Love her, hate her, shake her off – however you feel about Taylor Swift, there’s no question she’s one of the most influential artists of recent years. But she didn’t get to the top of her game just by writing some catchy pop songs (although she did do that). According to literary critic Stephanie Burt, “Every sound and word in almost every Taylor song not only solicits attention but rewards it” – and Burt sets out to gives Swift’s work this close attention in her book, Taylor’s Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift.
Taylor’s Version is a fascinating tour through Swift’s music, album by album, from her pastoral country beginnings to the full-blown, amnesia-inducing spectacle of the Eras Tour. Burt herself is a Swiftie – she certainly brings her love for the artist and the art to the book – and she is also a critic and an academic, so the project here is to look at Swift through an analytical lens.
It’s not often that Swift’s music (or any mainstream pop music) is given this kind of serious attention, but Burt has been leading the way in Swift academia for several years now. In fact, she taught a class at Harvard University called ‘Taylor Swift and Her World’, to much eyebrow-raising from the media. Burt’s approach in that class, and in this book, is to discuss Swift’s music as music (she may have a flair for lyricism, but she’s writing songs, not poems).
Burt dives into the musical theory behind the songs you know all too well, and uncovers new layers of meaning in the process. She also examines the literary devices Swift employs in her lyrics, talking about the star in the same breath as literary giants like Wordsworth, Cather, Keats, Tennyson and Yeats. This is not a fan-written tour through the lore of Taylor Swift (although there is plenty here to keep a Swiftie engaged), but rather a critical examination of Swift’s body of work up to the Eras Tour, with lashings of musical and literary theory thrown in.
Taylor’s Version also deals with Swift as a person: what we know of her life and personality, how she formed and solidified her relationship with her fans, how she manages to do two seemingly contradictory things at once – be both aspirational and relatable. Burt doesn’t skip over the controversies either; she tackles Swift’s whiteness and relationship to race, her strongly capitalist tendencies and even the private jets. Taylor’s Version is about the person, the persona and the music – everything that makes Taylor Swift TAYLOR SWIFT.
If you’re at all interested in the world of Swift beyond the headlines, then you’ll love Taylor’s Version. The book is academic yet approachable, and Burt’s writing is thoughtful and engaging. This book is for Swifties and non-Swifties alike – for anyone who wants to know what went into making the biggest musical artist in the world. Are you ready for it?
Taylor’s Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift by Stephanie Burt is out now via John Murray Press
Review by Clare Diston
