Why Taylor Swift's Career Trajectory Mirrors the Beatles, Explains Author of New Book on the Pop Star (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

‘Heartbreak Is the National Anthem’ book cover; Rob Sheffield.Photo:Harper Collins Publishers; Marisa Bettencourt

Harper Collins Publishers; Marisa Bettencourt

Few people have spent as much time immersed inTaylor Swift’s music than Rob Sheffield. As a longtimeRolling Stonejournalist and author of books includingDreaming the Beatles,On Bowie, andLove Is a Mix Tape,Sheffield has long-threaded memoir, fandom and criticism into his work.

With his latest effort,Heartbreak Is the National Anthem(released on Nov. 12 via Dey Street Books), Sheffield chronicles Swift’s cultural takeover through his own memories of her music — and interactions with Swift herself — uncovering how she’s shifted the pop paradigm.

“Writing about her just in the long story of pop music and her place in it, she’s transformed music so completely in her time that it’s wild to go back and think about how different it was when she started,” Sheffield tells PEOPLE. “So I wanted to show how things were pre-Taylor and how they’re so completely different after Taylor.”

Throughout 29 chapters, Sheffield, 58, dives into Swift’s prolific discography and the art of her craft and career — the “Mazzy Swift” sound of “Sad Beautiful Tragic,” Swift’s affinity for secret codes and her show-stopping sister albumsfolkloreandevermore.

“It’s funny, my last couple of books were aboutThe BeatlesandDavid Bowie, and to me, she’s right up there in that pantheon with them,” Sheffield says of Swift.

In an interview with PEOPLE, Sheffield digs into Swift’s preservation of lyrics, reveals what sound he hopes Swift tackles in the future.

There are several authors who have taken on the task of writing about Swift in recent years. How did you approach her story differently?

Well, [it was about] writing about Taylor, her music and ultimately the big mystery of Taylor Swift — how she writes these songs that are so personal and yet hits so many people as our own story. Everybody has Taylor songs that we hear and we think, “This one, this is about me.” And to share that with so many thousands of people in the same stadium at the same time is such a surreal pop experience that I wanted to write about Taylor in those terms as that kind of songwriter.

You blend memoir with Swift’s work and cultural impact. Why was this the right approach for this book?

It’s that way for you and me, and it’s also that way with her. She hears music as the story of her life that way. And to me, just listening to her songs, even at the beginning, even just at that first album, it’s already clear that she’s somebody who hears herself in her own prism of pop music.

Taylor Swift in August 2023.John Shearer/Getty

John Shearer/Getty

There’s a throughline in the book of comparing the success of The Beatles and Swift. Tell me more about that.

Well, The Beatles are the closest thing to a Taylor Swift that we have in history. First, there’s the Beatles showing up onThe Ed Sullivan Show, and they show everybody, “Wow, okay, this is something you can do. This is something you can participate in as a fan or as a musician. We’re just taking guitars and drums and writing songs about real human emotions.” People saw The Beatles and they said, “Hey, I can do this.” That’s when people started forming bands, but also when people became devoted pop music fans. The Beatles proved it could be done, and then as they got more experimental and innovative in their later years, they proved how much you could do with this format. And Taylor’s the same way.

In the book, you reveal that Swift once introduced you to Alan Aldridge, who is deep in the Beatles lore as an illustrator. Was that before or after your Beatles book? Did she add to your research?

That was after my Beatles book. It was when she did that amazingHarper’s BAZAARinterviewwithPattie Boyd. That was so mind-blowing and so brilliant. And Pattie, she’s more famous now, but she’s a figure in Beatles lore that really the fans and the hysterics knew about. But Taylor [was] interested in the muse who inspires songs. It’s so funny to me that she is that level of geek. Especially since for so many years, people assumed that she was just a disposable pop puppet just because she was a young girl. But we were talking about that Pattie interview and bits of Beatles history, and she starts telling me about Alan Aldridge, and she’s surprised I haven’t heard of him. And she’s like, “Oh yeah, he’s the visual artist. He did The Beatles Illustrated book of those created lyrics.” And for a while, John Lennon called him The Beatles ‘official visual artist. I was like, “Really? I don’t know.” She’s the level of geek fan who knows about that, and is just capable of busting that out in casual conversation.

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I also love how you dig into how her affinity for secret codes also stems from The Beatles.

That’s the kind of geek she is. There’s an interview I mention in the book from when she’s 16 and the guy is saying, “So I looked at your CD book and you have the lyrics, you’ve got random letters capitalized.” And she says, “No, well, no, those aren’t random letters. If you take the capital letters and you put them together, they spell out a secret message for each song like ‘Date Nice Boys’ for one of the songs.” And she’s explaining, “The Beatles did that in the ’60s when they made records like The White album, and if you played it backward you might hear a secret message.” It’s just mind-blowing. She’s a 16-year-old country singer and she’s already thinking these terms. She’s already thinking of building a body of work like The Beatles.

You connect the dots between Swift’s lyrical references over the years, like the mention of being pirates in “The Best Day” and “Seven.” How does exploring how Swift, preserves and reuses those moments explain her as a pop star more?

It just fascinates me. “Seven” and “The Best Day” [are] two very different types of childhood portraits, and you don’t have to notice that connection to love both of those songs. But she puts stuff like that in there to reward you if you’re paying an added level of attention. And sometimes there are fan theories that I don’t know if there’s any basis for them at all. I love the 112-Day [numerology] theory, but it’s a thing where she had fun with that stuff because she was on the Eras Tour, and said, “Okay, and that was 113….” It’s really funny how she just enjoys that aspect of the game.

‘Heartbreak Is the National Anthem’ book cover.Harper Collins Publishers

Harper Collins Publishers

No one has really had a run in music like Swift. Do you think anyone could reach her level of impact, or is she an anomaly?

I know you’ve spoken with Swift multiple times, but you’ve never interviewed her. If you had the chance, what’s one question you would ask her?

I would ask her about books. I would love to hear her talk about her reading her relationship with Emily Dickinson, for one. I always wonder if she’s read Oscar Wilde. I always wonder if she’s read Clarice Lispector. I always wonder if she’s a fan of Djuna Barnes, Mina Loy or Gertrude Stein. I can’t rule any of these things out because we know she’s a wide reader and has a huge curiosity about literature. A question I’m always curious about is how she knew at 16 that this was all possible. Because it seemed like any adult who knew anything about the music industry would’ve told her that it wasn’t possible.

Taylor Swift in May 2016.Mike Coppola/Getty

Mike Coppola/Getty

What do you want to see from Swift as an artist in the future and on her albums?

That’s a good question. What would you say?

I want a Bleachella rock album. That’s always my wish.

Yeah, I want that, too. Specifically, I want the punk-rock album. “We Are Never Getting Back Together,“that screamo version, I watch it all the time, and I think, “Okay, if she could do that one performance and throw herself into it so completely, there’s no way she’s going to stop it once. She’s definitely going to do an album of that stuff.” That would be No. 1 on my wishlist.

If she made an album with, say, Mannequin Pussy, can you imagine how great that would be? It might sound strange, but it would’ve sounded strange five years ago if somebody told you, “Hey, Taylor’s going to make an entire album with the guys from The National and Bon Iver. Oh, and also, she’s going to go on tour with Phoebe Bridgers.” She listens to everything. She will pick up tricks from everything. But whatever she does next, we know it’s going to be weird and different.

Heartbreak Is the National Anthemis available for purchasehere.

source: people.com