How Do Taylor Swift’s Achievements Compare to the Beatle’s?
Impossible you say? Can the current zealotry of the “Swifties” and the much more aged & rabid passion of “Beatlemaniacs” survive a fair comparison test? We’ll see.
Let’s get the most obvious question off the table: How do you compare a band to a solo performer? For the Swifties, let me remind you that upon the Beatles 1964 arrival in America they were constantly compared to Elvis Presley (i.e., “King of Rock and Roll”). He was a major influence in their early development and was 5–8 years older than all of them. He wasn’t a songwriter and needed instrumental support to perform. He never toured outside of the US unlike the Beatles who traveled extensively and were one of the first major rocker acts to perform in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. The differences were profound, but the comparisons persisted.
Regardless of their band or soloist status, these 2 entities competed for public adulation, top billing and the overwhelming recognition by both their peers and the global marketplace that they were the most impactful musical act on the planet in their prime. So, comparisons are fair game.
I’m a ripe 72 year old male and I have had the pleasure of witnessing major entertainers come and go. Most are just called celebrities, and some are tagged a superstar. But occasionally along comes an act that surpasses anything either seen and/or heard before which I’ll describe as an earthshaker. Here are several early examples who reigned from the 1920’s through the 1940’s in the radio and early movie era. Al Jolson (i.e., “The World’s Greatest Entertainer”), Bing Crosby (America’s 1st multimedia star), Benny Goodman (i.e., “King of Swing”) and Frank Sinatra (i.e., “Chairman of the Board”) were early pioneers in developing high-energy fan bases that weren’t embarrassed to display their emotions at concerts, a behavior that was new at the time and some considered rude. After Elvis and the Beatles, the next performers to seize this exalted throne were Michael Jackson (i.e., “King of Pop”) and for females, Madonna (i.e., “Queen of Pop”). Swifty’s, your idol is undoubtedly the newest earthshaker.
You’ll note that Taylor Swift and the Beatles both share the distinction of not having a nickname like the before-mentioned artists, which I’m assigning to their genre versatility.
There were many great artists who sold lots of records, wrote original songs and filled stadiums, but in my estimation, they were superstars, not earthshakers. Artist like Bruce Springsteen, Ray Charles, Garth Brooks, Mariah Carey, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and Justin Bieber (Hmmm…), Beyonce might all deserve to be on your short list. But my previously mentioned names impacted both theirs and future generations in a broader way with important social messaging, multi-media savy, fashion creativity, a clean public image, innovative stage presentation and generational leadership. When they arrived in your city during their prime, they owned the place and to many of their musical peers, they were the aspiration.
Comparison Issues
Before I get into the comparisons, I’d like to address several important macro-level issues that are outside of their control but can make proper comparisons challenging.
1. Population Growth — In the 1960s, the population of US was close to 200 million people versus 330 million today, which represents a 65% increase in both potential fans and income potential.
2. Affordability — Their 1968 double album titled The Beatles (The White Album) retailed in the US for $11.98 vs. $5.98 for a typical single album. Today it would be selling for $105! Today, you can purchase a new The Beatles album on Amazon for roughly $25. Music is much more affordable today.
Case in point, the minimum hourly wage in 1968 was $1.60, which implies it would take 7.5 hours of work at that wage to own the album in 1968. Using the $7.25 minimum wage in 2023 it would require 3.5 hours of labor to afford it. A $15 minimum hourly wage, which is reality in many areas of America in 2023 would require 50 minutes of labor to acquire the same album.
3. Convenience — A 1960’s purchase required a trip to a retail store versus downloading it from the internet. As a result, today it’s not unusual for virtually every song on a new album release from prominent current artists like Taylor Swift or Drake (For Beatlemaniacs he’s a 37 year old crossover rapper) to instantly dominate the entire Billboard’s list. This is a relatively recent phenomena and never occurred in the 1960’s. The only songs that made that list were songs the artist chose to release as a single versus downloads from an album.
4. Ticket Prices — The Beatles were the undisputed hottest concert ticket from 1964 to 1966. You could attend a small or large venue concert for $5 or less, which in 2023 represents a cost of $48. Compare that to Taylor Swift’s $380 average US ticket price for the world tour promoting her 2014 1989 album. It’s no accident that the Top 20 highest grossing tours of all time have all occurred after 2005. Concert income is far, far more lucrative today.
The Comparisons
I’m choosing to not lengthen this article with details of all the industry awards they have both received because it’s tons. Nor am I going to compare their income because there’s no fair method given what I outlined above. So, let’s get into it.
She stands above the crowd both figuratively and literally in many ways. At a statuesque 5’11” she is an imposing figure in her provocative self-designed performance costumes and with an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion, according to Bloomberg , she’s the 2nd wealthiest female entertainer on the planet. As of this writing, she is only 33 years old and has many years of heavy earning capacity in her future. As I did, she grew up close to Philadelphia and remains a loyal Eagles fan. YOU GO GIRL!
Music Interests
She began her career as a country artist and released her first album in 2006 followed by 3 other country-based albums. Beginning in 2010 she began broadening her image and became more genre versatile including rock, country pop, hip-hop, indie folk and synth-pop. The Beatles were also genre diverse including pop, rock, blues, country, folk, Indian, psychedelic and numerous songs defying classification leading music critics to define them as a new genre titled Beatles music.
Career Length
Taylor has a career that spans 17-years [and counting] and has toured 6 times in 14-years compared to the Beatles 8-year career with 11 tours in just 4-years. Their final tour ended in 1966 and they became a studio-only band until they formally broke up in 1970.
Song Catalogues
As of 2023, she has written roughly 50% of her songs and except for some covers of other artists work, the rest of her 200 song catalogue is co-written by Taylor with other writers. The Beatles wrote all 190 original songs in their catalogue but included 25 covers of other artists work on their early albums. “Yesterday” remains the most covered song ever written and has been recorded by over 1,600 artists. Here’s an article on some of those Beatle cover songs.
Albums
She has released a total of 10 studio and 4 re-recorded albums as of 2023 with 12 reaching No1. The 4 re-recorded albums were the result of a legal dispute with her first record label, and they all contain additional songs that weren’t on the original albums. The Beatles released 13 studio albums (UK sequence) with 11 reaching No1. Combining album releases after they broke up; the Beatles have had more №1 albums than any other artist(s) in history with 19 in the US and 15 in the UK. Simply stated, they remain the best-selling music act of all time.
The Beatles rank No1 with more than 600 million albums sold worldwide, with 177 million being sold in the US. They also have 6 Diamond certified (10 million copies) albums. Taylor Swift has sold 200 million globally and 37 million in the US. She has 2 Diamond certified albums.
Based on new albums reaching No1 on the Billboard 200 in consecutive calendar years, the Beatles are No1 (1964–1970) with 7 and Taylor Swift (2019–2023) is tied at No2 at 5 with 5 other artists including Paul McCartney (1973–1977).
Fun Fact: Combining their Beatle and solo work, Paul McCartney has the most No1 albums all-time of any artist with 27, John Lennon is in second place with 22 and George Harrison has 19. McCartney also has the most Top 10 albums with 51. Taylor Swift claims that Paul is one of the artists that influenced her.
Singles
In the US, Swift has 12 No1 singles and has sold 137 million units. The Beatles are ranked with a historic record 20 No1 singles and 1.6 billion units.
In 2022 she captured the entire Top 10 positions on Billboard’s Hot 100 weekly survey, an historic first. In total, she had 17 singles on this survey. The following week, she had just 4 songs in the Top 10 and 1 in the Top 5. This lack of staying power reinforces the point I made earlier in Point #2. In 1964, the Beatles had 12 singles on the same weekly survey including the Top 5 positions. Both accomplishments were historic records for 57-years. The following week, they still had 5 songs in the Top 10 and 3 in the Top 5.
Taylor wrote a CMA Song of the Year for Little Big Town (No1 U.S. Billboard), co-wrote for numerous artists including Big Red Machine (No73 U.S. Billboard), Boys Like Girls (No72 U.S. Billboard), B.o.B. (No18 U.S. Billboard), Rihanna (No17 U.S. Billboard), Sugarland (No72 U.S. Billboard), Kelly Pickler (No72 U.S. Billboard), Miley Cyrus (No81 U.S. Billboard) and wrote the lyrics for a song in the movie “Cats”. The Beatles wrote top hits for numerous artists including Peter & Gordon (4 Top 20 U.S. Billboard hits — 1 №2), Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas (3 Top 30 U.S. Billboard Hits), the Rolling Stones (№12 on U.K. Billboard), Joe Cocker (№1 on the U.K. Billboard), Celia Black (№7 on the U.K. Billboard), Badfinger (No7 on the US Billboard, No4 on the UK Billboard) and many other mostly-British performers. With the exception of Cocker’s “With A Little Help From My Friends” and the Rolling Stones’ “I Wanna Be Your Man,” no other song that the group wrote for other performers was ever recorded by the Beatles. Rather, these songs were composed with the other artists in mind.
The Beatles have the most cumulative weeks at No1 on the Billboard 200 with 132 followed by Elvis Presley at 67 and followed by Taylor Swift at 63 weeks.
The Arts
The Beatles appeared in 3 original movies, inspired an animated fantasy film and were the subject of a 1970 documentary. They also were the subject for many post-Beatle documentaries and film performances. Taylor Swift has also had numerous acting experiences, which are well covered in this article.
According to Goodreads, a book database, there are over 2,000 books published about the Beatles and 309 about Taylor Swift. Paul McCartney has published 717 books (yes, that’s not a typo) on both his music and art. Click here for the list. George Harrison wrote 11 books, Ringo Starr wrote 8 books and John Lennon wrote 2 books all on variety of subjects. Taylor Swift has published over 30 books on a wide variety of subjects. And speaking about art, she too paints and dabbles in landscapes and is fond of watercolors. McCartney is also very heavy into art.
The Beatles also introduced the music industry’s first music videos in 1966.
Business Sense
I don’t think you’ll get much of an argument from anyone regarding Taylor Swift’s business acumen. She’s a smart lady and is leveraging her assets in the way the Beatles never did. A good example is her many TV commercials for companies like AT&T, Direct TV, Keds, Diet Coke, Target, Cover Girl, Sony and Macy’s.
The Beatles and/or their manager made many costly decisions including signing away any interest in all the promotional merchandise which is all over eBay even today because they never viewed it seriously. Their London Apple retail store experiment was another financial fiasco. Neither their manager nor members of the band had any entertainment business guidance through most of their career and it cost them a fortune.
Fun Fact: According to ABC TV affiliate in Chicago, some Taylor Swift fans are taking extreme measures, so they don’t miss a single song at her concerts. Not even for a restroom break some Swifties say they are attending shows wearing adult diapers. Coincidently, concert promoters reported the very noticeable presence and odor of urine at Beatle concerts as well.
In summary, both acts are/were awesome and very deserving of their earthshaker status. Given her youth, it’s very likely she will rise to the top of many of the metrics that I’ve included in this article. It’s my hope that the Swifties who took the time to read this article gained a better insight into exactly how historic the Beatles 8-year career was and why so many greatness comparisons continue to include them in the same sentence. It’s also my hope that you feel that I gave her a fair shake…it off. Beatlemaniacs, please welcome Taylor Swift to the club — she’s earned it!
I recently published a similar article comparing the Beatles achievements to The Rolling Stones. If you’re interested in reading it, click here.
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