With a mix of artistic genius and fearless business acumen, Taylor Swift has gone from small-town sweetheart to global megastar. Taylor Swift: The Whole Story is the untold story of how she fought to make her own way in the world, becoming one of the most powerful entertainers of our time. From her Pennsylvania roots to her world-conquering reign, this book takes us through all the highs and lows of Swift’s extraordinary career.
Swift’s story begins in 1989 in West Reading, Pennsylvania, where she grew up with her mother Andrea (née Finlay) and father Scott Kingsley Swift, a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch. From a young age, she was captivated by music and took singing lessons. She performed in local talent competitions and eventually made it onto the national stage, winning a recording contract with Scott Borchetta’s Big Machine Records at age 14.
After debuting with the country album Fearless in 2012, Swift began to expand her musical palette by collaborating with an array of producers, including Max Martin and Shellback, who would become two of her most significant collaborators. The following year, she released the album RED, which marked a departure from her pop-country sound by introducing new genres like heartland rock and dubstep influences. The album was a commercial success and launched her first world tour, the Red Tour, which grossed more than $150 million.
In 2021, she starred as Bombalurina in the movie adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats, earning her another Golden Globe nomination and Grammy Award nomination, along with several other accolades. That same year, she started a new chapter in her life by moving to Republic Records. Swift also released the song All Too Well and her autobiographical documentary Miss Americana. She followed this with the albums Lover and 2024’s Folklore, a work that masterfully demonstrated her ability to switch between genres.
Having reinvented herself as an artist on her own terms, Taylor’s sixth album, reputation, was a bold statement of independence. It topped the Billboard 200 and incorporated a heavy electropop sound with hip hop, R&B and EDM influences. The album’s lead single, Look What You Made Me Do, broke a record for the most streams in 24 hours on Spotify and cemented her status as a superstar. With her next release, the ethereal Midnights, Taylor showcased her skill at writing songs that double as short stories and character studies, from Proustian flashbacks (“cardigan”, which recalls Lana Del Rey) to outcast widows (“the last great american dynasty”) and doomed relationships (“exile”, featuring Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon). Throughout it all, she has maintained an uncommon sense of privacy and personal control over her image.
