The Contenders is a midweek column that looks at artists aiming for the top of the Billboard charts, and the strategies behind their efforts. This week, for the upcoming Billboard 200 dated Oct. 18, we look at the jaw-dropping numbers already being put up by the highly anticipated new album from the biggest pop star in the universe, and what worlds it still has left to conquer.

Taylor Swift, The Life of a Showgirl (Republic): For most of the last decade, it seemed not only unbeatable, it seemed un-nearable. From the time Adele set the modern-era single-week sales record in late 2015 with a jaw-plummeting 3.378 million, up until this very week, no other artist had even gotten in her general neighborhood — with only one artist even clearing the one-million mark in sales over that time perio

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