She’s a better musician and songwriter than she is a saleswoman — and she’s a pretty good saleswoman.
Taylor Swift, an artist of uncommon popular appeal, made music business history last week by moving 1.2 million copies of "Red," her fourth album. In doing so, the country-pop singer-songwriter from Reading, Pa. became the first woman to score two first-week million-sellers. ("Speak Now," her third set, is the other one.)
"Red" sold almost four times as many copies as Justin Bieber’s hyped "Believe" did in its release week. Swift’s first-week sales are the best scored by any album since "The Eminem Show" in 2002. Only seven albums in Billboard chart history have had better first weeks than "Red," and most of those were released in the era before rampant file sharing. Listeners aren’t supposed to be willing to buy music at this pace anymore.
This March, Swift, 22, will bring the songs from "Red" — and the rest of her songbook — back to Newark for three more dates at the Prudential Center. She and her band played four sold-out shows at the arena in July 2011, and she’ll return to the room she conquered on March 27 to 29.
Tickets for these shows, which are the only ones she’s announced for the New York area (though she’ll also contribute a shortened set to Z100’s Jingle Ball concert at Madison Square Garden, Dec. 7), go on sale on Nov. 16 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster. British folk-pop singer Ed Sheeran — who duets with Swift on "Everything Has Changed," a song on "Red" — will open all three shows.
Album sales are no a measure of artistic merit, and Swift, who has proven herself a shrewd student of pop history, would be happy to admit that. But the powerful connection she has forged with her fans is worth acknowledging, and maybe celebrating.
She has earned the loyalty of her audience by keeping quality control high and refusing to do anything that might sully her image. There will be very little buyer’s remorse among those who purchase "Red." The album is Swift at her best: smart, tuneful, traditional and surprisingly tough. Even her singing voice, which has often been criticized by her detractors as inadequate for her songs, has matured into a more powerful instrument (its expressiveness has never been in doubt).
Swift can't win everything. The 2011 Country Music Association Entertainer of the Year was dethroned last week at the CMA Awards by the affable Blake Shelton, now best known as one of the judges on "The Voice." If Swift had taken the honor again, she would have become the first woman to win it twice. Shelton seemed stunned that he beat Swift, who performed "Begin Again," the last song on "Red," during the broadcast.
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