Taylor Swift

Story of Song

Taylor Swift decided to shake off all the bad talk and criticism from people and the media. In an interview with iHeart Radio, Taylor explained the story behind this song:”Shake it Off is a song that I wrote about having to deal with on everyday basis… Just kind of how human beings treat each other. It’s not just me who has to deal with it; it’s everybody out there living their lives. You know, the feeling of humiliation is the same when a girl has a rumor spread around about her at school isn’t true, is the same feeling I feel when I’m checking out at the grocery store and I read some crazy headlines about me.. and I think that the way we have to deal with those issues is the same, you have to learn to have a sense of humor about things after a while or else you’re just live in endless sea of resentment and bitterness and why are people doing this to me.. and rather than writing a song that was victimized in nature I wanted to write a song that was joyful and give people way to cope with whatever knots of ridiculousness life is doling out to them but also makes them want to dance”.

Taylor was at a mature stage of her life when she released this song and the album in general, she wanted to send a message that she just doesn’t care anymore about what the media and people are going to say about her. Like a new era or a rebirth for her thus the album title “1989”–the year Taylor was born. Taylor said at the Worldwide Live Stream on Yahoo:”People can say whatever they want about us at anytime and we cannot control that, the only thing we can control is our reaction to it, and I figured that we have 2 options: you can either let it get to you, change you, let it make you bitter or not trust people, or you can descend into insanity if you want. Option 2 is you just… ‘Shake it Off’”. Taylor was listening to a lot of 80s music at that time, she said: “I was listening to a lot of late ’80s pop music and how bold those songs were and how that time period was a time of limitless possibilities,” she said. “In thinking about that, this album is a rebirth for me. This is my very first documented, official pop album. 1989 is is the most sonically cohesive album I have ever made and my favorite album I have ever made.”

Release date

Released August 18, 2014

Songwriter/s

Taylor Swift – Max Martin – Shellback

Label

Big Machine

Chart Rankings

US – 1

UK – 2

GERMANY – 5

Just like most of Taylor’s hits, Shake it Off was a huge success setting new records for her. It became the highest chart debut for Taylor, her second no. 1 on the Adult Top 40 chart since her 2013 hit I Knew You Were Trouble. It spent four non-consecutive weeks at no. 1 on the Digital Songs chart and achieved first-week digital sales of 544 thousand units for the chart issue in September 6, 2014. In the end, it reached 18.4 million streams and 71 million airplay audiences and 24 non-consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 becoming Swift’s longest-running single in the top 10 and the eighth best-selling song of 2014 in the US with 3.43 million copies sold.

But that number increased in August 2015, to over 4 million copies in the US, and was certified 8 times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on September 15, 2015.