Heartbreak Is The National Anthem – Rob Sheffield

As a long-time die-hard Swiftie, I’m facing a long Cruel Summer after the end of the Eras Tour. I’m already desperate for Swift-related content to keep fuelling my obsession, so I’m especially grateful to Harlequin Australia for sending through a copy of Heartbreak Is The National Anthem for review.

Rob Sheffield is a writer for Rolling Stone, and he’s been following Taylor Swift’s career since the very beginning. Heartbreak Is The National Anthem covers her career from the days of dropping of her demo to recording companies in Nashville to the record-busting worldwide Eras Tour. That said, it’s not chronological, and it’s definitely not a biography. It’s more like a collection of well-written, thoughtful essays about her career and it’s context, not to mention its impact on the music industry.

“Nothing like Taylor Swift has ever happened before,” Sheffield writes on page 3. She’s changed how pop music is made, heard, and experienced.

Naturally, I’m the ideal reader for Heartbreak Is The National Anthem. While Sheffield doesn’t shy away from Taylor Swift’s failures and missteps (“when she fails, she doesn’t do it modestly,” page 9), it’s not a critical work or a take-down. This is a book of admiration, of curiosity and wonder, one that highlights Taylor Swift’s commitment to creative autonomy (e.g., the phenomenon of Taylor’s Versions). I did note that Sheffield thanks Tree Paine (Taylor Swift’s shrewd long-time publicist) in the Acknowledgements, which I suppose serves as the Swift team’s tacit endorsement of his work.

My only criticism of Heartbreak Is The National Anthem is that I wish it had been longer, really. It ends a bit abruptly, and her most recent album – The Tortured Poets Department – is only really covered in passing. To be honest, it probably deserves a whole other book of its own, one I hope Sheffield is working on as we speak…

Read Heartbreak Is The National Anthem on audiobook via Libro.fm here. (affiliate link)