Ready for it? professor publishes book on Taylor Swift songs
Musicologist Phoebe Hughes examines 11 songs by pop star
Taylor Swift’s impact on music and culture is so significant that she is now the focus of college courses and academic research. musicology lecturer Phoebe Hughes, who teaches the course “Taylor Swift, 21C,” is diving even deeper into Swift’s artistry with her upcoming book, . Set for release on April 15, 2025, the book explores Swift’s evolution as an artist, analyzing key songs that define her career and highlighting her influence on the music industry and beyond.
A global music icon, Swift was named and is known for her cultural influence, record-breaking achievements and huge impact on the industry. Her Eras Tour was recently honored as the “Tour of the Century” at the – despite there being 75 years left in the century.
Swift’s music is now studied in classrooms across the country, with dozens of universities offering courses on her songwriting, business strategies and societal impact. At , “Taylor Swift, 21C” examines her influence on 21st-century music, covering themes such as gender, race, sexuality and the business of popular (pop) music.
“The course was designed around looking through all of Swift’s records, kind of as a way of thinking through her place in the 21st-century music industry,” Hughes said. “In the upper-level version of the course, we start in the 1990s and walk through how Swift fits into the country industry, what it’s like for women in that industry space, kind of through to her pop stardom.”
Hughes was approached about writing a book on Swift about two years ago by the series editor – a trade press series that explores major artists through 11 key songs for general audiences. The result is , an in-depth exploration of Swift’s career. Each chapter analyzes a different song, examining themes such as her early country stardom, her business acumen, her songwriting craft, and how female artists and pop music are critically received.
Published by , the book is intended for both Swift fans and those interested in learning about her music on a deeper level. Hughes said the publisher envisions it as the kind of book someone might pick up at an airport because it looks appealing.
“My first step was to not only pick songs that I really like,” Hughes said. “So, I had to take a step back from being a fan, although there are some of my favorites in the book. Some of it was kind of thinking through what the songs allow me to do and what they allow me to talk about. For example, the song that I picked from Fearless is ‘You Belong With Me.’ That chapter, instead of focusing on the Kanye West drama and the VMAs, I talk about how that song and that album represent different kinds of iterations of girlhood, and talk about how we see and hear teenage girls reflected in music.”
As a longtime Swift fan, Hughes said choosing just one song from her favorite album, Midnights, was difficult – she would have loved to discuss the entire record. For Folklore, she selected a song that holds personal significance for her, “August,” and said that chapter includes many of her own experiences.
“It was interesting thinking about my own attachment to her music,” Hughes said. “I think sometimes as an academic I tend to separate myself from relationships that I have to artists who I work on and their music. I think of when I was 15 years old, listening to the song ‘Fifteen’ for the first time. Bringing a lot of that into this book and into this project was really fun.”
One of the book’s key themes is Swift’s shift from country to pop music and the depth of her songwriting. As a country scholar, Hughes found Swift’s navigation between genres particularly fascinating.
She also said she may incorporate the book into “Taylor Swift, 21C” in the future, having students read chapters to explore different approaches to writing about music. Hughes is excited about the publication of Cranking Up Taylor Swift: Her Musical Journey in 11 Songs.
“For it to be out in the world will be really exciting,” Hughes said. “This is my first book of hopefully others, so I think having it out there will be fun.”