Snake Storytimes: Heartbreak Is The National Anthem by Rob Sheffield

Evolution of a Snake: The Taylor Swift Podcast

The Snakes & Studio71

Society & Culture, Music, Music Commentary

4.8 • 826 Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2025

⏱️ 142 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

GET TICKETS TO EOAS LIVE: https://www.evolutionofasnake.com This week, we’re taking on Rob Sheffield’s Heartbreak is the National Anthem—a book that claims to capture Taylor Swift’s impact on pop music but left us wondering… who was this even for? We dive into Sheffield’s overly personal (and often baffling) writing style, his lack of critical analysis, and the way his close access to Taylor might have muddied the waters of journalistic integrity. Along the way, we explore Taylor’s songwriting, the myths surrounding her high school days, her emotional connection with fans, and the cultural reset of 1989. From Easter eggs to gendered language and the nuances of her influence, we unpack what makes Taylor’s legacy so rich—and why this book doesn’t quite do it justice. Let’s just say we’ve got notes. JOIN THE PATREON FOR WEEKLY BONUS EPISODES: https://www.patreon.com/swiftologist https://bit.ly/evolutionofasnake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Evolution of a Snake. I'm Zach.
0:18.7	And I'm Madeline.
0:19.9	And today we are not bringing you positivity
0:22.1	light and rainbows. We're not. We are not. Absolutely positively not. I'm sorry to report.
0:30.8	We're starting the new year off with hate, with negativity, with negativity, with suffering. I suffered. I don't know about you but I personally
0:41.2	suffered greatly oh I personally suffered and I paid set for ourselves well also we did set this
0:46.4	for 1499 1499 I yeah I had an advanced reader copy of, but I made sure to get an official version because
0:56.2	I wanted to see if the errors were corrected, if the typos were corrected. Spoiler alert, they
1:01.0	weren't. But all of that buildup to tell you that today we are reviewing Rob Sheffield's book
1:07.1	about Taylor Swift. It is called Heartbreak is the National Anthem, and it is supposed to be
1:13.2	the guide to how Taylor Swift reinvented the 21st century of pop music. And let me tell you,
1:20.2	that's not what it is. No, that didn't happen. Personally, I didn't experience that. Never felt that,
1:26.3	never experienced that, never read that. Never experienced that.
1:27.6	Never read that in the book.
1:29.2	Book is a really strong word to describe this.
1:33.3	I would take, honestly, if it was called a collection of essays about my time with Taylor,
1:39.5	that I would probably accept.
1:41.3	That I would probably accept.
1:42.3	Well, they can't even be called essays because they are so
1:45.5	brief. It's like a journal. It literally is like my diary about Taylor Swift musings that have not
1:52.2	been edited or parsed for clarity or organized in any specific sort of way. The part of it that is
1:59.7	really baffling to me is the insistence that this is some sort of
	...

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