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Thomas Hogan

Mr. Dunham

CCP English 1201

14 February 2021

Rhetorical Analysis of “Shake It Off”

Released on August 19, 2014, Talor Swift’s song “Shake It Off” instantly became a big

hit. The song became so popular many music groups tried covering it. In particular, Amelie, a

rock band, covered the song and released it on October 14, 2014. Although the song nearly had

all the same words in it, Amelie's cover of "Shake It Off" has a new vibe to Taylor Swift's

version. While it is different, the covered version keeps the similar claim to find something that

makes you happy and to brush off everyone's negativity.

One of the main reasons why a song is liked or disliked is because of how it makes the

listener feel. In Taylor Swift’s original song “Shake It Off”, it prompts the listener to think about

how to ignore the harsh opinions of others by doing something they love. Taylor Swift’s use of

pathos, or appeal to emotion, is what makes people attracted to her song. The original music

video for the song starts out in a dance room and the viewer is placed into an excited state of

mind because of the scenery and anticipation. The video moves from scene to scene and Taylor

changes into many different outfits. She portrays many different forms of dancing by dressing up

in different groups. These different groups have special moves dedicated to their style. In the

video Taylor Swift says, “That’s what people say, mm” (2014). This initiates the problem of not

being accepted. However, she turns the perceived bad vibe into positive energy by saying that

she “Can’t stop won’t stop moving” (2014). She explains her way of escaping a grim situation is
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through dancing, singing, and shaking it off. This makes the viewer feel encouraged to embrace

something they love. It allows them to recognize ways to help them deal with problems in their

life.

In Amelie’s version of “Shake It Off”, they spark thrilling feelings in the viewers. The

video starts off with the band performing on top of a hill overlooking a city. The view that is

provided builds up the emotion of adventure for the viewers to anticipate. It causes the viewer to

wish that they could do something fun and adventurous, rather than partaking in the mundane

rituals of everyday life. The video then moves to many different scenes of the group of guys

having fun. In one scene, the boys are horseplaying and are playing football. They help to

support their claim by showing examples of the things in life that make them happy. All in all,

both versions of the song appeal to the viewers’ emotions. It helps to get the viewers to feel a

sense of empowerment to participate in activities they love. Both videos do this by the dancing,

unique setting, and powerful lyrics.

An additional crucial aspect of a song is its appeal to logic. In both Taylor Swift’s and

Amelies’ version of “Shake It Off”, the appeal to logical reasoning makes it successful. Both

versions of the song preach about finding something that makes the listeners happy and

participating in that activity. Both artists deal with feuds with others by saying “it’s going to be

alright” (2018). In Taylor’s version, her way of dealing with the stress seems to be centered

around dancing and singing. The video has multiple scenes of Taylor dancing with background

dancers. This helps to show the viewers that the small things in life that make us happy make a

difference. Amelies’ way to find happiness seems to be through hanging out with friends and

doing fun activities together. In both versions of the song, there are logical ways to deal with
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pain caused by others. It becomes pretty obvious that these people have found things in their life

to pick them up when they are down. Their use of varying scenes and activities helps to show

that everyone has something that brings out the joy in life. They just need to be willing to find

the logical explanation of what that is and how they achieve it.

Every song that is created is directed towards some crowd of people. To the designated

people, the song may be outstanding and super influential. However if someone listens to a song

that isn’t directed towards them, they won’t be attracted to it. For example, an adult will more

than likely not be in love with rap music like teenagers are. Another similarity between the two

versions of the songs is the audience. In Taylor Swift’s and Amelies’ version of “Shake It Off”,

the audience is directed towards teenagers. They both sing about going on dates and caring what

people think. This seems to be directed towards teenagers because they normally get worked up

over something that someone said. The song is a way to help them realize that they need to find

something to do that makes them happy. However Taylor Swift’s version seems to be directed

more towards females. It comes off as if she is going through a heartbreak and people are

judging her for going on so many dates. Once again it's prevalent that her solution to juggle all

the stress seems to be dancing and singing. Amelie’s version on the other hand seems to be

directed towards males. They give off the vibe that they are just having fun and living their life

doing things with their friends like playing football, dancing, and singing. The shared audience

between the versions helps to connect the songs and support the shared claim.

Even though both renditions are similar and different in a variety of ways, their main

similarity is in their claim. The shared claim by the two versions of the song is to find something

that makes you happy. By doing so, listeners can more easily achieve ignoring others that are
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trying to bring them down. The claims are almost the exact same, but Taylor Swift's version

seems to emphasize on finding happiness. Amelie’s version on the other hand seems to be

sharing the vibe that the artists enjoy hanging out with their friends and doing what they like,

regardless of what others think. Although they share the same claim, Taylor Swift’s version gets

the point across a little bit more effectively because the music is focused on embracing happiness

where Amelies’ version focuses on having fun. Overall, both versions are successful in

portraying the message and help to influence their audience to do the things they love.

As expressed in the music videos, people need to find something that makes them happy.

Taylor Swift and Amelie both underline how they find happiness in their life, They also give

hints that others need to embrace joy in their life by finding something they enjoy, not what

others think they should.

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Works Cited

Amelie, Shake It Off. Youtube, 14 October 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzsPxEQ9KAA. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021

Swift, Taylor. Shake It Off. Youtube, 18 August 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oA2G-y7ySnI. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021