Taylor Swift doesn't need to release new albums for her to move up on the charts. She simply needs to purchase her own masters for Swifities to get into a tizzy and start re-streaming things. She is a unique artist in that she knows how to manipulate an audience, and in a positive way.
Morgan Wallen somehow remains a massively popular artist on his own merit. He is a country artist who, like many other modern country artists, plays with the boundaries of the genre. Is he country-rock or sometimes simply pop? Yes, but his fans like it.
He released a new album on May 16 (I'm the Problem), and it went straight to the top of the Billboard charts and most streaming services. What exactly drives his popularity is unclear, and, in a way, scary.
Taylor Swift shows Morgan Wallen who's boss
He can drop chairs off of multi-story bars, and fans are OK with it. Could someone have been seriously injured, and was Wallen in legal trouble for the situation? Yep. But who cares, right? This was Wallen just having fun.
Can Wallen say the most racist word in the United States? Yep, but that's OK because he has friends who are African-American. He must be a decent guy. Plus, he keeps selling records and making people money, and that's what truly matters, it appears.
But what he isn't is Taylor Swift. This week, Swift announced she had purchased all the masters from her first six albums after years of trying to do so. In frustration, she began re-recording her first six albums to regain control of her music. Those new records, known as Taylor's Versions, were popular on their own, but one earlier album is unlikely to get the re-record treatment.
That album is Reputation, which Swift has said she has barely started working on and isn't keen on revisiting. It was too hard to make personally, and she doesn't want to open old wounds.
So what do Swifties do after learning of Swift's masters' purchase and understanding she will probably not be putting out a Taylor's Version of Reputation? They stream the record, of course. So much so that the album shoots to number one on the iTunes most-streamed list, displacing Wallen's new album.
Now, that's real power, and the kind that Wallen will likely never have. Of course, neither of them is Adele in terms of pure sales, so maybe neither should be in first place.