"Shake It Off" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the lead single from her fifth studio album, 1989. She wrote the song with its producers, Max Martin and Shellback. Inspired by the media scrutiny on Swift's public image, the lyrics are about her indifference to detractors and their negative remarks. An uptempodance-pop song, it features a looping drum beat, a saxophone line, and a handclap–based bridge. Big Machine Records released "Shake It Off" on August 19, 2014, to market 1989 as Swift's first pop album after her previous country–styled sound.
Initial reviews mostly praised the catchy production, but some criticized the lyrics as weak and shallow. Retrospectively, critics have considered "Shake It Off" an effective opener for 1989 as an album that transformed Swift's image from country to pop; it was ranked among the best songs of the 2010s decade by NME and Consequence. The single topped charts and was certified multi-platinum in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and it was certified platinum in countries across Europe, the Americas, and Asia–Pacific. In the United States, the single peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100 and received a Diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America.
Taylor Swift had been known as a primarily country singer-songwriter until her fourth studio album Red (released in October 2012),[1] which incorporates various pop and rock styles, transcending the country sound of her previous releases.[2] The collaborations with Swedish pop producers Max Martin and Shellback introduced straightforward pop hooks and new genres, including electronic and dubstep, to Swift's discography.[3][4] Swift and her label, Big Machine, promoted it as a country album.[5] The album's diverse musical styles sparked a media debate over her status as a country artist, to which she replied in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, "I leave the genre labeling to other people."[6] Swift began recording her fifth studio album, 1989, while touring to support Red in mid-2013.[7] Inspired by 1980s synth-pop, she conceived 1989 as her first "official pop" record that would transform her image from country to pop.[8][9] Martin and Shellback produced seven out of thirteen tracks for the album's standard edition, including "Shake It Off".[10]
Music and lyrics
Swift wrote the lyrics to "Shake It Off" and composed the song's melody with Martin and Shellback.[11] The last song recorded for 1989,[12] it was recorded by Sam Holland at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles and by Michael Ilbert at MXM Studios in Stockholm, Sweden.[10] The track was mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound Studio in New York City.[10]
Featuring a saxophone line, "Shake It Off" is an uptempodance-pop song that sees Swift expressing disinterest in her detractors' negative remarks. The lyrics were inspired by Swift's experience with the media scrutiny.
Musically, "Shake It Off" is an uptempodance-pop song that incorporates a saxophone line.[13][14] Jonas Thander, the song's saxophone player, based his part on Martin's pre-recorded MIDIhorn sample, using a tenor horn.[15] It took Thander over ten hours to edit the saxophone part, which he completed over the following day.[15] "Shake It Off" is in G Mixolydian – the fifth mode of the C major scale. It follows a ii–IV–I chord progression (Am–C–G); it employs a verse–prechorus–chorus form to begin with a loose verse, tighten for the prechorus, and loosen again for the chorus.[16] The song's upbeat production is accompanied by a looping drum beat, a handclap–based bridge, and synthesized saxophones.[17][18]
The lyrics of the song were inspired by the media scrutiny that Swift had experienced during her rise to stardom.[19] In an interview with Rolling Stone in August 2014, Swift said about the song's inspiration: "I've had every part of my life dissected ... When you live your life under that kind of scrutiny, you can either let it break you, or you can get really good at dodging punches. And when one lands, you know how to deal with it. And I guess the way that I deal with it is to shake it off."[20] Discussing the song's message with NPR in October 2014, Swift said that "Shake It Off" represented her more mature perspectives from her previous single "Mean" (2010), which was also inspired by her detractors.[21] According to Swift, if "Mean" was where she assumed victimhood, "Shake It Off" found her in a proactive stance to "take back the narrative, and have ... a sense of humor about people who kind of get under [her] skin – and not let them get under [her] skin".[21]
In the first verse of the song, Swift references her perceived image as a flirtatious woman with numerous romantic attachments: "I go on too many dates / But I can't make 'em stay / At least that's what people say."[22][23] The lines in the chorus are arranged rhythmically to produce a catchy hook: "Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate / Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake."[23][24] The spoken-word bridge opens with Swift asserting that the "dirty cheats of the world ... could have been getting down to this sick beat".[25][26] The lyric "this sick beat" is trademarked to Swift by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.[27]
Release
On August 13, 2014, Swift appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where she announced she would hold a live stream via Yahoo! on August 18, 2014.[28][29] During the live stream, Swift announced the details of the album 1989. She debuted "Shake It Off" as the album's lead single and premiered the song's music video simultaneously.[30] "Shake It Off" was released digitally worldwide by Big Machine on August 19.[31] The same day, Big Machine, in partnership with Republic Records, released the song to US radio.[32] A limited CD single edition was available on September 11.[33] In Europe, "Shake It Off" was added to a BBC Radio playlist on August 25,[34] Italian radio on August 29,[35] and was released as a CD single in Germany on October 10.[36]
The release of "Shake It Off" and its parent album 1989 had been highly anticipated, given Swift's announcement that she would abandon her country roots to release an "official pop" album.[23] The magazine Drowned in Sound described the single as "undoubtedly ... the most significant cultural event" since Radiohead's 2011 album The King of Limbs.[17] While noting that "Shake It Off" was not Swift's first "straight-up pop" song, Billboard's Jason Lipshutz considered it a sign of a "bold foray into the unknown", in which Swift could experiment beyond her well-known formulaic country pop songs that had been critically and commercially successful.[9]
Critical reception
"Shake It Off" received mixed reviews upon release.[37] Although positive reviews found the production catchy, critics deemed the track repetitive and lacking substance compared to Swift's works on Red.[26][38] Randall Roberts from the Los Angeles Times's lauded the sound as "perfect pop confection" but found the lyrics shallow, calling them insensible to the political events at the time: "When lives are at stake and nothing seems more relevant than getting to the Actual Truth, liars and cheats can't and shouldn't be shaken off."[25] In congruence, The Guardian's Molly Fitzpatrick wrote that the lyrics fell short of Swift's songwriting abilities.[39]
Giving the song a three-out-of-five-stars score, Jeff Terich from American Songwriter regarded Swift's new direction as "a left-turn worth following". While Terich agreed that the lyrics were dismissive, he felt that critics should not have taken the song seriously because it was "pretty harmless".[18] In a positive review, Jason Lipshutz from Billboard wrote: "Swift proves why she belongs among pop's queen bees ... the song sounds like a surefire hit."[40] In a review of the album 1989, Alexis Petridis praised the lyrics for "twisting clichés until they sound original".[41] In the words of Andrew Unterberger from Spin, while "Shake It Off" was musically a "red herring" that feels out of place on the album, it thematically represents Swift's new attitude on 1989, where she liberated herself from overtly romantic struggles to embrace positivity.[42] Swift herself acknowledged the song as an outlier on 1989, and deliberately released it as the lead single to encourage audiences to explore the entire album and not just the singles.[43]
Retrospectively, Hannah Mylrea from NME considered "Shake It Off" an effective opener for Swift's 1989 era, which transformed her image to mainstream pop.[44] While saying that "Shake It Off" was not one of the album's better songs, Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone applauded it for "serving as a trailer to announce her daring Eighties synth-pop makeover".[45] Nate Jones from Vulture agreed, but described the song's bridge as "the worst 24 seconds of the entire album".[26] In his 2019 ranking of Swift's singles, Petridis ranked "Shake It Off" third—behind "Blank Space" (2014) and "Love Story" (2008), lauding its "irresistible" hook and "sharp-tongued wit".[46] Jane Song from Paste was less enthusiastic, placing "Shake It Off" among Swift's worst songs in her catalog: "Swift has a pattern of choosing the worst song from each album as the lead single."[47]
Commercial performance
"Shake It Off" gained an audience of nine million on US airplay after one day of release to radio[48] and debuted at number 45 on Radio Songs after two days of release.[49] After its first week of release, the single debuted at number nine on Adult Top 40 and number 12 on Pop Songs, setting the record for the highest debut on both charts.[50] On the Pop Songs chart, it tied with Mariah Carey's "Dreamlover" (1993) for the highest first-week chart entry.[50] Although not officially released to country radio, the single debuted and peaked at number 58 on Country Airplay.[51]
"Shake It Off" debuted at number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart dated September 6, 2014, the 22nd song to do so.[52] After two consecutive weeks at number one, it dropped to number two, where it stayed for eight consecutive weeks.[53] "Shake It Off" returned to number one in its tenth charting week, and spent a further week at number one, totaling four non-consecutive weeks atop the Hot 100.[54] It also topped Billboard airplay-focused charts including Pop Songs, Adult Top 40, and Adult Contemporary.[55] "Shake It Off" was one of the best-selling singles of the 2010s decade in the United States, selling 5.4 million digital copies as of January 2020.[56] As of February 2024, the single remains Swift's biggest hit on the Hot 100, where it spent nearly six months in the 10 ten and 50 weeks in the top 100.[57][58] The song was certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America, which denotes 10 million units based on sales and streams.[59] With this achievement, Swift is the first female artist to have both a song and an album (Fearless) certified Diamond in the United States.[60]
"Shake It Off" also topped the charts and received multi-platinum certifications in Australia (eighteen-times platinum),[61] Canada (six-times platinum),[62] and New Zealand (five-times platinum).[63] In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and, by November 2022, became the first song since 2020 to surpass one million in pure sales.[64] It was certified five-times platinum to become Swift's best-selling single in the United Kingdom as of April 2024.[65][66] In Japan, "Shake It Off" peaked at number four on the Japan Hot 100 and was certified triple platinum.[67] The single also topped record charts in Hungary and Poland,[68] and it was a top-five hit in other European countries, peaking at number two in Spain;[69] number three in Ireland,[70] Norway[71] and Sweden;[72] number four in Denmark[73] and Israel;[74] and number five in Germany[75] and the Netherlands.[76] It was certified triple diamond in Brazil,[77] and double platinum in Austria,[78] Italy,[79] Norway,[80] and Spain.[81]
Music video
Concept
Swift's black turtleneck and jeans in "Shake It Off" (left) drew comparisons to Audrey Hepburn's outfit in the 1957 film Funny Face (right).[82][83]
The music video for "Shake It Off", directed by Mark Romanek, was released on August 18, 2014, the same day as the song's release.[84] It was shot over three days in June 2014 in Los Angeles.[20] Swift conceived the video as a humorous depiction of her trying to find her identity: "It takes a long time to figure out who you are and where you fit in in the world."[20] To this end, the video depicts Swift as a clumsy person who unsuccessfully attempts dance moves with professional artists, including ballerinas, street dancers, cheerleaders, rhythmic gymnasts and performance artists.[20][84] She summed up the video: "I'm putting myself in all these awkward situations where the dancers are incredible, and I'm having fun with it, but not fitting in ... I'm being embarrassingly bad at it. It shows you to keep doing you, keep being you, keep trying to figure out where you fit in in the world, and eventually you will."[20]
The dances were choreographed by Tyce Diorio.[85] The video's final scenes feature Swift dancing with her fans, who had been handpicked by Swift through social media engagement.[86] The video contains references to other areas of popular culture. According to VH1, those references are: the ballerinas to the 2010 film Black Swan, the breakdancers to the 2010 film Step Up 3D, the "sparkling suits and robotic dance moves" to the electronic music duo Daft Punk, the twerking dance moves to the singer Miley Cyrus, the cheerleaders to Toni Basil's 1981 video "Mickey", and Swift's black turtleneck and jeans to the outfits of Audrey Hepburn in the 1957 film Funny Face.[82] Publications including the Los Angeles Times and The Sydney Morning Herald also noted references to Lady Gaga and Skrillex.[14][24]
Analysis and reception
Molly Fitzpatrick of The Guardian considered Swift "a little too skilled a dancer" for the video's concept, writing: "The incongruent blend of modern dance, ballet, and breakdancing is fun, but the conceit falls flat."[39] Peter Vincent from The Sydney Morning Herald called the video "unoriginal", citing the many popular culture references, and doubted Swift's success in transforming her image to pop.[24] Media professor Maryn Wilkinson noted "Shake It Off" as a representation of Swift's "zany" persona during the 1989 era.[note 1] Wilkinson noted that as Swift had been associated with a hardworking and authentic persona through her country songs, her venture to "artificial, manufactured" pop required intricate maneuvering to retain her sense of authenticity.[88] As observed by Wilkinson, in the video, after failing every dance routine, Swift laughs at herself implying that she will never "fit in" to "any commercially viable image, and prefers to embrace her natural zany state instead".[89] In doing so, Swift reminded the audience of her authenticity underneath "the artificial manufacture of pop performances".[89]
"Shake It Off" attracted allegations of racism and cultural appropriation for perpetuating African American stereotypes such as twerking and breakdancing. Its release coinciding with the race relation debates revolving the Ferguson unrest was also met with criticism.[90][91] Analyzing the video's supposedly "racializing surveillance" in a post-racial context, communications professor Rachel Dubrofsky noted the difference between Swift's depiction of conventionally white dance moves—such as ballet and cheerleading; and conventionally black dance moves—breakdancing and twerking.[note 2] She argued that while Swift's outfits and demeanor when she performs ballet or cheerleading fit her "naturally", she "does not easily embody the break-dancer's body nor does the style of dress [while twerking] fit her seamlessly".[83] Dubrofsky summarized the video as Swift's statement of her white authenticity: "I'm so white, you know it, I know it, which makes it so funny when I try to dance like a person of color."[93]
The Washington Post noted the video's depiction of dance moves associated with people of color, such as twerking, was another case of an ongoing debate about white pop singers embracing black culture.[94] Romanek defended his work: "We simply choose styles of dance that we thought would be popular and amusing ... If you look at [the video] carefully, it's a massively inclusive piece. And ... it's a satirical piece. It's playing with a whole range of music video tropes and cliches and stereotypes".[85][95]
Accolades
"Shake It Off" appeared on many publications' lists of the best songs of 2014. It featured in the top ten on lists by Time Out (third),[96]PopMatters (fourth),[97]The Village Voice'sPazz & Jop critics' poll (fourth),[98] and Consequence (eighth).[99] The track featured on 2014 year-end lists by Drowned in Sound (14th),[100]Dagsavisen (16th),[101] and NME (27th).[102] It was ranked by NME and Consequence as the 19th and 38th best song of the 2010s decade, respectively.[103][104]USA Today listed "Shake It Off" as one of the ten songs that defined the 2010s.[105]
On April 23, 2019, she performed an acoustic version of the song at the Time 100 Gala, where she was honored as one of the "100 most influential" people of the year.[131] She again performed the song on the finale of the eighth season of The Voice France on May 25,[132] on the Wango Tango festival on June 1,[133] at the City of Lover one-off concert in Paris on September 9,[134] and at the We Can Survive charity concert in Los Angeles on October 19, 2019.[135] At the 2019 American Music Awards, where she was honored as the Artist of the Decade, Swift performed "Shake It Off" as part of a medley of her hits. Halsey and Cabello joined Swift onstage during the song.[136] She again performed the song at Capital FM's Jingle Bell Ball 2019 in London[137] and at iHeartRadio Z100's Jingle Ball in New York City.[138]
Following a January 13, 2015, BuzzFeed article titled "Why Isn't Everyone Voting For 'Shake It Off' In The Hottest 100?", the #Tay4Hottest100 hashtag campaign on social media emerged during the voting period for the Triple J Hottest 100, an annual poll selecting the 100 most prominent songs by the Australian radio station Triple J.[142] The social media posts tagged with #Tay4Hottest100 overwhelmed those mentioning the official contenders.[143] The campaign led to a significant amount of media debate over the merits of Swift's inclusion in the poll.[144][145] One criterion for eligibility was being played on air by Triple J at least once in 2014; Swift's "Shake It Off" did not receive airplay, but a cover of the song by the folk group Milky Chance did.[146] Critics of the campaign argued that the Hottest 100 was a platform for up-and-rising, non-mainstream artists,[147][148] but defenders criticized Triple J for embodying cultural elitism and sexism, citing how the radio prioritized "masculine 'rockist'" and "alternative" artists.[144][148]Guardian Australia's Elle Hunt wrote: "[The] virulent response to #Tay4Hottest100 has revealed the persistence of a dichotomy I'd thought we'd thrown out long ago: that of high art versus low."[149]
On January 20, 2015, Guardian Australia submitted a freedom of information request to the ABC in regard to the station's response to the campaign and the eligibility of "Shake It Off" for the Hottest 100 contest.[150] Triple J's manager Chris Scaddan told the website Tone Deaf: "We don't comment on voting campaigns while Hottest 100 voting is open. It draws attention to them and may influence the results of the poll."[151] "Shake It Off" was eventually disqualified by Triple J on January 26, 2015;[152] in the announcement, Triple J acknowledged Swift's music and career but highlighted that her entry—which had not received airtime—would not reflect their spirit.[144] They subsequently introduced two new rules that prohibited "trolling the poll"-type campaigns for the proceeding Hottest 100 polls.[153] The communications scholar Glen Fuller described the #Tay4Hottest100 campaign as an example of "connective action" in the age of social media.[148] As noted by Fuller, the emergence of personalized "action frames" expressing personal viewpoints intertwining with a larger framework of information created by media publications resulted in fragmented arguments that failed to result in a definite outcome.[154]
Lawsuits
In November 2015, Jessie Braham, an R&B singer known by the stage name Jesse Graham, claimed that Swift plagiarized his 2013 song "Haters Gonna Hate", citing his lyrics: "Haters gone hate, playas gone play. Watch out for them fakers, they'll fake you everyday."[155][156] In his lawsuit, he alleged that 92% of Swift's "Shake It Off" came from his song and demanded $42 million in damages from Swift and the distributor Sony.[157] On November 12, 2015, the lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Gail Standish, who ruled that Braham did not have enough factual evidence but could file a new complaint "if his lawsuit deficiencies are corrected".[157] Standish quoted lyrics from Swift's songs "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", "Bad Blood", "Blank Space" and "Shake It Off":
At present, the Court is not saying that Braham can never, ever, ever get his case back in court. But, for now, we have got problems, and the Court is not sure Braham can solve them. As currently drafted, the Complaint has a blank space – one that requires Braham to do more than write his name. And, upon consideration of the Court's explanation ... Braham may discover that mere pleading BandAids will not fix the bullet holes in his case. At least for the moment, Defendants have shaken off this lawsuit.[158]
In September 2017, the songwriters Sean "Sep" Hall and Nate Butler sued Swift for copyright infringement. They alleged that the lyrics of "Shake It Off" plagiarized those of "Playas Gon' Play" (2001), a song they wrote for the girl group 3LW, citing their lyrics: "Playas they gon' play, and haters they gonna hate / Ballers they gon' ball, shot callers they gonna call."[159] U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, in February 2018, dismissed the case on the grounds that the lyrics in question were too "banal" to be copyrighted;[160] but U.S. Circuit Judges John B. Owens, Andrew D. Hurwitz, and Kenneth K. Lee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in October 2019, reversed the ruling, holding that the district court had "constituted itself as the final judge of the worth of an expressive work", and sent the case back to the district court.[161]
Swift's legal team filed new documents for dismissal of the suit in July 2020,[162] and in July 2021, filed for a summary judgment, arguing that the discovery phase of the lawsuit has turned up evidence in their favor.[163] On December 9, 2021, Fitzgerald refused Swift's request for a summary judgement.[164] Swift's legal team filed a second motion to dismiss the case on December 23, claiming the Fitzgerald's ruling was "unprecedented and cheats the public domain" if the plaintiffs could sue everyone who uses the phrases in any songwriting, singing or says it publicly.[165] On January 14, 2022, Hall and Butler's legal team filed a response stating, "The rules simply do not provide defendants with vehicles for rehashing old arguments and are not intended to give an unhappy litigant one additional chance to sway the judge."[166] On December 12, 2022, the lawsuit was dropped with no final verdict.[167]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. † Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.
After signing a new contract with Republic Records, Swift began re-recording her first six studio albums in November 2020.[279] The decision followed a public 2019 dispute between Swift and talent manager Scooter Braun, who acquired Big Machine Records, including the masters of Swift's albums which the label had released.[280][281] By re-recording the albums, Swift had full ownership of the new masters, which enabled her to control the licensing of her songs for commercial use. In doing so, she hoped that the re-recorded songs would substitute the Big Machine–owned masters.[282]
The re-recording of "Shake It Off", subtitled "Taylor's Version", was released as part of 1989's re-recording, 1989 (Taylor's Version), on October 27, 2023.[283] Swift produced "Shake It Off (Taylor's Version)" with Christopher Rowe, who had produced her previous re-recordings.[284] The track was engineered by Derek Garten and Lowell Reynolds at Prime Recording Studio in Nashville, Tennessee; mixed by Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and mastered by Randy Merrill at Sterling Sound in Edgewater, New Jersey. Rowe and Sam Holland recorded Swift's vocals at Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles and Kitty Committee Studio in New York.[285]
^Wilkinson used "zany" to describe Swift as "a figure who emphasises the pop 'performance' as one of hard work instead, because she exposed its construction as one that does not come 'naturally'".[87]
^Dubrofsky, citing Simone Browne, describes "racializing surveillance" as "a technology of social control where surveillance practices, policies, and performances
concern the production of norms pertaining to race and exercise a power to define what is in or out of
place."[92]
^Pilley, Max (June 14, 2024). "New Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Kiki Wong speaks out after first shows with band". NME. Retrieved October 12, 2024. Kiki Wong is a Los Angeles rock guitarist who plays in Vigil of War. Among her claims to fame is playing drums for Taylor Swift's performance of "Shake It Off" at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 47. týden 2014 in the date selector. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select 43. týden 2014 in the date selector. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 201445 into search. Retrieved September 19, 2014.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Singles Digital Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Select SINGLES DIGITAL - TOP 100 and insert 201444 into search. Retrieved September 26, 2014.
Fuller, Glen (2017). "The #tay4hottest100 new media event: discourse, publics and celebrity fandom as connective action". Communication Research and Practice. 4 (2): 167–182. doi:10.1080/22041451.2017.1295221. S2CID157195033.
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