Author: Kevin Evers
Title: There's Nothing Like This: Taylor Swift's strategic genius
Publisher: Aegean
Pages: 310
Price: 22.90 euros
Taylor Swift has just finished playing “All Too Well”, the ten-minute version of one of her most acclaimed hits, in which she vehemently declares all her truths about the end of a relationship, in all likelihood the recipient is the actor Jake Gillenhaal. The stage dress, the guitar, the microphone, the entire stadium, everything is immersed in the color red, because we are in the “Red Era”, in the middle of one of the shows of the Eras Tour, which for about two years took the record-breaking superstar to every corner of the globe, one of the richest, most important and spectacular tours ever. It is the iconic image chosen for the cover of “There's Nothing Like This”, the book written by Kevin Evers, senior editor of Harvard Business Review, published in Italy by EGEA, the publishing house of the Bocconi University of Milan, translated by Marianna Grimaldi with a preface by Massimo Bonelli. A publisher who usually doesn't have much to do with the music business, but rather with topics related to finance, economics and the study of markets, who here decides to put Taylor Swift's strategic genius under the lens, chronologically retracing all the events useful to demonstrate how the American singer-songwriter's path can be analyzed in the same way as any other icon of the business world. It is the book that finally answers one of the questions that are often asked about him: “but how does he have all this success?”. Well, make yourself comfortable and you will find all the answers to your questions.
The author traces the entire parable that transformed a teenage prodigy first into a pop superstar and subsequently into a social phenomenon and cultural icon, managing to establish herself as a relevant personality far beyond the confines of her art. To do this Kevin Evers includes in the narrative numerous interventions collected by personalities operating not only in the field of music and creativity in general, but also in corporate strategy, innovation and psychology. After all, university courses have long been started that study both the lyrics of Taylor Swift's songs and her business strategy implemented by his team. Evers uses the same analytical depth that he reserves for legendary company founders or revolutionary innovators, recounting and delving into the commercial and creative choices that have characterized each phase of Swift's career. The portrait of a modern superstar emerges, who has been able to adapt to the difficulties of the market in which he operates, managing to confirm himself in a dominant position for twenty years, operating in a sector that consumes artists and stars as if they were fashion trends, increasing his success with each album, up to objectively unattainable levels for any potential competitor. It starts with the thirteen-year-old girl who was accompanied to Nashville by her family, immediately ending up under a contract with RCA, and continues almost up to the present day, with the triumphant Eras Tour and the publication of the album “The Tortured Poets Department”.
The analysis of Swift's artistic career is therefore carried out through new perspectives, reflecting on both the many successes and the missteps, also focusing on the criticisms often directed towards her, especially in the first part of her career, when she was placed on the index for her poor singing skills, for her excessively saccharine image, for her subdued performances, for the banality of her lyrics, which were considered insincere and cheesy. Always a divisive character, Swift will always be able to redeem herself in moments of difficulty thanks to her talent, the unconditional support of her parents, her audacity, her self-confidence, her emotional intelligence, her incessant pursuit of excellence, her refusal to settle, and also thanks to her strategic thinking, her innate entrepreneurial instinct and her clarity of vision. The ideas, the moves, the choices are all aimed at creating a new precedent: in 2006 for the first time country music – which has always had a strongly male center of gravity – speaks to girls of its age, something that has never happened before, a challenge for the traditionally adult and conservative audience, a challenge for a closed culture, clinging to incontrovertible values, averse to change. The Swift team aims to push her into an uncontested, unexplored segment of the market by creating authentic and compelling content, written by a sixteen-year-old girl, not a veteran Nashville singer-songwriter, leveraging social media to build a connection, an ongoing interaction with her listeners.
It will only be the first in a long series of winning strategies: a new female artist capable of changing the face of country music. Then there will be the pop twist, the entry of electronics, the indie-folk incursion, many different faces to give strength to an intimate and emotional narrative, with each record capable of representing an accurate snapshot of his life at that specific moment. Taylor Swift succeeds on the one hand in making the fan experience increasingly immersive and on the other in establishing new standards in the music industry, as when she made the decision to re-record the first six albums to regain possession of the exclusive rights to their exploitation. The relationship with the fans becomes an intricate game: every word, number or gesture is seen as a potential source of secret information to decipher, the so-called “Easter eggs”. Meanwhile, the value of the Taylor Swift brand skyrockets, also driven by the singer-songwriter's fear of suddenly becoming less relevant, a fear that has led her to shed her skin several times, developing an increasingly adult and complex version of herself, letting new collaborators and producers come on board, becoming an increasingly versatile artist, capable of reinventing herself, exploring new sounds and genres. He will continue to do so, continually raising the bar, pushing forward his own limits and those of the music industry itself. And “There's Nothing Like This” helps us understand how essential it is to expand the boundaries of one's identity in order to achieve truly solid and lasting success.
01/31/2026
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
