Taylor Swift is the American dream. You know the one: "if you work hard, you will be rewarded with success."
There is no doubt that the making-appearances-everywhere songstress has been putting a lot of energy and time into making her pop album, "1989," a success, and all signs point to her efforts paying off big time.
If the tracking and analysis of album sales figures by savvy music industry forecasters are correct, Swift's new album, released Oct. 27, will sell one million copies its first week on the market.
Numerous music media experts, including those at Billboard and Time Magazine, said the country-star-gone-pop will top that one million sales mark, making the album the only million-seller of 2014.
That more-than-impressive sales watermark came in the wake of a whirlwind of activity and, yes, hard work this week by Swift in promotion of "1989."
On Oct. 27, she appeared on four media outlets: "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "The Voice," and she also participated in iHeartRadio's multi-platform show, "Taylor Swift's 1989 Secret Session with iHeartRadio."
The very next day, she visited "The Voice" again and stopped by CBS' "The Late Show With David Letterman."
The forecasting of sales for "1989" kept escalating as the day of the album's release approached.
Billboard stated that two weeks ago, forecasters pegged the new album to sell 750,000 in its debut frame. Then, a week ago, it was upgraded to 800,000. By mid-day Oct. 27, the album's release day, its projection grew to over 900,000. After its first day on sale, forecasters changed their tune, confidently predicting that "1989" will cross the magic, one-million sales threshold.
The album's official first-week sales, as tabulated by SoundScan, will be announced on Wednesday, Nov. 5. That same day, it is almost certain that Swift's album will also debut at the top of the new Billboard 200 albums chart, giving her a fourth chart-topping album.
In addition, if sales for "1989" do reach that rarefied benchmark, Swift will be the first act ever to have three albums achieve the one-million-in-one-week feat.
Time's experts pointed out that Swift's last million-selling debut week came with 2012's "Red," which sold 1.21 million copies. "Red" was also the last million-selling debut week by any artist, period. Prior to "Red" making its sales mark, the singer's "Speak Now," released in 2010, sold 1.05 million copies.
Roger Friedman of showbiz411, in discussing "1989" selling one million copies in its debut week, had another observation.
"It would also mean that the album will sell more copies than the total top 50 sold last week. Even with strong debuts today by Slipknot, Neil Diamond, and Aretha Franklin, the top 50 albums sold on CD or digital download came in just under 1 million total," he said. "If all boats rise with Swift's success, next Tuesday could be a very happy day in music land. In addition to lots of other bad news, U2 sold only 12,055 copies in its second week for 'Songs of Innocence.' That kind of sale wouldn't pay for a pair of Bono's glasses, let alone The Edge's Malibu complex of homes."
After only a week of sales, "1989" will also instantly become 2014's second-biggest selling album. As the weeks roll on, the possibility is strong that the album may become 2014's best-selling album.
Currently, according to Billboard, the top two sellers this year are the "Frozen" soundtrack (3.2 million) and Beyonce's self-titled album (787,000). Those albums are followed by Lorde's "Pure Heroin" (767,000) and Coldplay's "Ghost Stories" (737,000). The latter is 2014's biggest-selling album released this year; "Frozen," "Beyonce" and "Pure Heroin" were 2013 releases.
No matter if she is on track to sell one million copies of "1989" in its first week of release, Swift is letting up on her promotion of the album. On Oct. 29, she heads to ABC's "The View," and on the following day (Oct. 30), she will perform a concert on "Good Morning America."
Swift is definitely working hard and reaping the fruits of her labors. Is this a great country, or what?
