Taylor Swift Just Topped the Beatles With This History-Making Record
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Taylor Swift has accomplished a lot in her 31 years. She has had 41 Grammy nominations and 11 wins, nine studio albums, and seven No. 1 hit singles. She just earned another feather in her illustrious career-cap: Her re-release of Fearless hit No. 1 in the U.K. on Friday, which means that Swift has earned three No. 1 U.K. albums within 259 days. The albums, of course are: folklore, evermore, and Fearless.
The Beatles originally held this record by going No. 1 with Help!, Rubber Soul and Revolver within 364 days. This is Swift's seventh studio album to hit No. 1 in the U.K., and per The Guardian, the album sold 21,145 units (combined physical and digital sales and streams).
Swift's 2021 version of Fearless is particularly important, as Swift reclaims her earliest masters from executive Scooter Braun. She wrote the following, in part, in 2019, when Braun bought her music:
"Some fun facts about today’s news: I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years.
Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.
This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.
When I left my masters in Scott’s hands, I made peace with the fact that eventually he would sell them. Never in my worst nightmares did I imagine the buyer would be Scooter. Any time Scott Borchetta has heard the words ‘Scooter Braun’ escape my lips, it was when I was either crying or trying not to. He knew what he was doing; they both did. Controlling a woman who didn’t want to be associated with them. In perpetuity. That means forever.
Thankfully, I am now signed to a label that believes I should own anything I create. Thankfully, I left my past in Scott’s hands and not my future. And hopefully, young artists or kids with musical dreams will read this and learn about how to better protect themselves in a negotiation. You deserve to own the art you make."
When Braun sold those masters to private equity company Shamrock Holdings last fall, Swift hinted at some "surprises" that related to her original music. In November 2020, Swift was legally able to re-record these early masters.
"I have recently begun re-recording my older music, and it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling," she wrote. "I have plenty of surprises in store 😎 I want to thank you guys for supporting me through this ongoing saga, and I can't wait for you to hear what I’ve been dreaming up."
Enter Fearless (2021) and yet another historic record for Tay.
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