There's nothing like this

There's nothing like this The strategic genius of Taylor Swift

Kevin Evers

Book - 2025

"A smart, page-turning exploration of the business and creative decisions that transformed Taylor Swift into an unprecedented modern cultural phenomenon. Singer-songwriter. Trailblazer. Mastermind. The Beatles of her generation. From her genre-busting rise in country music as a teenager to the economic juggernaut that is the Eras Tour, Taylor Swift has blazed a path that is uniquely hers. But how exactly has she managed to scale her success -- multiple times -- while dominating an industry that cycles through artists and stars like fashion trends? How has she managed to make and remake herself time and again while remaining true to her artistic vision? And how has she managed to master the constant disruption in the music business that... has made it so hard for others to adapt and endure? In There's Nothing Like This, Kevin Evers, a senior editor at Harvard Business Review, answers these questions in riveting detail. With the same thoughtful analysis usually devoted to iconic founders, game-changing innovators, and pioneering brands, Evers chronicles the business and creative decisions that have defined each phase of Swift's career. Mixing business and art, analysis and narrative, and pulling from research in innovation, creativity, psychology, and strategy, There's Nothing Like This presents Swift as the modern and multidimensional superstar that she is -- a songwriting savant and a strategic genius. Swift's fans will see their icon from a fresh perspective. Others will gain more than a measure of admiration for her ability to stay at the top of her game. And everyone will come away understanding why, even after two decades, Swift keeps winning" --

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Subjects
Swift, Taylor, > 1989- > Criticism and interpretation.
Popular music > History and criticism.
Country music > History and criticism.
MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Country & Bluegrass.
MUSIC / Genres & Styles / Pop Vocal.
Popular music.
Country music.
Genres
Popular music
Country music
Published
Boston, Massachusetts : Harvard Business Review Press [2025]
Language
English
Main Author
Kevin Evers (author)
Physical Description
xiii, 278 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-276).
ISBN
9798892790178
  • Preface
  • The Vision
  • Taylor Swift, 2006
  • 1. Alpha Type
  • 2. Ready to Fly
  • 3. Industry Disruptors
  • 4. Never Trust It If It Rises Fast
  • The Crossover
  • Fearless, 2008
  • 5. Chasing That Fame
  • 6. Clowns to the West
  • 7. Dancing in a Storm
  • The Experience
  • Speak Now, 2010
  • 8. Wonderstruck
  • 9. The Story of Us
  • The Flirtation
  • Red, 2012
  • 10. Treacherous
  • 11. These Things Will Change
  • 12. All Too Well
  • The Reinvention
  • 1989, 2014
  • 13. New Soundtrack
  • 14. The Lights Are So Bright
  • 15. It's Gonna Be Alright
  • 16. In the Clear
  • The Fall
  • Reputation, 2017
  • 17. Castles Crumbled
  • 18. Rising from the Ashes
  • The Fight
  • Lover, 2019
  • 19. The Great Escape
  • 20. Stolen Lullabies
  • The Pivot
  • Folklore and Evermore, 2020
  • 21. We Were Something, Don't You Think So?
  • 22. Saying Yes Instead of No
  • The Eras
  • Midnights, 2022
  • 23. Still Bejeweled
  • 24. None of It Was Accidental
  • Epilogue
  • The Tortured Poets Department, 2024
  • Notes
  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Author
Review by Booklist Review

Author Evers, editor at the Harvard Business Review, dives into Taylor Swift's appeal, business savvy, and scale of her success. In a chronological tour of her career, he shares insights on how each iteration of Swift's songwriting and albums was carefully curated to evolve her brand. She began as a musician at a start-up label and was a very early adopter of social media, using it to grow her fan base. Later on, her calculated move from country to pop star solidified her reputation as a savvy businesswoman. Evers dives into these stories, bolstered by past media interviews and his research and knowledge of the music industry. Covering everything from Fearless to the recent Eras Tour, he includes Swift's history of awards, media praise and scrutiny, and pressures she faced as she rose to superstardom. Readers will be impressed by Swift's ability to reinvent herself using her artistic vision and determination while also collecting a massive global fan base. Readers will quickly devour this book to learn more about Swift's successful career and the genius behind it. "Swifties," or Taylor Swift fans, will not be disappointed.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This astute debut study from Evers, an editor at Harvard Business Review, examines how business savvy helped Taylor Swift conquer the music industry. He recounts how a 14-year-old Swift exited her songwriting deal with RCA, who wanted to wait until she was 18 before launching her as a musical artist, so she could sign with a smaller label that released her debut album when she was 16, tapping into an underserved market of young fans who wanted to hear someone their own age sing about problems they could relate to. Evers suggests that the singer's transition from country to pop mirrors Nike's growth strategy of breaking into new markets by introducing products related to its established offerings. Swift excels at adapting to new technologies, Evers argues, contending that revealing the track list of Midnights on TikTok ahead of the album's release inspired rampant speculation about the meanings of the song titles and demonstrated Swift's ability to dominate social media. She also adjusted to the rise of streaming by releasing more songs at a quicker clip, likely hoping that the greater quantity would increase her odds of getting picked up by algorithm-generated recommendations. The sharp analysis of Swift's branding and financial dealings reveals how a canny business sense is as integral to stardom as artistic talent. It's a unique take on the ubiquitous musician. (Apr.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Taylor Swift's meteoric rise over the past almost two decades has been studied from a number of angles, but here, Evers (a Harvard Business Review editor) offers a unique perspective that treats Swift as a business entity as well as a creative one. The book is organized chronologically into nine distinct sections, each covering a particular period of Swift's career, from her original RCA development deal at age 13 through the Eras tour and her latest releases. While Swift wasn't studying these business school cases or strategies herself, Evers's book highlights core business concepts to discuss her strategic decisions, from choosing cowriters and cultivating parasocial relationships with her fans via social media, to her reinventions with each new album and the negotiations over her masters and rerecordings. While Evers didn't interview Swift for this work, his synthesis of original research, business analysis, and previous interviews to explore Swift's position at the nexus of business, innovation, and creativity is excellent. Extensive footnotes and references complete the work. VERDICT Overall, Evers's book provides a good analysis of Taylor Swift's evolution as both an artist and a brand unto herself. A good choice for all academic libraries and public libraries with strong business collections.--Whitney Kramer

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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