Taylor Swift responds to ‘Shake It Off’ copyright lawsuit

By Blessing Udeobasi

Popular American singer Taylor Swift has responded to the “Shake It Off” copyright lawsuit filed against her in 2017 claiming that she wrote the lyrics herself.

Taylor Swift’s latest response to the copyright lawsuit filed against her was reported by Billboard and confirmed by Pitchfork, and in the sworn declaration, Swift stated, “The lyrics to “Shake It Off” were written entirely by me.”

“In writing the lyrics, I drew partly on experiences in my life and, in particular, unrelenting public scrutiny of my personal life, “clickbait” reporting, public manipulation, and other forms of negative personal criticism which I learned I just needed to shake off and focus on my music,” Swift wrote. “With “Shake It Off”, I wanted to provide a comedic, empowering approach to helping people feel better about negative criticism through music, dance, and personal independence enabling one to just shake off the negative criticism.”

“The lyrics to “Shake It Off” also draw from commonly used phrases and comments heard throughout my life. Prior to writing “Shake It Off”, I had heard the phrases “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” uttered countless times to express the idea that one can or should shrug off negativity. I recall hearing phrases about players play and haters hate stated together by other children while attending school in Wyomissing Hills, and in high school in Hendersonville. These phrases were akin to other commonly used sayings like “don’t hate the playa, hate the game”, “take a chill pill”, and “say it, don’t spray it”. I drew on those commonly used player and hater phrases in creating the lyrics “Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play / And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate.”

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“I also recall hearing similar player and hater phrases in many songs, films, and other works prior to “Shake It Off”,” Swift added. “For example, I was present at the 2013 Country Music Awards and heard Eric Church perform his song “The Outsiders”, which includes the lyric “the player’s gonna play and the haters gonna hate”.”

The case was first filed in 2017 by “Playas Gon’ Play” songwriters Sean Hall and Nathan Butler. Judge Fitzgerald previously dismissed the lawsuit in 2018, stating that the similarities in the song lyrics were just “short phrases that lack the modicum of originality and creativity required for copyright protection.” A federal appeals court reversed the ruling a year later, and the case was handed back to Judge Fitzgerald for new proceedings. In December last year, the Judge ruled that Swift would have to face a jury trial, but a court date is yet to be set.

In June Taylor Swift released her latest track “Carolina” from the Where the Crawdads Sing film soundtrack. Last month the Recording Academy confirmed that her Red (Taylor’s Version) album is eligible for a Grammy nomination.