How Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” Ushered Female Pop Into the Future Among Taylor Swift’s indelible catalog of zeitgeist-capturing smash singles, none represents a more decisive pivot into ambitious pop dominance than her chart-shattering 2014 single “Shake It Off”. Musically a defiant upbeat departure from the melodramatic country-pop that launched her career, lyrically “Shake It Off” marked Swift’s watershed declaration of emancipation from public criticism through kinetic self-acceptance. Both composition and mantra-ready chorus resonated explosively, propelling Swift to...