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Taylor Swift is capable of many things.
She canspell the word awesome.She can make her fanswatch the NFL Draft.
That changed this week.
In what has to be considered an upset, Taylor Swifts ME!, featuring Brendon Urie of Panic!
at the Disco, thesunshinyleadoff single to Swifts forthcoming seventh album, fell short of the No.
1 spot in its first full week onBillboardsHot 100.
Its the first lead single from a Swift album to not instantly hurtle to No.
1 in nine years basically her entire career as a pop-first artist.
So whats the song thats roadblocking ME!
on the Hot 100?
Live by the crossover, die by the crossover.
2 hit is impressive.
What is ominous, though, is how the new single fell shy of No.
made anearly debut at No.
100just days after it launched.
Chart prognosticatorsexpecteda huge catapult for ME!
in week 2 once her inevitably enormous digital consumption numbers were rolled in.
especially its heavy-handed lyrical meta-trope of return to the old Taylor have beenmixedat best.
Some are evencalling outguest Brandon Urie as the spoiler.
Probably none of this matters.
Taylors latest hypefest was stopped in its tracks by forces larger than her.
One was the song currently topping the chart.
First, about that chart-topper: Old Town Road is a cultural phenomenon, full stop.
Taylor Swifts numbers look rather mortal by comparison.
Especially in streaming: Her total streams for the week were 50.7 million.
Over at radio, ME!
(It should also be said that other Swift hits have amassed airplay a bit faster than ME!
However, therewasone chart metric in which Swift was dominant: digital sales.
sold 193,000 dollar-downloads in its first week.
However, for chart purposes, this sales total wasnt quite dominantenoughto topple Old Town Road.
This is ominous for Taylor Swift, because she has always been a sales-first artist.
Infamously, she was still boycotting Spotify altogether as recently asearly 2017.
Digital downloads were the biggest factor powering the leaps to No.
1 album of 2018.
But Swifts usual sales-first emphasis runs counter to where the charts are heading.
Its likely that Swift will now play the long game.
is not destined to reach No.
Or, maybe, Swift will simply cut her losses and move on toTS7s second single.
Whatever she does keep pushing the ME!
