Publishers Weekly
09/23/2024
Music journalist Sheffield (Turn Around Bright Eyes) offers a spirited tribute to “the messiest and most fascinating figure in pop music.” A fan of Taylor Swift since hearing “Our Song” in the summer of 2007, Sheffield documents her entry into the music industry at 11, her move to Nashville at 13, her high school “outcast days,” and the release of her eponymous debut album in 2006. Sheffield also charts Swift’s stylistic shifts from 2012’s Red (“the gaudiest mega-pop manifesto”) to the “stark goth-folk sound” and “brooding ballads” of 2020’s Folklore. He pins the key to Swift’s fame on her ability to verbalize the “melodramatic love and explosive flings and rude interruptions” of teenage girlhood, even as she manages to keep “her deepest mysteries to herself.” 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. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
“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
“The book is a rollercoaster to be devoured in one sitting and at the end, he somehow leaves you wanting more.” — USA Today
“The first serious book-length discussion of Swift as an artist and cultural force… short, delightful and interesting.” — Bloomberg News
“Strongly felt and delightful collection… [Sheffield] can make the whole place shimmer.” — Boston Globe
“Rob Sheffield’s kaleidoscopic, wildly enthusiastic biography, Heartbreak Is the National Anthem, will satisfy both superfans and those less familiar with the prolific phenom Taylor Swift.” — BookPage
“For the Swiftie in your life, this definitive account of the rise of pop megastar Taylor Swift by Rolling Stone journalist Rob Sheffield is a must-read. Sheffield has been following Swift’s career since “Our Song” in 2006, and his new book tracks her rises and falls with the rigor of an investigative journalist and the eyes and heart of a superfan.” — Our Culture Magazine
“One of the things that’s made Rob Sheffield’s writings on music compelling to so many readers is his attention to the ways music can become a part of one’s life… His latest, Heartbreak Is the National Anthem, explores the cultural impact of another musical juggernaut: Taylor Swift. It looks to be both a welcome addition to Sheffield’s own catalog and a memorable look at Swift’s music.” — Inside Hook
Library Journal
11/01/2024
Who better than longtime Rolling Stone contributor Sheffield (Love Is a Mix Tape) to dive into the phenomenal career of Taylor Swift, who has managed to stay in the pop-music limelight for nearly two decades? Sheffield, an unabashed fan who doesn't mind mentioning that he first heard some of Swift's greatest hits in her very own apartment, sometimes seems as mystified as anyone as to how a singer-songwriter with a legendary capacity for being "extra" has managed not to flare out. But she has managed it, and he has a few ideas about why. She's a quintessential songwriter and storyteller who has inspired numerous women to follow in her footsteps, sometimes right onto the stage with her. Her sincerity is genuine, and her ability to swerve creatively without crashing through pop music's guardrails is unparalleled. How that all adds up to the reinvention of pop music is never conclusively answered, but does it matter? It's Swift's world; we just live in it. VERDICT Pop confectionery with surprising depth, much like its subject. For Swift fans and those who love them.—Genevieve Williams
Kirkus Reviews
2024-09-27
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. Swift has been in the public eye for almost 20 years. Even though she sells out stadiums around the world, she remains an enigma, says Sheffield. “To some,” he writes, “Taylor is a creative genius, a cultural force, a feminist rebel crashing history with her girls-to-the-front energy.” To others, she’s “a symbol of capitalism, privilege, self-absorption, self-pity.…A factory of insipid tearjerkers.” Perhaps it’s because Swift is a shape-shifting mirror, reflecting her fans’ emotional ups and downs. A fan since her country-music days, Sheffield reads her lyrics as if poring over tea leaves. What do they say about her? More importantly, what do they say about him? “When I hear myself in her songs, it’s often the parts of me I try hardest to keep covered up and tied down. I’m threatened by the hairpin trigger in her songs, her constant edge of emotional danger.” Curiously, one doesn’t get much of a sense of what Swift’s music actually sounds like. While Sheffield cites song lyric after song lyric, he describes her music sparingly: “seething electronic pulse…a stark goth-folk sound.” The book is the most engaging when Sheffield shows what Swift means to him. After his mother’s funeral, he found himself singing Swift’s “The Archer” to give voice to his sadness. “Just another heartbroken son yelling Taylor Swift lyrics at four lanes of late-night truckers and bikers and speed freaks and streetlights, none of them impressed.”
An affectionate homage from an ardent fan.
