Taylor Swift: The Debut Years

Taylor Swift. Everybody knows her, and everybody most definitely has an opinion on her. She has probably been the most talked-about female celebrity in the past few years. Whether it is about her record-breaking THE ERAS Tour, award-winning albums, or marriage to NFL Star Travis Kelce. While opinions on her differ, I think most people can agree that she and her team do marketing like no one else.

What most people seem to forget, however, is that Taylor Swift has not been THE Taylor Swift that the world knows now. She was once a fourteen-year-old girl from Pennsylvania with a guitar and a dream to change country music.

In the book Taylor Swift: The Debut Years, music journalist Emily Yahr explores Swift’s early years and her rise to fame. Over Thirteen Chapters (of course), Yahr dives into the history of the making of the Pop icon by giving a compelling insight into the world of country music and the music industry.

The catchy pop tune "Shake It Off". The edgy "Don't Blame Me". Or the heartfelt ballad "All Too Well". These are some of the songs most people know Taylor Swift by over the years. When people talk about the start of her career, they talk about the release of her self-titled Debut album, a country album with 15 self-written country songs on it, back in 2006. While this technically is not wrong, Yahr starts this book even before that, before her songs were released, and Taylor and her family chased her dream of becoming a singer and songwriter. She then recounts Taylor's evolution through her first four albums: Debut, Fearless, Speak Now, and Red.

This 400-page book is not necessarily a quick read, but what it lacks in shortness it makes up for in interestingness. Very well-researched (44 Pages of Sources), with interviews from many voices in the industry who helped get Taylor to where she is now. Nuanced as well. Songwriters, label insiders, musicians, basically everyone who has been involved with Taylor since the beginning of her career. Something I also quite enjoyed was that this was not a read that praised Taylor herself, which in her fandom tends to happen a lot, that apparently everything happens because of Taylor, but no, this book shows how many people, experts, and forces had to come and work together to get her to where she is today. What they all had in common was one thing: they believed in her and her talent.

Another thing that Yahr captured quite well is Taylor's younger essence, where she was the young girl with a guitar and the urge to tell her stories through songs.

A must-read for Swifties. Also, a super interesting read for people interested in the Marketing phenomenon "Taylor Swift" and those who want insight into the history of country music as well.