UC Berkeley's Taylor Swift Business Class Set for 2024

Taylor Swift’s lyricism and autobiographical songwriting propelled her to cultural icon status. Yet another aspect of the Grammy Award-winning musician’s wide skill set will be the subject of a new course offering at UC Berkeley next year.

Artistry & Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version, cleverly named after the singer’s ongoing effort to re-record her catalog, will explore “what has led to Taylor Swift’s prolific success as a songwriter, businesswoman and creative influence,” according to the course website.

The class will consist of four distinct modules, analyzing Swift’s emergence, live performances, public personas and songwriting techniques through a business lens.

“We’ll put her under scrutiny, but handle it beautifully,” the description reads.

The course is part of the DeCal Program, which allows students to create and facilitate their own classes on subjects not addressed in the traditional curriculum.

Sofia Lendahl, who is working on a degree in data science, will be the lead facilitator of the course for the spring 2024 term. Lendahl says her favorite album from the singer is evermore, which Swift released as a surprise three years ago.

The Taylor Swift class was founded by Crystal Haryanto, who recently graduated from the university and works as an analyst at an economic consulting firm. Haryanto’s go-to album is Speak Now, for which Swift released a “Taylor’s Version” in July — three weeks before a pair of sold-out Eras Tour concerts at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.

The UC Berkeley course is the second offering at Bay Area college campuses. A sophomore Swifty at Stanford University is also slated to lead a class dedicated to the multi-platinum artist called The Last Great American Songwriter — a reference to Swift’s song “the last great american dynasty,” from her album folklore. This class specifically examines the mega star’s storytelling abilities.

Swift’s lyrical stories were captured on full display at her performances during The Eras Tour, which also became the highest-grossing concert tour movie of all time. It earned more than $120 million during its opening weekend in October. (You can still catch a screening at Bay Area movie theaters.)

The full syllabus and contact information for UC Berkeley’s Artistry & Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version course is available here. The spring semester begins Jan. 9, 2024. 

The Last Great American course at Stanford University is offered as a part of ITALIC, a residence-based arts immersion program for first-year students.