Taylor Swift invented double albums? News to me…
The idea of a double album has been around since… oh, I don’t know… forever? Ok, maybe not forever, but it’s far from a new concept. One of the earliest examples is The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert, which was released by jazz clarinet player Benny Goodman in 1950. I’m not sure how many of my loyal readers are Benny Goodman fans (willing to bet a hard zero), but there’s a pretty cool movie about “The King Of Swing” called The Benny Goodman Story. It’s an old ’50s movie starring Steve Allen and Donna Reed, but I remember watching it as a kid with my dad and thinking that I didn’t know clarinet could be so cool. Shortly thereafter, I found out clarinet wasn’t very cool (sorry to my clarinet players) and I bought an electric guitar.
Anyways, back to double albums…
Bob Dylan famously released Blonde On Blonde in 1966. Not only was it one of the first double albums in rock music, it’s largely regarded as one of the best double albums of all time. Then you have The Beatles self-titled album (the White Album) in 1968, The Rolling Stones’ 1972 Exile on Main St., Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti in 1975, Pink Floyd’s The Wall in 1979… Jimi Hendrix, Wu-Tang Clan, Tupac, The Clash, Michael Jackson, Outkast… I mean the list is pretty endless.
But of course, Taylor Swift fans think she invented it… they probably think she invented music too.
Following the news that The Weeknd is possibly releasing a double album, Hurry Up Tomorrow, this coming Friday, the Swifties took to social media to essentially shade The Weeknd for copying Taylor.
Here’s a few of the comments from the enlightened bunch:
i know people don’t want to admit it but seriously taylor’s impact in the industry should be studied https://t.co/zPalv16fdt
— mo (@everlikeme) January 25, 2025
taylor’s impact. haters can cry hard. https://t.co/zQu7R4yGCe
— taybrina defender ❤️💋💅 (@sweetaybrina13) January 25, 2025
welcome back TTPD & The Anthology https://t.co/27e63ZsjTm
— ✩°.⋆feelix☾⋆₊✧ (@tropkikipou) January 25, 2025
oh Taylor the trendsetter that you are https://t.co/KcPbmZ4322
— this mf (@swiftysfoundme) January 26, 2025
Taylor Swift is the blueprint https://t.co/BaWdKagowf
— 🤷🏽🤷🏽🤷🏽🤷🏽🤷🏽🤷🏽 (@taylorlookout) January 26, 2025
the way everyone’s following taylor’s footsteps so i expect taylor’s numbers https://t.co/JLpHviLqNs
— Betty (@cowboylikebett) January 26, 2025
You all are seriously in a cult… please get help.
Of course, plenty of people were quick to point out that Taylor Swift absolutely did NOT invent the double album, with some even acknowledging that Taylor HAS had a massive impact on the music industry. It just has nothing to do with the concept of releasing a double album.
Tay created double albums?
— GUNNY❄️‼️ (@ViolinzViolinz) January 26, 2025
Double albums have always been a thing; even before Taylor debuted…
— Jimmy Sam (@jimmy_sammm) January 26, 2025
taylor’s barely dropped a double album, it was a glorified deluxe album and i’m a swiftie. she also didn’t create this concept and it’s been done for ages
— Emmii (@noitsemmii) January 26, 2025
Taylor didn’t create the double album, grow up
— Jack (@_jackthemartian) January 26, 2025
There so many examples where you can reference Taylor’s impact in the indrustry and from all of them, you decided to referente one that is not 🙄.
— Fredward (@its_fredward) January 26, 2025
In the streaming era, we’ve definitely seen a huge push for double albums, deluxe albums or even just insanely long studio albums (Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak comes to mind with 34 songs), but you can probably attribute this recent trend to… Morgan Wallen.
It’s no secret that Morgan has been on an absolute tear over the past few years, but his 2021 sophomore album, Dangerous: The Double Album, was a game changer in terms of how artists attack the charts in the streaming era. Simply put… more songs equals more streams, which means greater chart success in a world where people don’t buy physical copies like they used to.
Personally, I find an album with 30 songs on it way too long unless they’re separated into cohesive units. Eric Church’s 2021 triple album Heart & Soul was one that had very distinct themes with each part… didn’t feel overwhelming, didn’t blend together. That’s the way to do it.
Dangerous was recently ranked Billboard’s #1 album of the 21st century and since its release in 2021, it has been among the year’s top 10 most popular albums. It was #1 in 2021, #3 in 2022, #5 in 2023 and finished at #8 last year in 2024. It’s the first album to spend four years in the year-end top 10 since the original Broadway recording to My Fair Lady (1956–59). And that’s not just consecutively… that’s ever.
And just for fun, Taylor’s Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, which was released last year, is currently sitting at #12 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, whereas Morgan’s Dangerous (2021) sits at #15. Meanwhile, Morgan’s 2023 album One Thing At A Time sits at #9.
And the Morgan Wallen fans were quick to call out the Swifties, noting that if anyone has set the trend in recent history, it’s him:
ACTING LIKE SHE DIDN’T GET THE IDEA FROM MORGAN WALLEN?? he hogged the charts after that double album that her chart obsessed ass just had to copy him https://t.co/T1MCS0lp1e
— ARMS (@lottecardin) January 26, 2025
And if I say her and Morgan Wallen? With albums getting shorter and shorter, they both demonstrated the public still has the demand and can consume lengthy albums with ease. https://t.co/QRKFq9EgTb
— Khumo ✮ Markham (@khumomarkham) January 26, 2025
morgan wallen has the top album of the 21st century with a double album https://t.co/upws6qSK0S
— athena’s wigs (@dariusjrob) January 26, 2025
Morgan Wallen has the best-selling double album of the decade and overall… Dangerous is even diamond eligible… it’s not all taylor swift https://t.co/XWOpIzcnld
— Devonne (@Dev0nne10) January 26, 2025
That should piss Swifties off even more after they complained that his upcoming album I’m The Problem was a ripoff of her song “Anti-Hero.”
But while we’re on the topic, if you really want to talk double albums, Miranda Lambert’s 2016 The Weight Of These Wings is a masterpiece.
Chronicling her divorce from fellow country music superstar Blake Shelton, and then her new relationship with singer Anderson East, it’s easily one of my favorite albums of the past 20 years. And it came well before Taylor Swift, Morgan Wallen, The Weeknd, or anybody else that the kids are arguing about here in 2025.