All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
Taylor Swift has played her last show on her record-breaking Eras Tour, but fans can still keep up with the singer — and look back on her remarkable career to date — with a new book from Rolling Stone journalist Rob Sheffield.
“Heartbreak is the National Anthem” was released in November as a hardcover book, and you can also listen to it now on Audible. The audiobook version has landed on Audible’s music bestsellers list, just behind books about Van Halen, R.E.M. and Bob Dylan.
AUDIOBOOK RELEASE
Heartbreak Is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music
Billed as an “intimate look at the life and music of modern pop’s most legendary figure,” the audiobook is read by Sheffield, a well-respected music journalist, who has covered Swift’s career from the very beginning. In fact, the expanded title of the book is “A Celebration of Taylor Swift’s Musical Journey, Cultural Impact, and Reinvention of Pop Music for Swifties by a Swiftie.”
The new book chronicles not only the singer’s rise to fame, but also her impact on the music industry and on pop culture as a whole. From her early days as a teenage country singer, to becoming one of the biggest pop stars of the 21st century, “Heartbreak” tracks the people, milestones and experiences that have shaped Swift’s journey.
The audiobook version is read by Sheffield himself, with a run time of five hours and 29 minutes. You can purchase the audiobook for $21 right now on Amazon or listen to it for just $0.99 with a new Audible deal, which gets you a three-month subscription for just $3 total. Regularly $14.99/month, the new promo saves you 93% off for a limited time.
“Heartbreak is the National Anthem” was an instant New York Times bestseller when it was released, and reviewers have heaped praise on the book too, with an average 4.3-star rating (out of five) online. One reviewer raves about Sheffield’s writing, noting that he “offers worthy praise, cultural analysis, critical commentary, and clever connections,” along with “stories, details and humor that Swifties will appreciate.”
Another calls the book a “love letter to Swift’s artistry, with Sheffield blending personal anecdotes alongside a thoughtful analysis of her career and the impact she’s had on music and her fans.”
Per publisher Dey Street Books, “Heartbreak is the National Anthem” is “the first book that goes deep on the musical and cultural impact of Taylor Swift.”
“At once one of the most beloved music figures of the past two decades and one of the most criticized, Taylor Swift is known as much for her life beyond her music as she is for her hits—the most public of stars, yet also the weirdest and most mysterious,” reads the publisher notes. “‘Heartbreak Is the National Anthem’ will inform and delight a legion of fans who hang on every word from Taylor and every word Rob writes on her.”
Purchase the book on hardcover or listen to it on Audible here. You can also check out more books about Taylor Swift here.
