Shake It Off, Shake It Off Tay Tay

In case you hadn’t heard, the claim by R&B singer Jesse Braham that Taylor Swift stole lyrics to her 2014 hit song Shake It Off was dismissed back in November this year.

In 2013 Jesse Braham released a song called “Haters Gone Hate” with the chorus containing: “Haters gone hater, playas gone play. Watch out for them fakers, they’ll fake you everyday.”

Taylor Swift released “Shake It Off’ in 2014. The song comprises of: ‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play. And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake I shake it off, I shake it off. Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break. And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake Baby I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake Shake it off, Shake it off.

Shake It Off has topped music charts around the world and has been watched around 1.1 billion times on Youtube.

Jesse alleged that the lyrics for “Shake It Off” were 92% stolen – forming the basis for his suit of US$42 million. There was no issue that Jesse owned the copyright in his lyrics, however apart from some lyrical similarity, there is no resemblance musically. Have a listen to the two songs and see what you think. Braham’s song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=808MLaHcBs4 and Swift’s song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEcS32iOH5s

There were some serious weaknesses in Braham’s argument. These phrases are not original to Braham, and in fact, “Haters gonna hate” is widely considered to be a hip-hop idiom.

The deciding judge was obviously a Taylor Swift fan, as she cheekily used words from one of her songs in her judgement. Justice Standish said “at present, the court is not saying that Braham can never, ever, ever get his case back in court. But, for now, we have got problems, and the Court is not sure Braham can solve them.”

Tay – some people are just gonna hate hate hate hate hate.