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Music

Taylor Swift Claims 1.287 Million Album Sales in Her First Week, Celebrates by Lip Syncing Kendrick Lamar's "Backseat Freestyle"

The one thing our society can agree on is that we like to spend money on Taylor Swift.

There's been speculation all week about how many copies Taylor Swift would sell of her new album 1989 in her first week—it was believed to sell as many as Eminem's The Eminem Show (1.3 million in a week) back in 2002, the time period before people stopped buying records—and we have what might be the final number via her Instagram. Mrs. Swift says she sold 1.287 million records, and is celebrating by doing another Taylor Swift-dance, this time to Kendrick Lamar's "Backseat Freestyle" (with a bit of lip syncing that really puts this all over the top). Outside of this funny video we will all laugh at, why is Taylor Swift selling this many records an important thing to think about? Consider how this is a year that was yet to deliver a platinum album, a year in which listening to records via streaming services continues to prove to be the norm (and she had decided to not put her album on Spotify). One might argue our tastes are more divided than ever. Plus, when's the last time you even personally bought a record? Yet weirdly, the one thing we can all seem to agree on is that we like Taylor Swift, and we like her a lot. A lot. 1.287 million records a lot. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go play Punktendo.

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A video posted by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on Nov 11, 2014 at 7:55pm PST