That Time Taylor Swift Broke Ticketmaster

We have passed an important rock 'n' roll history moment. Taylor Swift has basically taken over the entire music industry at this point. We saw this coming recently when she broke an all-time world record: Occupying the top 10 list on Billboard's Hot 100.

Yes, those are all Taylor Swift songs, occupying all ten slots of the Top 10. Not only that, but she broke Drake's record with nine simultaneous top-10s, and has become the female artist with the most top-10s in history - breaking Madonna's record. Her latest album, Midnights, breaks the record for most top-10s from a single album.

So… clearly she has tapped into something in the cultural Zeitgeist that speaks the right mood at the right time. Her voice and lyrics might just speak to the heart of the human race at this point in history. Her jumps from country to mainstream pop to folk have let her accumulate fans across music genre tribes.

OR… Maybe she's so successful because the Billboard charting system is outdated and archaic compared to our modern music culture, and a narrower band of artists are even in the Billboard pool every year. After all, the Billboard is based on (1) radio play ("Grandpa, what is a "radio"?), and (2) album sales ("Grandpa, what is a "CD"?). They recently gave a token nod to streaming services, but honestly, streaming gets short shrift on the Billboard. The Billboard system is an outdated relic of the past music industry - which, as we know, has been dismantled for some time.

But I digress. What's new in Taylor-Swift Land?

Taylor Swift Broke Ticketmaster

Based in Beverly Hills, California, Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc., is the world's Amazon of concert ticket sales. The Ticketmaster monopoly is a subject for another blog rant sometime.

But currently the big crisis is that Taylor Swift fans are mobbing the Ticketmaster website so badly that it broke down. Even fans with a pre-sale code are stuck waiting in its virtual queue.

So at one point the site paused the queue with some 2000+ people waiting. This event, alone, triggered the number "2000" to trend on Twitter this snowy morning of Nov. 15, 2022.

Yes, it even trended ahead of world news. Apparently Taylor Swift fans have all stuck to Twitter, Elon Musk be damned. The ticket sales are for Swift's "Eras" tour, and Taylor's own site now carries this announcement:

> "To better enable Ticketmaster’s systems to provide a smooth experience for cardholders and to address the historically unprecedented demand for tickets, the Capital One Cardholder Presale has been rescheduled to Wednesday, 11/16 at 2pm local venue time for all shows. This postponement will not impact ticket availability to Capital One cardholders."

So we're reasonably sure this storm will die down eventually. In fact, I'm personally hoping that it sticks in memory out there and perhaps inspires some deep reflection about how we sell music, especially access to concerts. Ticketmaster has never been far from controversy, so this might be the fans' last straw.

Rolling Stone Ranks Taylor Swift Songs

At this point, Swift's catalog includes 229 songs as close as we can count. They are ranked on Rolling Stone from worst to best (entirely subjective opinion, of course), and her Christmas album pretty much makes the bottom of the list. Apparently after seeing what happened to Mariah Carey's Christmas song, fans aren't about to let another Christmas song get too popular for its own good, even if it's one of Swift's.

Just thought we'd add that last bit in. It goes to show, not everything by Swift is a stellar hit. With an artist this prolific, you're bound to hit some high and low points. As for those of you furiously tying up the Internet waiting through the Great Ticketmaster Crisis, there's a sticky on the Taylor Swift subreddit for those waiting to buy tickets. Just cross your fingers and hope the line moves… swiftly! (sorry)