The era of Taylor Swift dominating the Billboard charts is over—for now. Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department has dropped to number 4 on the Billboard 200 for the top albums in the country, ending its 12-week reign at number one. It was beaten by Eminem with his latest studio album, The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce), his 11th number one.
This dominance has been a new accomplishment for Swift, who is used to breaking records. Her previous record for consecutive weeks atop the chart was 11 weeks, which Swift did twice with her albums 1989 and Fearless. According to Billboard, only two other albums in history, Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, have spent at least their first 12 weeks on top.
It’s not totally shocking, though, considering how Swift is currently at the center of what has basically become a monoculture surrounding herself. She’s literally the main character right now, or, at least it feels that way if you engage in the zeitgeist whatsoever. TTPD ’s success—despite its middling reviews from critics—is as much of a product of that total, Eras-tour fueled, Travis Kelce-supported, mania surrounding everything she does as the actual music.
It’s also, of course, what Taylor Swift appears to want, and people are starting to catch on. She’s long been a fan of, as Vulture recently put it, making “an Olympic sport out of the charts, scheming up additional releases around her albums and timing th.