Based on the world's first university course on Taylor Swift, Harvard Professor Stephanie Burt examines Taylor Swift as an artist and a creator, offering a critical appreciation of her body of work. Arguably the biggest star in the world, Taylor Swift got there through practice, verve, ambition, cooperation, and kindness, but above all through her ability to write and perform profound and memorable songs. This first serious study of Swift as an artist pays close attention to her as a songwriter, to what she has made, how it works, and what it means, from her teen country debut to her world tour as the chair of the tortured poets department. It considers her life, her celebrity, her collaborators, her friendships and her much-noticed romantic life - but it is not a biography, nor is it the story of how the albums were made. Instead, it's a critical appreciation, a set of well-informed and vividly written chapters about how she has changed, why she matters, and what makes so many of her songs so important across styles, and eras, and generations. This is a book about Swift as an artist, a creator, first and last. But it's also a personal book, a book about why and how she matters. There's no way to write well about Swift without delving into all that fans have done, both for the vast trove of information that fans have compiled, and for what we can learn about how Taylor's songs-indeed, how songs in general-can change and have changed lives.