Is Taylor Swift bigger than Michael Jackson?
NO SUCH THING
iHeartPodcasts and Kaleidoscope
4.6 • 609 Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
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Summary
So everyone knows Taylor Swift is one of the most popular musicians of all time, but how does she stack up to giants of the past like Michael Jackson and The Beatles? No matter how many reports of new chart records, we can’t shake the feeling that someone like MJ just had a larger cultural impact worldwide. This week, we crunch the numbers to see the true size of the Swiftdom we live in.
Our guest this week is Chris Dalla Riva, author of Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Mani. I'm Noah. This is Devin. And welcome to No Such Thing, the show where we settle our dumb arguments and yours by actually doing the research. This week, we find out how popular Boring Barbie actually is. |
| 0:14.0 | There's no such thing. No such thing. No such thing. No such thing. No such thing. So, such thing. |
| 0:23.8 | So, such thing. |
| 0:26.6 | No, such thing. |
| 0:35.6 | So, we're talking about Taylor Swift, mainly how did she cap to our collective attention so completely. |
| 0:36.5 | Her new album. |
| 0:38.9 | It sold 2.7 million copies in one day. |
| 0:54.8 | Oh, my God. This is something we've talked about a while because you see big albums like this come out, not only from her, but anyone else, and it'll be like, this song just broke this amazing record. Yeah. This is the most popular song ever. Of all time. And it never really makes sense. It's always like something like, yeah, a lot of people listen to the weekend. |
| 0:57.7 | Blinding Lights to me is not the most popular song ever. |
| 0:54.8 | Right. of all time. And it never really makes sense. It's always like something like, yeah, a lot of people listen to the weekend. |
| 0:57.7 | Blinding Lights to me is not the most popular song ever. |
| 0:58.1 | Right. |
| 1:00.0 | Even though it is on Spotify or whatever. Yeah, people listen to him. |
| 1:01.6 | I don't think it's like no one listens to that guy. |
| 1:04.0 | We're curious in the grand scheme of things how popular is a Taylor Swift compared to someone |
| 1:08.8 | from the past, like The Beatles or Michael Jackson. |
| 1:14.0 | But before we get into that, what everyone wants to know is, what do we think about Taylor Swift? |
| 1:21.2 | The three of us. |
| 1:22.2 | Three mid-30s guys think about it. |
| 1:25.6 | So, you know, we'll get to that right in the interest so people don't even listen |
| 1:28.6 | the rest of this. So what are your experiences with her? Well, let me start by saying I genuinely |
| 1:33.6 | have not listened to much of her music. Like, I do remember when I was in high school, |
... |
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