Shocking Revelations Unveiled: Songwriter Exposes Taylor Swift for Alleged Lyric Theft in Explosive New Documentary
Taylor Swift is currently dominating the music world with her “Eras Tour” concert film, but a new Max documentary special by CNN, titled Taking on Taylor Swift, delves into a less stellar moment in her career. The documentary revisits a 2017 lawsuit accusing her of plagiarizing lyrics in her 2014 hit song “Shake It Off.”
The lawsuit was filed by Sean Hall, one of the individuals who claimed that Swift, along with her song co-writers Max Martin and Shellback, had copied lyrics from the song “Playas Gon’ Play,” which they wrote for the girl group 3LW. Swift’s song featured the lines, “‘Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play, and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate,” while the 3LW track included, “Playas, they gonna play, and haters, they gonna hate,” charting at No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Swift vehemently denied the allegations at the time, asserting that she was the sole author of the lyrics and that she had never heard of the song “Playas Gon’ Play” or the musicians behind it before the lawsuit. She defended herself by citing the common usage of phrases like “players gonna play” and “haters gonna hate” in popular culture, even mentioning examples from singer Eric Church’s song “The Outsiders” and a t-shirt she wore during a performance.
While Hall and Butler’s lawsuit was the most prominent, it wasn’t the only one. In 2015, a similar suit filed by musician Jessie Braham was also dismissed by the court. The legal battles surrounding Swift’s “Shake It Off” continued with a ruling in Swift’s favor by Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald, who deemed the disputed lyrics as lacking the originality and creativity required for copyright protection. However, in 2021, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit deemed that the case was decided too quickly, leading to further proceedings.
Just weeks before a trial was set to begin, Swift and the plaintiffs reached a settlement, resulting in the dismissal of the case in December 2022. The CNN FlashDoc Taking on Taylor Swift sheds light on the legal, ethical, and cultural implications of this case and similar lawsuits filed against other popstars, sparking debates among critics.
Overall, the journey of Taylor Swift through the legal challenges surrounding “Shake It Off” serves as a captivating narrative of artistic integrity, creative ownership, and the complex intersection of music and law in the entertainment industry.
