IN A DEPARTMENT OF HER OWN

If you’re wondering why Taylor Swift is being featured as our contents-page VIP this week, we welcome you back from your vacation under a rock. Tay’s new Republic set, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, is roiling the marketplace, the socials and the rest of the pop-cultural landscape on its way to what multiple prognosticators say could be a 2m+ chart debut. Taylor’s visibility over the past year—on massive stages, movie screens and sports telecasts as well as all manner of charts and playlists—has never been greater. But it seems she’s just getting started.