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Taylor Swift's fifth studio album, 1989, marked a paradigm shift in the songwriter's career. It was her first 'official pop album' after she'd established herself as a country music star. The album's lead song, Shake It Off, was quite special, as the Grammy winner added some creative quirks to the production.
Reportedly, Taylor Swift included many fans in Shake It Off's music video who were completely unaware that they'd be called inside the studio and asked to dance in front of the camera. However, they had to take an oath to keep quiet about the experience before the music video was released.
5 interesting facts about Taylor Swift's Shake It Off MV
1) The production team took extreme measures to keep it a secret
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The artist and the production team took every measure possible to ensure the secrecy of Taylor's new album before its release. Shake It Off's shooting consisted of a large crew, including six groups of dancers with expertise in different dance forms, such as ballet, cheerleading, ribbon dancers, twerkers, animators, etc.
The crew also included several fans who were called onto the sets without prior notice. Therefore, they had to come up with novel ways to keep everything a secret.
According to director Mark Romanek, every crew member had to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements and leave their cell phones outside the sets. Moreover, boomboxes shot heavy metal music outside the sets to prevent sound leakage.
2) Taylor Swift's favorite segment in the music video
The Shake It Off music video was composed of a congregation of several dance groups like ballerinas, ribbon dancers, twerkers, cheerleaders, and more. According to Taylor Swift, her favorite dance style among the group was ballet. In a behind-the-scenes interview on her YouTube channel, she revealed that ballerinas fascinated her. She stated:
"I am so fascinated with ballerinas. You can tell when somebody has trained in ballet since they were a kid. There’s a different way they hold themselves and carry themselves."
Thereafter, she praised her friend Karlie Kloss and lauded her prowess as a trained ballet dancer.
"My friend Karlie [Kloss], when she walks the runway you can tell, you can tell she grew up doing ballet. There’s something so incredibly disciplined about them, so that’s my favorite dance to stomp myself through because it’s the craziest juxtaposition."
3) Fans starred in the Shake It Off music video
Shake It Off features a part at the end where Taylor breaks out of the shackles of different dance forms and starts dancing carefree on her own. In that scene, she is joined by a host of people who dance with her without any choreographical constraints.
In fact, the people who danced with her were actual fans who were called onto the sets without prior notice. Upon reaching the stage, Taylor asked them to be a part of her music video but they had to keep it a secret until the release of the song, Thereafter, fans took an oath of secrecy and danced around with Taylor Swift.
4) Taylor Swift had to train really hard to film
It is difficult to imagine the amount of hard work and preparation that went into each scene in the Shake It Off music video. The four-minute video was shot continuously over three days, and Taylor Swift was featured in every shot.
Her preparation arc was extremely hectic and tested her stamina and fitness. In the behind-the-scenes video, the 34-year-old shared that she used to run a lot to increase her fitness before shooting.
5) The music video holds a major YouTube record
Shake It Off still has the honor of being Taylor Swift's most-watched YouTube video in history. Currently, the video has over 3 billion views and is still one of the top 20 most-watched videos of all time, even nine years after its release.
Shake It Off also received several awards and accolades that year. At the 57th Annual Grammy wards, the song was nominated for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Solo. It also won Song of the Year at the iHeartRadio Music Awards and Top Streaming Song at the 2015 Billboard Music Awards.
