Has there ever been such a flutter in the pop culture dovecote as the one provoked by the “leak” that an unknown book, due to be published in July, was by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift? A million copies were reportedly poised to roll off the presses of the mystery title, which was identified only as “4C Untitled Flatiron Nonfiction Summer 2023”. It had soared to the top of the US book charts.
The date for revealing the author and title had been set for next month, ahead of publication in July, but after a week of feverish discussion, and the presale of many thousands of books at a full price of $45 (£36) a copy, the publisher was forced to show its hand early. The title is an oral history of – and by – the K-pop boyband BTS.
As the first Asian group to break through to the top of the western music industry, and worth an estimated $3.6bn annually to South Korea’s economy, BTS have their own mammoth fanbase, just not the same one. Their fans, known as Army, are famously devoted and ferociously energetic and organised. They may also be all the hungrier for new content, given that BTS are on a “temporary break”, with some members already beginning their compulsory military service. The title remains at the top of Amazon’s US bookchart.
The music business has never been short on hype. But this saga was driven primarily by consumers rather than publicists. The most interesting thing about it is what it says about the power of TikTok and the precipitous spread of misinformation among those who really want to believe. In this respect, the episode could be seen as an analogue of any number of far-fetched conspiracy theories.
Given that Swift is just 33 years old, and in middle of both a punishing multi-arena tour and a project to re-record her first six albums, it always seemed unlikely that she could have made time for a memoir. Numerology played a part in the spread of the rumour, with fans speculating that the digits in the pagination – 544 – added up to Swift’s favourite number, 13. The fact that some editions of Jane Austen’s Emma, Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations and Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women have the same pagination wouldn’t have deterred them. In a teasing tweet last week, Swift made an inside joke about the number nine (the publication date of the mystery book, but also a date mentioned in one of her lyrics).
What is beyond doubt is the astonishing popularity of both acts. Swift has just become the first living artist with 10 albums simultaneously in the Top 100 of the US charts and the first living female artist with at least three albums in the Top 10 at the same time. BTS have repeatedly smashed records and notched up six US No 1s, with all their albums topping the US charts. The two acts have battled it out for supremacy globally.
This level of acclaim sets musicians up for the algorithmic manipulation that makes more sinister conspiracy theories fly. That viral runaways are a pact with the devil is not in question. It is like a gold rush, except with prospectors who do not regard themselves as speculators but as buyers in good faith.
The mystery memoir is a cautionary tale for our time – though in this case, some booksellers have promised refunds to disappointed Swifties. Not everyone is so scrupulous. Buyer beware.