Taylor Swift's Timely Streaming Win Helps Her Album Become A Bestseller Again
'August,' featured on her album Folklore, returns to prominence as its namesake month nears and begins. Some years, the uptick is relatively small, while at other times, it's big enough to help the tune and the album it's featured on — and that's the case in 2025.
Folklore Reenters Top Album Sales Chart
Folklore is enjoying its biggest week in some time on the Billboard charts, thanks largely to increases in streams and sales of 'August.' At the moment, Folklore lives on four tallies, surging on three and returning to one.
Five years after its release, Folklore is back on the Top Album Sales chart, appearing once again as one of the 50 bestselling titles in the country. The Grammy-winning effort lands on the list at No. 47 after selling more than 2,800 copies in the most recent finished tracking frame.
Major Gains on Alternative and Rock Charts
Swift's surprise release also surges on several other rankings. Folklore lives inside the top 10 on both the Top Alternative Albums and Top Rock & Alternative Albums charts, pushing to Nos. 4 and 9, respectively. It reappears inside the highest tier on the latter list, as last frame it sat at No. 14.
The hugely popular project almost finds its way back inside the top 40 on the Billboard 200 as it jumps from No. 61 to No. 45. Consumption of the project grew by more than 14% from one frame to the next, as it moved 16,650 equivalent units compared to 14,600 units the week prior (per Luminate).
Folklore Leads Swift's Album Chart Wins
Swift sees eight of her albums appear on at least one Billboard chart apiece this week. Several titles, including The Tortured Poets Department, Reputation, and Red (Taylor's Version), live on two tallies at the same time. Folklore is easily the winner, as it appears on four rankings, doubling the total number of appearances of her other most successful projects in America at the moment.
'August' Drives Folklore's Seasonal Popularity
Somewhat surprisingly, while consumption of the song 'August' is largely to thank for the success of Folklore, the song itself does not appear on any Billboard charts at the moment. The tune was never pushed as a single, but remains a fan favorite nonetheless. 'August' reached No. 23 on the Hot 100 and gave Swift one of her first top 10 hits on the Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart in its initial heyday.
Folklore's Grammy-Winning Legacy
When Folklore arrived in July 2020, it became Swift's seventh No. 1 album on the Billboard 200, where it debuted with more than 846,000 equivalent units, making one of the largest opening sums in recent memory at the time. It went on to win Album of the Year at the Grammys – another such success for the singer-songwriter – and has remained a top performer ever since, helped by tracks like 'Cardigan,' 'The 1,' and 'Exile' alongside 'August.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
What does it take to get a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes? I watched 'War of the Worlds' to find out.
Ice Cube stars in a modern adaptation of the alien invasion story, which the internet turned into a meme. I wasn't planning on watching the straight-to-Prime-Video remake of War of the Worlds set entirely on the computer screen of a government security analyst until I saw footage of Ice Cube screaming at a young man via video call as he shakily records an alien invasion. It's so bad, it demands to be seen. The new movie, released July 30, debuted with a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that it had been panned by all of the critics who took the time to watch and review it. (It has since been elevated to 3% as of press time, thanks to a contrarian review from Entertainment Weekly.) Scoring in the single digits for any amount of time is not an easy feat on the review aggregation website, which considers critics of varying levels of prestige in its 'Tomatometer' scores. Without such widespread disdain, 2025's War of the Worlds might have been forgotten — slipping into the depths of Prime Video's expansive catalogue. Instead, it became a lightning rod on social media. There's something magical about a movie that tried to be good and ended up being bad in so many ways that thousands of people still took the time to investigate the extent of its failure. I myself was intrigued by the widespread condemnation of what seemed to be a real movie with a budget and familiar actors — surely, it can't be that bad! — so, for 89 unhinged minutes, I sat down on my couch and watched it for myself. So, what happens in this movie? Ice Cube stars as William Radford, a grizzly 'domestic terror analyst' who spends his days stalking his pregnant biologist daughter Faith (Iman Benson) and underperforming video game streamer son Dave (Henry Hunter Hall). As an employee of the Department of Homeland Security, he has access to seemingly every camera and technology in the Washington, D.C., area — he hacks his daughter's fridge to monitor what she consumes (too much soy milk, apparently) and frequently right-clicks on flashing targets on his computer to select a menu option that says 'Comandeer Drone.' Luckily, William was just starting his workday as aliens invaded, though he frequently declines calls from 'Sandra NASA' (Eva Longoria) and ignores Microsoft Teams messages from his DHS boss (Clark Gregg) in favor of yelling at his son for buying new video games and hacking his daughter's computer to see what her baby daddy Mark (Devon Bostick), an Amazon delivery driver, is telling her about their upcoming shower that William is not invited to. I know that the goal of this movie is to show how, in 2025, the response to an alien invasion would be mostly online. Unlike the 2005 film adaptation starring Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning, we wouldn't be fighting invaders on the ground as much as we'd be watching clips of the chaos unfold on X and Instagram. I did wonder, though, how aliens who initiated their invasion of Earth by blowing up NASA satellites so they couldn't be surveilled and immediately began destroying data centers as soon as they landed left our internet intact. The world may be ending as we know it, but because Microsoft Teams and Google Sheets were still operating, some people still had to work. Ridiculous alien movie logic aside, the fact that 2025's War of the Worlds anticipates that the apocalypse will be somewhat mundane feels appropriate for our dystopian times. Unfortunately for this movie, any new take War of the Worlds — and there have been dozens since H.G. Wells' original novel was published in 1898 — would have to stand in the shadow of the most interesting adaptation: the 1938 radio drama that sparked nationwide hysteria after being misinterpreted as a real broadcast of an invasion. By standing out — though it's for being absurd, poorly acted and ridiculously edited — the 2025 version has accomplished something amazing. Is it actually bad? While watching the film, I made a list of the dialogue and plot points that made me laugh out loud. Here are a few: So bad it's good My list only scratches the surface of the chaos. To take a moment to jot down something that made me laugh meant tearing my eyes away from the screen, where ridiculous things were happening in such rapid succession that even three seconds of dwindling attention meant I might miss an editing failure or a bizarrely worded Teams message. Even though I was on my couch reading posts about it online, my viewing experience was less like watching a movie and more like attending an event. I'm grateful for the social media dogpile that inspired me to watch War of the Worlds in the first place, but because of the way social platforms seem to reward negative opinions, scoring a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes might not be a rare feat for much longer. Dan Green, director of the Master of Entertainment Industry Management program at Carnegie Mellon University, tells Yahoo that the collective panning of the film reveals how audience review websites like Rotten Tomatoes 'have been transformed into a competitive exercise in disdain, reflecting a gamified culture of online critique.' In other words, watching movies and making fun of them on social media and review sites now feels like a community activity. For a moment, people were so united by the intrigue of a 0% score that War of the Worlds reached the No. 2 spot on Prime Video's U.S. movie rankings. It's now part of Rotten Tomatoes' unofficial Hall of Shame, among the few dozen widely reviewed and panned films of all time, like 2018's Gotti starring John Travolta and 2014's Left Behind starring Nicolas Cage. After the fun I had watching this one, I think I'll make my way through the list. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
a few seconds ago
- Yahoo
People Seriously Doubted Wife After She 'Bathed' Husband's Office In Red Paint but the End Results Speak For Themselves
People Seriously Doubted Wife After She 'Bathed' Husband's Office In Red Paint but the End Results Speak For Themselves originally appeared on Parade Home & Garden. There are some colors people naturally recoil from. Whether that is pastel or neon, it comes down to the person. But let it be known that a true interior designer can take anything and run with it. And that is just what DIYer Asley Tate @smashingdiy did when her husband challenged her to make over his office in her least favorite color, red. At first, people were horrified when she started painting every all, including the ceiling, a crimson, blood red. They began changing their tune however once they saw the many paint and design elements she used to tie the room together. By the end of the video, they were slack-jawed at her accomplishment."I'm so sorry for doubting you it came together out of nowhere," noted one follower. "I hope you do this for a living because that was phenomenal," raved another. The transformation serves as a lesson in coordination. While red is a gorgeously vibrant color, it can be overpowering on its own. It needs to be paired with strong design elements, smart details and curated accents to make the color look more intentional and less Seriously Doubted Wife After She 'Bathed' Husband's Office In Red Paint but the End Results Speak For Themselves first appeared on Parade Home & Garden on Aug 12, 2025 This story was originally reported by Parade Home & Garden on Aug 12, 2025, where it first appeared. Solve the daily Crossword
Geek Tyrant
2 minutes ago
- Geek Tyrant
Seth MacFarlane Thinks Hollywood Needs More Hopeful Stories: 'That's the Only Thing That Hollywood Can Do That is Worthwhile' — GeekTyrant
Seth MacFarlane believes Hollywood has tilted too far toward grim, pessimistic storytelling, and it's time to bring back hope. Speaking with Cheers legend Ted Danson on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, the Family Guy creator said his own work, like The Orville , was born from a desire to create something optimistic. 'That's why I did The Orville . When I was a kid, Hollywood was providing that voice in various forms. There was a lot of hope, and some of the blame lies right here in this town. 'The dishes that we are serving up are so dystopian and so pessimistic. And yeah, there's a lot to be pessimistic about, but it's so one-sided. There's nothing we're doing that's providing anyone an image of hope.' While he's a fan of acclaimed dramas like The Handmaid's Tale and The Sopranos , MacFarlane thinks Hollywood has overcorrected. 'There's a lot more of that than there is what we used to get from Captain Picard. They're certainly giving us a lot of cautionary tales, but where are the blueprints that they once gave us for how to do things correctly? 'It can't all be just, 'Here's what's going to happen to you if you f*** up.' You do need, 'Here's what you can achieve if you change your ways and do things right.'' MacFarlane also sees a cultural fixation with antiheroes. Using Tony Soprano as an example, he said the trend leans heavily toward 'the complicated, f*cked-up, drug-addled person.' Even when discussing a series he admires, like The White Lotus , he noted that 'out of the main characters, no one is someone you'd wanna be.' For MacFarlane, this points to a deeper problem in Hollywood storytelling: a lack of aspirational characters and uplifting narratives. 'That's the only thing really that Hollywood can do that's worthwhile because as we all learned from this election, nobody gives a f*** what celebrities think. 'We can tweet, we can talk. Like, people don't care. They don't care. What we do do well is tell stories. And we're not doing the best job right now of telling those stories in a way that gives people hope.' He believes that while darkness and cynicism have their place, stories that offer visions of a better future are just as essential. As for whether we'll see more of The Orville , MacFarlane says there are plans for a fourth season, but nothing is confirmed. Still, if it does return, fans can expect it to keep carrying the hopeful tone he feels Hollywood needs now more than ever. I think he makes some good points. While I love a good dark story from time to time, my favorite movies tell uplifting, heartfelt, optomistic stories. So, I would love to see more of that!
