Shake It Off

"Shake It Off"
Single by Taylor Swift
from the album 1989
ReleasedAugust 18, 2014 (2014-08-18)
Studio
GenreDance-pop
Length3:39
LabelBig Machine
Songwriters
Producers
  • Max Martin
  • Shellback
Taylor Swift singles chronology
"The Last Time"
(2013)
"Shake It Off"
(2014)
"Blank Space"
(2014)
Music video
"Shake It Off" on YouTube

"Shake It Off" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the lead single from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). 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 uptempo dance-pop song, "Shake It Off" features a looping drum beat, a Mellotron-based saxophone line, and a handclap-accented bridge. Big Machine Records released it on August 18, 2014, to promote 1989 as Swift's first pop album after her previous country image and sound.

Initial reviews mostly praised the production as catchy, but some criticized the lyrics as weak and shallow. Retrospectively, critics have considered "Shake It Off" an effective opener for 1989, transforming Swift's status to that of a pop star. NME and Consequence ranked it among their best songs of the 2010s decade. The single reached the top 10 and has been certified multi-platinum in Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, and the UK. In the US, the single peaked atop the Billboard Hot 100 and has been certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Mark Romanek directed the music video for "Shake It Off", which portrays Swift as a clumsy person unsuccessfully attempting several dance moves. Critics accused the video of cultural appropriation for featuring dances associated with people of color such as twerking. Swift performed the song on the 1989 World Tour (2015), the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), and the Eras Tour (2023–2024). In 2015, "Shake It Off" won Favorite Song at the People's Choice Awards and received 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).