (Altogether, Wallen’s latest blockbuster album spent a whopping 19 weeks at No. 1 toward the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024, but only the first 12 of those were consecutive.)

Amid these other benchmarks, Swift also broke a personal record this week, for the album of hers that has spent the most weeks at No 1 on the Billboard 200, consecutively or otherwise. As of last week, “Tortured Poets” was tied with her previous chart leaders, “Fearless” and “1989,” with 11 weeks each, and now the latest album has moved ahead of those.

Bryan’s album looked like it had a chance of unseating Swift. But “The Great American Bar Scene,” which registered 137,000 album-equivalent units, was ultimately not a match for the 163,000 comparable units for Swift’s album in its 12th week, per Luminate data reported by Billboard.

With the streak Swift is on, she stands a chance of tying or breaking one record or another almost every week that her album is able to hold on at No. 1. (A month ago, Variety broke down some of the different records she stands to break in this story.) As noted, if she holds on one more week, which would be her lucky 13th, she will beat Wallen’s high mark for the most consecutive weeks out of the box this century. And if “Poets” keeps on going still one further week after that, to 14, she’ll break the all-time record for initial consecutive weeks at No. 1, breaking an ancient Stevie Wonder mark from the ’70s.

album, 2020’s “Music to Be Murdered By,” debuted with 279,000 units — and if he were to do that well again, it’s hard to imagine how Swift could up her weekly total to beat it, even by putting out a slew of new variants. However, it’s highly unlikely the new Eminem album will debut with anything near the previous record’s premiere tally… if only because he does not have any physical editions out to help boost his numbers. When “Music to Be Murdered By” registered that great first week, a big chunk of that total — 117,000 units — came via traditional album sales, something that won’t be as strong with only digital albums to sell at the moment.

Interest in “The Death of Slim Shady” has been intense, albeit perhaps more dispersed, as “Music to Be Murdered By” was a surprise release with little advance buildup, whereas “Death” was given a more traditional, long rollout, with the single “Houdini” being released six weeks ahead of the album. As of Sunday, “Houdini” remained Eminem’s highest-charting song on Spotify’s daily US Top 50, at No. 10, followed by seven tracks in the chart’s teens