Monday, February 21, 2011

Lady Gaga Sells Magazines Taylor Swift Does Not


Cosmopolitan's April 2010 issue featuring Gaga sold 1.7 million copies to make it that magazine's best seller, and her Rolling Stone cover sold 245,000 copies, nearly three times RS' average newsstand sales. It seems that oversaturation hasn't dampened people's interest in Gaga. Also faring well on newsstands: Rihanna, thanks in large part to her topless GQ cover.


On the flip side of that, the one way to guarantee poor sales, surprisingly, is to put Taylor Swift on the cover. Why doesn't Swift, one of the top-selling artists in music now, move more magazines? It likely has something to do with the fact that despite countless interviews and front-cover profiles, Swift still hasn't established herself as a headline-making quote machine like Gaga has. Most of her cover stories end up reading like mirror images of each other, with the same anecdotes and oft-repeated revelations that make up most boring promotional puff pieces, and the public has caught on. Also, since this is America, it doesn't help that Swift wears significantly more clothing.

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