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    Taylor Swift Returns to No. 1 With Autographed ‘Fearless’ CDs

    The singer-songwriter’s “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” the rerecorded edition of her breakthrough 2008 LP, surged to the top of Billboard’s album chart.Streaming is everything in music today. But a pile of CDs, a marker and some elbow grease can still take you to No. 1 (at least if your name is Taylor Swift).This week, Swift’s “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” the rerecorded edition of her breakthrough 2008 LP, returned to No. 1 on Billboard’s chart — up from No. 157 last week — with the equivalent of 152,000 sales in the United States, thanks largely to a limited release of autographed CDs on Swift’s website and the availability of the album’s vinyl version.“Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” which opened at No. 1 in April, notched its second week at the top with just 8.7 million streams, the lowest streaming number for a No. 1 album since AC/DC’s “Power Up” last November. But Swift also moved 146,000 copies as a complete package, including 77,000 on CD, 67,000 on vinyl and about 1,000 each on cassette and digital download, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm. Altogether, that pushed “Fearless” over the top in its 25th week out.Last month, Swift tweeted that she had signed so many CDs, “I may never write the same again, as my hand is now frozen in the permanent shape of a claw.”It is a tactic Swift has used before. Last year, she sent signed copies of “Folklore” — the first of her two quarantine LPs — to indie record stores, and later sold more autographed CDs on her website. “Folklore” held the No. 1 spot a total of eight weeks, more than any other album in 2020.Also this week, Drake’s “Certified Lover Boy” is No. 2; the rapper Meek Mill’s new “Expensive Pain” opens at No. 3; YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Sincerely, Kentrell,” last week’s chart-topper, falls three spots to No. 4 in its second week out; and Lil Nas X’s “Montero” is in fifth place.“Love for Sale,” the album of Cole Porter songs by Lady Gaga and the 95-year-old Tony Bennett, opens at No. 8. More

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    Taylor Swift’s Rerecorded ‘Fearless’ Is the Year’s Biggest Debut So Far

    “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” opened with the equivalent of 291,000 sales in the United States, giving her a third No. 1 album in just under nine months.In the summer of 2019, after Taylor Swift’s first six albums were sold as part of a deal for her original record company, an idea was floated — by Kelly Clarkson, no less — that seemed an unlikely lark: that Swift could rerecord replicas of those albums, in part as revenge against investors who had traded her creative work like real estate. (Something that, to be fair, happens almost daily in the music business.)But with “Fearless (Taylor’s Version),” a newly released simulacrum of her 2008 breakthrough LP, that lark has become Swift’s latest smash hit. The new “Fearless” opened at the top of Billboard’s latest album chart with the equivalent of 291,000 sales in the United States — the biggest debut of the year, and Swift’s third No. 1 in just under nine months, after her surprise pandemic LPs “Folklore” and “Evermore.” It is Swift’s ninth No. 1 album altogether.According to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm, Swift’s new album had 143 million streams in its opening week — only a little above the weekly average for No. 1 albums this year, and less than recent hits by Justin Bieber, Morgan Wallen and Rod Wave have had in their opening weeks.Yet “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” also sold 179,000 copies as a complete package, as fans rushed to buy CDs, triple vinyl LPs and full-album downloads. That is far more than for any other title this year — more, in fact, than for any album since Swift’s “Folklore” opened with 615,000 copies sold in July, before a revision to Billboard’s chart rules that curtailed retail bundles and delayed when the sales of many physical releases were counted on the chart.The success of “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” has also accomplished what appeared to be one of Swift’s goals: burying the original “Fearless.” On last week’s edition of the Billboard 200 chart, “Fearless” was No. 157, with the equivalent of 7,700 sales; this week, it dropped by 19 percent to 6,200, and fell off the chart entirely.On Sunday, Swift greeted the news of the chart success of “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” by saying she was already at work on her next rerecording. Some fans, minutely analyzing Swift’s every public move, has guessed that she will next turn to “1989,” her blockbuster hit from 2014 that included hits like “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space.” But Swift has not specified her plans.Also this week, “The Best of DMX” rose 71 spots to No. 2 after the news of the rapper’s death on April 9, at age 50. The compilation had the equivalent of 77,000 sales, including nearly 89 million streams and 9,000 copies sold as a full album.Last week’s top album, Bieber’s “Justice,” fell two spots to No. 3, Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” is No. 4 and Rod Wave’s “SoulFly” is No. 5. More