Taylor Swift’s ‘Shake It Off’ – written by her, Max Martin, and Shellback – leaves no stone unturned in emphasizing its Title.  Some would say it overdoes it, but I think it’s the so-called ‘overdoing’ that makes ‘Shake It Off’ such a good illustration of lyric techniques that can reinforce and punch up an already strong Title.

Here’s the Chorus lyric:

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
Shake It Off
Shake It Off
Heartbreakers gonna
Break break break break break
And the fakers gonna
Fake fake fake fake fake
Baby I’m just gonna
Shake shake shake shake shake
Shake It Off
Shake It Off

Start with the choice to rhyme the word ‘Shake’.  They could have rhymed ‘Off’ – it’s the last word of the phrase, after all – but ‘shake it off’ is spoken (and sung) as ‘Shake It Off’, not ‘Shake It Off’.  So if you’re going to rhyme the Title – and that’s almost always a good way to punch it up – it makes the most sense to rhyme the stressed word.

They rhyme 4 different words with ‘Shake’ – Play, Hate, Break, Fake.  (They wisely save the true rhymes for last – Fake, Break.)  And each of those 4 words get sung 5 times.

4 x 5 = 20 rhyme words… plus 4 repeats of the Title (and 10 more ‘Shake’s thrown in for good measure…).

Not much chance you’ll forget that one!

Yes, this is an exaggerated example that would be overkill in most songs.  Swift’s followup single, ‘Blank Space’ (by the same writers), doesn’t use the same strategy at all.  Its Title is not only not rhymed, it’s buried in the Title no-man’s-land of the middle of the third line.

Got a long list of ex-lovers


They’ll tell you I’m insane


But I got a Blank Space baby


And I’ll write your name

‘Shake It Off’, because of its unabashed support of its key phrase, is a great example of How To Pump Up A Title – and sometimes that’s what a song needs.  When the moment comes, don’t be shy!

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