Taylor Swift is Queen | Scanning the Charts

Scanning the Charts – Billboard 200 and Billboard Hot 100 dated 8/8/20 – Taylor Swift reigns as queen atop both charts.

SCANNING THE CHARTS is just what it says it is.  I, the quirky founder and do-it-all at The Musical Hype scans through the Billboard Charts and picks out things that catch my eye.  To reiterate what I said last week (Juice WRLD and DaBaby Still Reign), this column won’t be extensive, but rather short and sweet, keeping that shit moving. 

This week, I picked out five notable observations from the Billboard 200, as well as five observations from the Billboard Hot 100, highlighting Taylor Swift, who reigns atop both the Billboard 200 and the Billboard Hot 100. Check out my takeaways!

Billboard 200

Taylor Swift finds herself in familiar territory – no. 1.  Unsurprisingly, her surprise album, folklore, owns the Billboard 200 with a dominant launch to the tune of 846,000 units, with a significant portion of those units being sales.  That far exceeds the former best debut of 2020 by Juice WRLD (497,000 units).

Logic also has a great week on the Billboard 200 as his purported final studio album, No Pressure, debuts at no. 2 with a robust 221,000 units.  Furthermore, a healthy percentage of those units are sales.  Great way to retire, right?

After two weeks at no. 1, Juice WRLD slips to no. 3 with his posthumous album, Legends Never Die. Pop Smoke likewise sees his former no. 1 album, Shoot for the Stars Aim for the Moon, slip a couple of spots from no. 2 to no 4.

Teen rapper The Kid LAROI debuts at no. 8 with his debut mixtape, the charmingly titled, F*ck Love.

Past The Kid LAROI, debuts are very hard to come by. Neck Deep launches at no. 64 with All Distortions are Intentional – great title, right? Flo Milli lands at no. 78 with another colorfully titled album, Ho, Why Is You Here? The Acacia Strain also gets into the act with Slow Decay, landing at no. 87.  The final debut in the entire span of the Billboard 200 hails from Nio Garcia and Casper Magico.  That would be Now or Never, which debuts quietly at no. 136.

Billboard Hot 100 

On the Billboard Hot 100, Taylor Swift also finds herself in familiar territory – again, no. 1 – as “Cardigan” earns the rare no. 1 debut atop the Hot 100.  More impressive is the fact that all 16 tracks from the album land on the chart including “The 1” (no. 4) and “Exile” featuring Bon Iver (no. 6).

  DaBaby which had previously spent seven weeks at no. 1 with his Blame it on Baby hit, “Rockstar,” featuring Roddy Ricch, slips to no. 2.

While Taylor Swift’s handprints are all over the Hot 100, Maroon 5 debuts at no. 46 with their latest pop single, “Nobody’s Love”.

J. Cole sees “Lion King on Ice” debut at no. 51.  His previous single, “The Climb Back”, ascends 48 spots from no. 100 to no. 52.

Blake Shelton debuts at no. 56 with “Happy Anywhere”, featuring his girlfriend, Gwen Stefani.

Taylor Swift is Queen | Scanning the Charts [Photo Credits: Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype, Pexels, Pixabay, Taylor Swift]