Swift Run to the Top

Country music extends its run of #1s to five of the last six weeks as Taylor Swift is poised to make history on next week's chart. At midweek, and barring an iTunes server meltdown or Target suddenly shutting its doors, Swift will score the largest first week ever for a female country artist, besting Shania Twain's Up debut of 874k in 2002. Can she beat Lil Wayne's 1.005m from 2008? She has that number clearly in her sights. And if she does, will it be by enough to unseat Garth Brooks' mark of 1.085m debut with Double Live in 1998?

The last time a record debuted at close to or over a million (Lil Wayne in the week ending 6/15/08), the Top 15 totaled almost 2.1m. No such luck next week as it's shaping up to be a whopping 600k less. Here's how it all looks headed into the Halloween weekend.

*Taylor Swift (Big Machine) 975k-1m
Sugarland (Mercury Nashville) 85-90k
Kings of Leon (RCA/RMG) 70-75k
Lil Wayne (Cash Money/Universal Motown) 40-45k
Eminem (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) 35-40k
Glee Cast Rocky Horror Glee Show (Columbia) 28-32k
Elton John & Leon Russell (Decca) 28-32k
Rod Stewart (J/RMG) 24-27k
Darius Rucker (Capitol Nashville/EMI) 24-27k
*Michael Buble Hollywood: The Deluxe EP (Reprise) 21-24k
The Band Perry (Universal Republic Nashville) 18-21k
Kenny Chesney (BNA/SME Nashville) 18-21k
Zac Brown Band (Atlantic) 18-21k
Shakira (Epic) 18-21k
Trey Songz (Atlantic) 18-21k
Mumford & Sons (Glassnote) 18-21k
*Debuts (10/28p)