Other singers arguably had more talent than Swift, but lacked her unique set of songwriting skills, people skills, and marketing savvy. (She figured out many of the successful strategies she employed on her own without formal marketing training.)

 The author arranges There’s Nothing Like This chronologically by album, showing how Swift approached each album and changed her style and repertoire over time. Two things remained constant throughout Swift’s career. The first was her songwriting, with listeners feeling that the lyrics were authentic and spoke to them. The second was her personal touch with her fans. She has always believed in connecting with her fans in person or, later, on social media, leading to a growing number of dedicated Swifties. Those fans worldwide eventually fueled the success of her Eras tour.

 Swift started her career with two strikes against her as a teenage female country singer when there was virtually no traditional market for them. She discovered an untapped market: teenage girls who weren’t typical country music fans but who felt that Swift understood them and spoke to them. Also, Swift’s career began when the music industry as a whole was undergoing a significant shift in the early 2000s internet era. She recognized the shift away from promoting through schmoozing influential disc jockeys to secure airplay on radio stations. Instead, she used the then-social media giant Myspace to promote herself. She joined industry outsider Scott Borchetta’s fledgling Big Machine label after getting the cold shoulder in other places. (All this before she could vote or drink.)  As each album rose higher and higher on the charts, Swift’s stature grew, and she fine-tuned her career, shifting from country to pop to rock without alienating her fan base.

 Swift’s career had its difficulties, like any brand. The author discusses the low points in Swift’s career, such as her feud with Kanye West and his then-wife, Kim Kardashian, which damaged Swift’s reputation. (Kardashian circulated a doctored recording of Swift in which the singer appeared to give West approval to use the lyric “I made that bitch famous” in one of his songs.) Swift was also involved in a lengthy dispute with Borchetta over ownership of her masters once her contract with Big Machine ended. The author treats these incidents, which could have been disastrous for many artists, as lessons on how to overcome unfavorable publicity.

 Throughout There’s Nothing Like This, the author compares Swift’s brand to others, including Marvel Entertainment, highlighting the similarities in the strategies they adopted. He goes further afield to mention such non-entertainment brands as IKEA, Porsche, and Domino’s Pizza. However, the book isn’t just a paean to pop culture. The author acquaints readers with business school concepts, such as “entertained uncertainty,” “reputation-reality gap,” and “premium-position captivity.” In discussing Swift’s dispute with Scott Borchetta over the masters, the author references a 1967 Harvard Business Review (plugging his own “product”) about brinkmanship. This material can be dry and may lose some readers, although the author pitches his explanations to general audiences instead of graduate business students.

 The biggest problem I had with There’s Nothing Like This is the rather cursory treatment of Swift’s historic Eras tour in the book. The author painstakingly details Swift’s career from a business perspective through ten albums, culminating in 2022. (Swift also released re-recordings of four of her early albums in 2023.) He then devotes a mere eight pages to the Eras tour, much of it a recitation of facts and figures. Admittedly, the Eras Tour doesn’t fit into the author’s stated theme of examining Swift’s career through her albums. However, it’s an event of unprecedented scale (and success) that merits the same type of careful analysis of the decisions along the way. The reason for the cursory treatment of the Eras Tour may be the fact that the author began his detailed research for the book in 2022, following the release of Swift’s tenth album, Midnights. He may have decided to press forward with the research and content he had and fit the Eras material in later. His decision was a disservice to readers, though.

 Author Kevin Evers tries to walk a tightrope with There’s Nothing Like This and mostly succeeds. The author admits he’s a Swift fan, saying in the book’s Preface: “I found myself craving something more, something that did more than capture the magic and grandeur of her career to date, something that helped explain it… [T]he more I tried to find the explanation for Swift’s seemingly uncanny ability to continually win, the more my fascination and enthusiasm with her career and business grew.” For that reason, this book avoids excessive discussion of the aspects of Taylor Swift’s life that readers come to expect in celebrity biographies. The author even limits the treatment of relevant topics, such as the Kanye West feud, to the bare minimum necessary to understand the problems Swift faced. Some ardent Swift fans may be disappointed with the author’s editorial decisions. Similarly, discussions of relatively advanced business school topics will not impress readers who are eager for the author to get back to the “good stuff.” However, he succeeds in what he sets out to do in a book that’s mostly quite readable by lay audiences. Although I’m disappointed that the Eras Tour didn’t merit further discussion, I still recommend the book. There’s nothing like Taylor Swift and nothing quite like this book, either.

NOTE: The publisher graciously provided me with a copy of this book through NetGalley. However, the decision to review the book and the contents of this review are entirely my own.