According to Variety, "The Life of a Showgirl" held No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for a second week, giving Taylor Swift her 100th cumulative week at No. 1 as a solo artist.
One hundred weeks. Elvis got 67. Garth Brooks got 52. The Beatles, as a group, got 132. The number is real, and the number is also the whole point, because four of the top 10 this week are reissues, deluxe editions, or encore editions. The chart is no longer a chart. It is a catalog with a countdown.
Read the top 10 like a storage unit. The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" is back on the board at No. 4, its first top 10 since April 1966, on the strength of a reissue campaign. Drake's "Habibti" jumped from No. 116 to No. 2 the week the bonus tracks landed. Mac Miller's 10th-anniversary edition climbed from No. 159 to No. 10. New music is a guest here. The deluxe edition is the landlord.
Swift's own album is still at No. 1, down 46% week over week at 93,000 units, and it still beat everything the industry actually made this week. Her 100th week was not earned by a new song. It was earned by a new box.
YOUR TURN: Is 100 weeks at No. 1 a record or just the first deluxe edition to finish?
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