Taylor Swift Shaking It Off!

Taylor Swift just released her new single "Shake It Off" from her upcoming album 1989, set to be available for sale on October 27, 2014. This song, on surface value, is about 'shaking off' all the 'haters', basically doing whatever you want no matter what people think. This is in no-way a new concept for Swift because she has touched on this before with "22". In a nutshell, 22 teaches listeners to 'party with your hands in the air like you just don't care'. The difference between 22 and Shake It Off is that the latter seems to be directed to the negative portion of her fan-base while the former song seems to be about not caring in general and having fun.

Shake It Off has many lyrics that are obviously pointed toward the critical side of her fan-base -- the people being her critics saying that her break-ups are all her fault:

"I go on too many dates, but I can’t make them stay

At least that’s what people say, that’s what people say"

She retorts to this by saying the following lyrics in the pre-chorus: 

"But I keep cruising, can’t stop, won’t stop moving

It’s like I got this music in my mind saying it’s gonna be alright."

This verse is particularly interesting because it seems to be references to two songs: Can't Stop by Miley Cyrus and Three Little Birds by Bob Marley. These references seem to be reinforced by the music video (MV).

The first time Swift says 'can't stop, won't stop moving' she does this crazy, Cyrus-like, sassy shake while scrunching her face. And when she says 'I got this music in my mind saying it's gonna be alright' two ballerinas soar through the air, while Swift is forced to be grounded because she can't dance ballet -- reinforcing the Three Little Birds message. Even though she can't 'fly' it's gonna be alright.

The second time the pre-chorus comes around, Swift joins dancers that twerk while singing the Cyrus line, but immediately transitions to the ballerinas again creating a contrast when singing the Marley line.

Those are all of the major lyrical references that I initially thought of. I tried looking for maybe a Justin Bieber reference due to the mass amounts of criticism he endures, but most were just hopeful shots in the dark and nothing substantial.

I touched a bit on the video, but there are some references that you can only get from watching the MV. The entire video revolves around her, as an amateur, hanging out with professionals of various activities with Swift obviously screwing up and making a fool of herself. But she's having fun and 'shaking it all off'.

During the video Swift performs a shout-out to Lady Gaga. Swift dons a Gaga-like outfit and does some old dance moves such as the Robot, maybe inspired from the 1980's like her album title, '1989', suggests.

And of course Swift has to put in her own personal words and says 'just think while you’ve been getting down and out about the liars and dirty, dirty cheats in the world you could have been getting down to this beat.' Get off those negative comment chains, stop arguing, and enjoy life!

Then at the end of the video, Taylor Swift is shown dancing with, what seems to be, random fans going crazy and doing whatever they want regardless of how they look.

Overall, I really appreciate the message that Swift is trying to convey and of course, the shout-outs toward other artists to not let the negativity stunt your growth and keep you down. Everybody is human and deserves to be treated with respect. Personally, I would never want to be famous because of all the hate that I would have to see/read for how I looked or what I say and do.

But yes, you will get knocked down in life, but just get back up and shake it off!

~ Melody♫