Heartbreak Is the National Anthem

How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music

by Rob Sheffield

On Sale: 11/12/2024

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Heartbreak Is the National Anthem

How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music

by Rob Sheffield

On Sale: 11/12/2024

Format:

Amazon Indigo

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About the Book

An intimate look at the life and music of modern pop’s most legendary figure, Taylor Swift, from leading music journalist Rob Sheffield.

A cultural phenomenon. A worldwide obsession. An agent of emotional chaos. There’s no parallel to Taylor Swift in history: a teenage girl who turns into the world’s favorite pop star, songwriter, storyteller, guitar hero, live performer, changing how music is made and heard. An all-time great on the level of The Beatles, Prince, or David Bowie.

Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music is the first book that goes deep on the musical and cultural impact of Taylor Swift. Nobody can tell the story like Rob Sheffield, the bestselling and award-winning author of Dreaming the Beatles, On Bowie, and Love Is a Mix Tape. The legendary Rolling Stone journalist is the writer who has chronicled Taylor for every step of her long career, from her early days to the Eras Tour. Sheffield gets right to the heart of Swift and her music, her lyrics, her fan connection, her raw power.

At once one of the most beloved music figures of the past two decades and one of the most criticized, Taylor Swift is known as much for her life beyond her music as she is for her hits—the most public of stars, yet also the weirdest and most mysterious. In the tradition of Sheffield’s Dreaming the Beatles, Heartbreak Is the National Anthem will inform and delight a legion of fans who hang on every word from Taylor and every word Rob writes on her.

Critical Praise

“Readers will revel in the unrestrained delight with which Sheffield captures his subject, mixing a fan’s exuberance with a music critic’s nuanced analysis. Swifties won’t be able to put this down.” — Publishers Weekly

“Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone tackled mix tapes in a memoir and the Beatles in an appreciation, both highly acclaimed books. Now he tackles Taylor Swift, choosing his title Heartbreak Is the National Anthem from her song 'New Romantics' (from her best album 1989, just sayin'). Fans will love the fact that he takes Swift seriously: this is about popular music and how she's shaped it as an artist and yes as a pop culture force to be reckoned with. And non-fans will enjoy learning just what all the fuss is about." — Parade

“Tracking Taylor Swift from precocious teen to pop-music juggernaut. Why is Taylor Swift a cultural lightning rod? Why do people love—or hate—her and her music so much? Those are the questions that Sheffield, a music journalist and self-avowed Swiftie, seeks to answer in this zippy and engaging work. An affectionate homage from an ardent fan.” — Kirkus Reviews

"An impressionistic portrait of Taylor Swift... the first serious attempt to place Swift inside a music history.” — Chicago Tribune