By Frank “Smokin” Truat
Every decade has their biggest artists, the ones that released hit after hit with an eventual catalogue that defined their time on the music charts. Artists like Elvis, Sinatra, the Beatles and Sir Elton John are a few of those “lucky” performers who achieved greatness in their time with music that is still being played today to a new generation.
The artist that defines our current era has got to be Taylor Swift. Her new album is in its fifth week at the number one position. The album is called “The Tortured Poets Department,” and as of this week, Taylor, a solo artist, has spent a total of 74 weeks with an album in the number one position in Billboard Magazine. By comparison, the second-place soloist was Elvis Presley, falling further behind with only 67 weeks at number one. Of course, all this success on the charts relates to quite a bit of profit gushing into her bank account. To keep the Taylor fan up to speed and confuse things a bit more, she usually offers multiple versions of her albums. Some of the latest “Tortured Poets Departments‘ ‘ versions included “The Manuscript,” featuring a white background, a special poem with vinyl versions printed on white vinyl with a 24-page book-bound jacket. It was available only at her “Taylor Swift Store.” She sent a special version of the same release to Target stores that came on clear vinyl. Another version of her “Tortured” album is labeled “The Albatross” which features a different cover, a different poem and a different song with the same name. Very clever. Maybe you missed out on “The Black Dog” version of her album with some of the same merch and a copy of the song “The Black Dog.”
There’s no doubt that Taylor is using today’s marketing to distribute her latest album. Thinking back to albums released in the 1970’s, we sometimes had a chance to get the albums on limited edition colored vinyl, and 12-inch records gave us extended versions and re-mixes of our favorite songs. You have to hand it to Taylor and her marketing crew for getting the most out of an album release. For the Taylor Swift collector, finding and affording to buy all the different versions is not going to be easy. It sort of makes them the “tortured” music collectors, now doesn’t it?
