DEFINITELY NOT K-SWIFT

The rising star of country singer/songwriter Taylor Swift is quite phenomenal. I just read this piece from Paul Grien's blog and felt compelled to share it here:

Taylor Swift's Fearless holds at #1 on The Billboard 200 for the fifth week. That's the longest that any album has topped the chart since Josh Groban's Noel had five straight weeks on top in late 2007. It's the longest run by a non-holiday album (let's face it, Noel was a phenomenon) since 50 Cent's The Massacre had six straight weeks on top in the spring of 2005. It's the longest run by a country crossover album since Shania Twain's Up! had five straight weeks on top in late 2002.

Fearless holds the #1 spot with sales of just 90,000 copies. It's the first time that sales of the #1 album have dipped below 100,000 copies since it happened for four straight weeks last January and February. The winter doldrums are a seasonal occurrence in the music business: It's cold out, people are tapped out after Christmas and release schedules tend to be sparse.

Fearless has sold 2,202,000 copies in its first eight weeks. That total includes 244,000 paid downloads, more than any other country album in digital history. In second place: Swift's previous album, Taylor Swift, which has sold 212,000 downloads. In third: Dixie Chicks' Taking The Long Road, with 201,000.

If only her label Big Machine (who are an independent label distributed by Universal!) can find a way to market her outside of North America, where she is relatively unknown.

Fearless peaked at #50 on the ARIA chart on Nov 15th and will be released in the UK & Spain on March 9th, 2009.