Shake It Off

"Shake It Off" is a song by American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the lead single from her fifth studio album, 1989. Swift wrote the lyrics and composed the melody with 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 uptempo dance-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 releases. Music critics praised the song's dance-pop production as catchy, but some found the lyrics weak. Retrospectively, critics have considered "Shake It Off" an effective opener for the 1989 era, which transformed Swift's sound and image from country to pop. The song featured on 2010s-decade-end lists by NME and Consequence. In the United States, the single spent 50 weeks–including four weeks at number one–on the Billboard Hot 100, and it received a Diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). "Shake It Off" also topped charts in Australia, Canada, Hungary, Mexico, New Zealand, and Poland, and it received multi-platinum certifications in Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Mark Romanek directed the music video for "Shake It Off", which portrays Swift as a clumsy person unsuccessfully attempting several dance moves. It attracted accusations of cultural appropriation for featuring dances associated with people of color such as twerking. Swift performed the song on televised events such as the MTV Video Music Awards and the iHeartRadio Music Festival, and she included it in the set lists for three of her world tours: the 1989 World Tour (2015), Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), and the Eras Tour (2023). Among the accolades it received were a Favorite Song win at the People's Choice Awards and three nominations at the Grammy Awards. Following the 2019 dispute regarding the ownership of Swift's back catalog, she re-recorded the song as "Shake It Off (Taylor's Version)" for her 2023 re-recorded album 1989 (Taylor's Version). Background Taylor Swift had been known as a primarily country singer-songwriter until her fourth studio album Red (released in October 2012), which incorporates various pop and rock styles, transcending the country sound of her previous releases.