The Swiftie and The Scholar - Superficial Celebrity Criticism in Shake It Off

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

We’re taking it back to 1989 with the only Taylor Swift song Uncle Jerry knew before we started this project. Angela expected this to be a quick, simple episode, but Uncle Jerry found a lot of deeper meaning in the glitter gel pen poem.Works Cited:Catalog PoemDr. J. Don VannA Handbook to Literature – William Harmon & Hugh Holman – Aff LinkGoblin Market – Christina RossettiWhy We Oppose Pockets for Women – Alice Duer MillerAnaphoraMetonymyOnomatopoeiaEpizeuxisPolyptotonTautologicalThe Waking – Theodore RoethkeApostropheShake It Off music video Stars – Richard Dyer – Aff Link The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading MatrixFollow Us:Patreon⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠Threads⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales, using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. Learn more at Accenture.com slash Spotify.

The Hulu original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus, starring Emmy Rossum. Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer. Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. Don't miss the three-episode premiere of the Hulu original series Furious on July 27th, only on Hulu on Disney Plus. we examine the lyrics, lore, and literary legacy of Taylor Swift. I am Angela McDowell the Swiftie. And I am Dr. Jerry Coates, the scholar.

How you doing, Uncle Jerry? I just opened up a brand new Diet Coke. It's good. Call us Diet Coke. Yeah. Speaking of, people who called. Yes. We got a fun package in the mail today.

Let's see if we can hold this up. It's kind of heavy. You may remember a couple of weeks ago, Uncle Jerry talking about how he went to the opening of the Waterburger. A brand opening of the local water burger. That's right. Waterburger saw you with your foam finger and they said, hey, we want to send you something.

I have not opened this yet. I'm excited. Chase opened it in front of me. Like I was sitting on this side so I could only see like the lid and he was like, that's cute. And then closed it. So I don't know what's in here. Do you want to open? All right.

Shall I open? You want to open? No, you go for it. Okay. It's a really cute box, though. It's a cute box. Oh my gosh, ketchup. All right.

We've got spicy ketchup from Waterburger. They're known for their spicy ketchup. Yeah, this is the best ketchup. This is what we use, actually. Oh, is that right? Yeah, it's because they sell it at the stores. Uh-oh, and, uh-oh, and. Oh, my gosh.

There is so much, some kuzis. Also ketchup kuzis. Very nice. Oh, my goodness. A little, a little pouch, some sunglasses, a little lanyard. Good, I'm liking these. Yeah, those are perfect.

That's your color. Yeah. How do you think? Oh, socks. Hamburger socks. Hamburger socks. And a cute little bottle. Okay.

This is so fun. Wow, thank you, Waterberger. Thanks, Waterberger. This is exciting. Yeah, that's fun. From your friends at Waterberger. Well, from your friends at Waterburger. Oh, we have friends at Waterberger.

Friends at Waterberger. Oh, I don't want those to get scratched. Okay, that's super cute. Thank you, Waterberger. I will be eating that ketchup immediately. That's fun. Okay. Another fun moment for today.

I think you have a weird energy today because I think you feel weird about the song that... I do feel, it's been, it plagued me the last two days. I mean, I started working on it. You guys know we record and then she edits and posts, but... So, yeah, I've been working on it for nearly two days, and I had to just abandon it and move to the other song that you sent me because that one made sense. Yeah, this one bothered me, I mean, not bothered me. This one engaged my academic sensibilities to a high degree. Okay, well, I don't think any of us were expecting you to say that about shake it off.

Just in case you're new here, or, you know, don't know this, this was the one song when I pitched this podcast to Uncle Jerry. Shake It Off was the one song that he knew as a Taylor Swift song, and he was like, well, that girl clearly only writes the glitteriest of gel-pin songs that have no depth and no meaning. That was the only song I knew. Yes, that was it. And so what are you talking about doing a podcast with me about this, Angela? And so I figured it was time for us to look at it more depth. I need you to hold those papers up and show people how thick this is. These are Uncle Jerry's notes. These are my notes from the last two days.

It's about 35 pages, and I'm going to read them all slowly. Yeah, so before we get into those notes, this is Shake It Off. This is from the album 1989 from the year 2014. This is a Taylor, Max Martin, and Shelbach classic. Oh, Shelback. Yeah. This song went everywhere, which is why you knew it. Wait a minute.

Like, you can't not know this song. I think it spent like four weeks at number one. People think of Taylor Swift like, you know, a decade ago and you think shake it off. Obviously, not one of my favorites, not one of anybody's favorites, probably. What? But when she plays it live, when it comes on the radio. Everybody go crazy? I'm dancing.

Everyone's dancing. We're all screaming. This also has a like spoken interlude, and I know you've said before that you hate that. It's weird. And I kind of agree, but it is my favorite part of this song. So yeah, take it away. This feels like I thought this was going to be a quick one, but this feels like it might take a while. So, yeah, you know, first of all, thanks.

because I told Angela when she got here today that while I was going through this, it made me go crazy because every line I was saying to myself. I mean, you guys, I mean, you don't know what it's like. I don't know that. I don't think you know what it's like to read it as a poem and to analyze it for its literary elements. You know, so I read these things. And sometimes I'll say something and you'll say, oh, no, that's not it at all. Or, oh, no, I felt this way when I listened to that song. And I've never heard it.

You know, like I... Yeah, you're having a different experience than the rest of us. And although I sit and I read these things literally a hundred times, I mean, maybe more. With this one, I read it more. Although I do that, I've never heard. I've never lived with this. song. Right. So this is a 12-year-old song. You know, I've actually lived with this song. Right. So while I was reading it, every one of these lyrics was in my head. It's like,

okay, first line, I stay out too late. And it's in my head. So it's a good call to like, have you not listened to the song before we do these episodes. Otherwise, you probably would have quit already a while ago. Maybe so. Yeah, you know, I mean, the thing, the thing for me is I've never heard. I've never lived with it. You guys who have lived with it and you have listened to it over and over again and you have had personal experiences, things that happened to you in your lives.

You know, things where oh, this song helped me through my, you know, my crisis, my COVID infection, my divorce, my, the loss of, you know, of a relative. And all those are very poignant moments in your lives and Taylor

brings her music to you and you live with them and it helps ameliorate your suffering. Correct. And yes, I just use the word ameliorate. But I don't know. For me, I don't have that experience. Except here.

And it nearly drove me crazy. Sorry. A little. Okay, so I have to tell you a story. When I was working at the college, you know, we have an administrative suite of offices. And the four deans are kind of all in a row. I was a dean of liberal arts. And so I had, you know, I had an administrative assistant in an outer office.

And then I had, you know, an office with all kinds of books and junk in it. And I was known as the fun dean. There was the mean dean, by the way. And so every Friday afternoon, I had dance hall. Okay. Different than study hall. Instead of study hall, yes. My speakers went out on my computer, and so the college gives you a budget.

You get to buy, and so I'm looking on what to order, and I looked on Office Depot, and by golly, they had these like Altic Lansing big speakers with a boom box and stuff. Oh, no. And it was under budget, so I bought it. and so every Friday afternoon, about 440 or so, I put on music. Okay. And it was celebratory music for the coming weekend. Uh-huh. And then I would step out into the hall, and I would challenge the other deans to dance off.

Oh, no. One of the deans always just shut her door. But the other deans, if we come out and play along, and, I mean, we had administrative assistant. The people in the budget office downstairs always said they could hear the music. And the stomping on the ground. That's right. So guess what one of the songs was I would play? Definitely shake it off.

Shake it off. Yeah, so I would play this song. You know, I mean, I had a whole mix of stuff I would rotate in. Sometimes it was Hank Williams. Sometimes it was M&M, love M&M. Sometimes it was Lady Gaga. Sometimes shake it off. But, yeah, so this is the...

only Taylor Swift song I have lived with. Do you remember your dance moves for Shake It Off? I'm not, not, no. Mostly, we just sat around, I stood around in the hall and talked about students. Of course. Occasionally teachers.

The gossip. That's right. That's right. Important. Okay, having said all that, shall we talk about the? Yes. Well, I should say that this is, 1989 was when Taylor fully switched to pop music and this is like

her first pure pop album and this was the lead single from that. So she like really came out swinging with like, this is different. This is a different vibe for me. Right.

And her record label was like, you can't do this. And she was like, watch me, you know, and then of course it went to number one. But that's kind of all I wanted to say

that this was, this was really kind of like a marked shift in Taylor's career at this point. Well, so, you know, I really did want to start off with a question. Obviously, it's from the 1989 album, which is her birth year. Yes.

As you have told me. Yes. So is she, I mean, does she choose that intentionally? Is it like a rebirth for her? I mean, maybe. I think it could be. And I think, yeah, and I think she wanted to, this song I don't think really fits, but a few of the songs on the album really kind of tackle.

or kind of used as inspiration, like that late 80s, like synth pop, I think. And so I think it could be like, hey, this is a new me, a rebirth. This is a new sound that I want to tackle that's like from around when I was born type thing. So, yeah, I think so. That's, you know, I mean, it kind of fits because it's different from, I mean, you know, you played me in one of her earlier works that's more country. Mm-hmm. It fits because it is different.

Yeah. And it marks a departure for her career. Okay, it is, it's a type of poem. Okay. Okay. Okay. It is a catalog poem. Okay.

Okay. Sometimes they're called list poems. And, you know, I love to throw these literary terms at you. And so it's an homage to one of my professors, Jerry Don Van, Jay Don Van, who was my thesis director on my master's in English. He's a great Victorianist. And you can look him up. Look up Don Van. and he's got a number of publications.

But he also taught a bibliography. Okay. And I loved bibliography. Okay, that sounds horribly boring. What a surprise. And it's all about how books are made, you know, how they were historically manufactured, you know, what are the materials. We went and looked at different printing shops and printing presses. But you also learn all those literary terms, right?

So we had a book. It was Thrawlin Hibbard's introduction to literary terms. It's way out of print now. Now I use this one. The Handbook to Literature. This is the 50th edition or the 50th anniversary edition of the Holman-Harman handbook. And it's got like every literary term you never wanted to know in this book. Everything from abysidarial poetry to Zyugma.

So, you know, I'm not making these terms up, people. They're in the book. They're in the book. And I mean, essentially they're the tools that writers use. Yes. Right? And so, I mean, I think it's important that people know about the tools. Also, if you're interested in writing poetry, you know, if you want to write your own songs.

You know, I mentioned before you can write the apology poem, the I'm sorry poem where you apologize to something. This is a great practice poem to make a catalog poem. Okay. So a catalog poem is just a story. sort of a list of stuff. And I have some examples. Okay. Okay.

So this is Christina Rosetti. Okay. One of her most famous poem is Goblin Market. Oh. And it's, yeah, it is greatness. But it starts off with a list, right? It says morning and evening, maids heard the goblins cry, come by our orchard fruits.

Come by, come by. Apples and quinces, lemons and oranges, plump, unpecked cherries, melons and raspberries, boomed down-cheeked peaches, swart-headed mulberries, wild, freeborn, cranberries, crab apples. It's a list, right? It's kind of fun. Here's one of my favorites, and if you don't know this woman, you need to look her up. Alastur Miller. Okay.

It was a journalist, poet, novelist. She actually wrote a short poetic novel called The White Cliffs that was turned into a movie called The White Cliffs of Dover. Oh, that sounds really. Yeah, she's really, really funny and sarcastic and ironic. And this is her poem, Why We Oppose Pockets for Women. Incredible. Still relevant.

I don't know when this was written, but. Well, she died in 1942. Okay, so still relevant. This is prior to suffrage, right? This is prior to the 19th Amendment where women won the right to vote. I'm not going to say where women were given the right to vote. They took back that right. Clearly had to take it.

Right. And essentially, she's making a joke about how women don't have pockets and men do, but it's really about voting. Incredible. Isn't that fun? Yeah. So it goes, number one, because pockets are not a natural right. Oh, my God. Number two, because the great majority of women do not want pockets.

If they did, they would have them. Oh, my gosh. Number three, because whenever women have had pockets, they have not used them. And it goes on and on. And it's absolutely... That's hilarious. It's hilarious. She's hysterical.

That's funny. Yeah. Oh, you know, she had this great sense of wit. What's her name again? It's Alice Miller. Alice Durer Miller. Yeah. Alice Durer Miller.

Okay, I love that. Yeah, it's kind of fun. Okay, I have to give you one more because this is Lawrence Ferlingetti, and this is my copy of the Coney Island of the mine. I was going to say, you met him. I remember this story. Lawrence Ferlingetti signed it for me. Yeah. Thank you, Larry.

And this is one of my favorite poems. It is, I am waiting. I am waiting for my case to come up, and I am waiting for a rebirth of wonder, and I'm waiting for someone to really discover America and whale. and I'm waiting for the discovery of a new symbolic Western frontier, and I'm waiting for the American Eagle to really spread its wings and straighten up and fly right. I know it goes on and on. It's five pages long.

Oh, wow, okay. I am waiting as just a brilliant work of poetry. So, yeah, try it out. Make a catalog poem. I like it. That's today's poetry corner. I like it, yeah. Thank you very much.

See you guys. It's funny whenever these songs fit into a specific. I don't know why that tickles me every time you're like, this is a blank poem. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that's fun. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is, it's fun, you know.

So she makes a list. Okay. In a fact, she makes several lists, as you guys clearly know, because if I knew the song, you knew the song. So the list starts out with line one. I stay out too late, right? It's a list of things she does wrong according to critics. Number one, again, Alice, Alistur-Miller would say, number one, she stays out too late. Number two, she's dumb.

Yeah, got nothing on her brain. Got nothing in my brain. So, you know, I should point out immediately, a lot of these are monosyllables, right? I stay out too late. Got nothing in my brain. Yeah. That's what people say, hmm, hmm. So in the first three lines, we only have two words that have more than one syllable.

So why? You know, why monosyllabism? I mean, I think because she's imitating the fact that people say she's dumb. Dumb, just a dumb blonde. Hey, people say, I'm dumb. You also pointed that out on blank space. Yes. Which is also from 1989, is also a pop song, is also.

Max Martin and Shelback with Taylor. And at the end, I think I list blank space as one of the comparative poems for this one. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I think it is. I also think this is an argument poem. Okay, yeah. Yeah, she's going to create an argument here.

You know, she's going to say, all right, here's what people say, and now here's what I say. And now here's what they say, and now here's how I feel about it. And now here's what you should think, right? And so it's not exactly what we call the toolman model. Okay. I don't know if any of you learned the toolman model where you have to lay down a case and you have different principles that you follow. So it's not quite that, but it is a form of argument,

which would be another type of poem. You can create an argument poem. She's kind of blending the catalog poetry with the argumentation poem. It is a technique of rhetoric. Okay. I stay out too late. First of all, this involves characterization. Right? She is introducing the public version of herself before revealing how she inside feels.

This is, you know, this is their perspective. This is going to be my perspective. Okay. It's also understatement. I mean, come on. Staying out too late is relatively ordinary, right? And she's making the criticism disproportionate to the rather ordinary practice of staying up late. Gotcha. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And what it also does is it creates what we call an argument ethos. You know, there's pathos, ethos, and I think D'Artagnan. No, those are musketeers. Yeah, these are things we use in argument.

Ethos is a level of believability, of credibility. And by using the first person, you know, she's saying, you know, I'm credible. This is going to involve the audience and this is going to involve me. and this is going to be opposed to my critics' idea. So rather than stepping out and saying, I don't stay out too late, she says, I stay out too late. Yeah, that's what they're going.

Kind of internalized it a little bit almost. And she flips the argumentative value by not saying, I don't stay out too late. I'm really smart. I mean, come on, the second someone says, I'm really smart. No. You shouldn't have to say that.

Yeah. Yeah, so got nothing in my brain, self-parody, you know, she's, so she's taking the argument, she's exaggerating it, so that it becomes humorous, which if it's inflated, it's a hyperbolic claim, right? It's also ironic, so the lyric itself demonstrates a level of wit that goes beyond the fact that she has no brain. So she's proving she has a brain by saying she's got nothing in her brain. Well, I love that. I also like to use the word nothing, you know, colloquial, casual.

It's like she's just kind of tossing it off. It's the superficiality of celebrity criticism. Okay, yeah. That's a good phrase. Yeah, yeah. So this is what, this is, this is about the. point the 80 third time I read through. This is about the point that I started thinking, this is a larger, more worthwhile subject than just this poem. Okay. And that is how does Taylor Swift

establish and maintain celebrity? Okay. We've talked a little bit about celebrity before, right? And taken one way, this poem is about, about the reinforcement of celebrity imagery, you know? And step by step, she's building a case for maintenance of celebrity, which made me step back and think, wait, so at what level are all of her poems, are all of her songs scaled,

including her interviews and everything else, scaled towards maintaining and polishing an image of celebrity? Yeah, Taylor Swift, TM, rather than Taylor Swift the human. Like, yeah, Taylor Swift the brand. Sure. I mean, we don't know Taylor Swift, the human. I certainly don't.

Yeah. You may think you do. Yeah. Yeah. But I certainly don't, you know. And so I want to talk a little bit about that maybe at the end. Okay. Okay. We're all ready to the third line. We're moving right along. That's what people say.

Mm-hmm. So the line, line shifts responsibility from the speaker to the accuser. Okay, so she starts out, I stay out too late, I've got nothing on my brain, and then she says, oh, that's not me talking, it's them. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. We're going to run into that literary term, anaphora, you know, repetition, right? The repeating opening, it emphasized that's what people say is going to be an emphasis of public opinion. It's also metonymy. People represents not just critics, but the broader public at large, the gossip media, the anonymous critics, the people who write and read it.

Yeah. Literally everyone. Everyone. You know, can I just say? Which does seem to be everyone these days. You know, I'm still stunned by the amount of comments in Reddit, you know, since we've been doing this. I mean, I never looked at it, honestly, I never looked at it. And I never look at it for when I'm reading the poetry,

but it pops up on my newsfeel stuff all the time. And it's always some comment about Taylor Swift here or Taylor Swift there or this song lyric. And, you know, eight times out of ten, there's songs I've never even heard of because you haven't shown them to me yet. It's kind of stunning. Yeah, it really is. It's wild right now.

And then there's, mm-hmm. Okay, that is an onomatopoeic vocalization. Yes. Right. Anamontapia. I know this one. You know that one? What is onomatopoeia?

It's like when a, when a, when a, when a, when a, I'll give you a moment. It's like when a, when a sound is a thing. Shall I frighten her now? I think you should tell you. Boom. Onomatopoeia. That's automotapia. The word boom.

Yeah, the sound is the word. The sound mimics the word. So a crow's call is call, right? And it's a word, but it's also the sound. So mm-hmm is a word. It's kind of a non-lexical sound. You know, it's rhythmical, but it's also very dismissive. Right, right.

Like, uh-huh. Yeah, that's what people say, mm-hmm. Yeah. And this is where, you know, you're back inside my head because because I've seen the video like, you know, dozens of times like everybody else in the world, apparently. And, you know, I see her head pop up and she goes, mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think she also, like when she's performing it live, I think she's like, mm-hmm, shaking her head or nodding her head, I guess. So, I mean, essentially what she's doing with is she's like drawing a demarcation line. She says, okay, you know, here is the external. narrative. And then, no, yeah, here is my own identity. But is it really her identity? Or is an identity that she is shaping for us consumers in the context of this poem? Interesting. See, that's what makes us really interesting stuff. Yeah. Because we really don't know her identity. Right. Right. I mean, maybe Travis does. Yeah. I would hope so.

I should also say that nothing to do with this episode, but I saw a lot of people, like, because everyone chimed in about the wedding and has opinions about the wedding. And then a lot of, and the Adam Sandler as the efficient. And people are like, Adam Sandler isn't even like an actual efficient. This isn't even a real wedding. And I want to be like, well, actually, as someone who has background knowledge of these things, you can get a one-day efficient, like pass, basically, a license, which is what you did. It's exactly what I did.

So maybe you and Adam Sandler have that in common now. You know, the state of New York has vested in us the power to, you know, officiate. I don't know. So I just want to say that. You and Adam Sandler have something in common. Yeah. And we both like basketball. Yeah.

So there you go. Well, that's what people say. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So she repeats the same line over, right? Okay, now here is today's. You thought that making a list poem or a catalog poem was today's literary term, but no. Today's literary term is epizucusis.

Oh. I think you said this one before. Epizuxes. Epizuxes is immediate repetition. Okay. So it, you know, so why does she do that? Why does she immediately repeat exactly? the same line. Well, for emphasis, right, she is reinforcing that relentless and wrongheaded

view of her critics. It's also really this nice rhythmic device. Right. Yeah. Right. So, you know, it's going to sound good in the context of the song. It also drove me crazy because I heard it over and over. But it's that in, it's also very circular. I mean, you think about it as representing the incessant, unceasing public commentary. on the nature of her being. Yes, they're always saying, they're always saying, they're always saying. Right. Yeah.

It is the incessant cycle of public commentary. It's also parallelism, right? Identical structure. Yeah, the repetition, I think, it also implies that the criticism is monotonous. Right. I mean, for her, after a while, surely it just becomes a bore. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, she said that, you know, like last year when she was, on Travis and his brother's podcast, she said, like, at this point, like, I'm not seeing it. I'm not hearing it. My name, like, none of it's my business. She said, my name can be in a headline, and it's still none of my business. Like, I have no, like, it's not actually about me, basically. Right. You know?

Yeah. No, her name appears just to sell a magazine. Yeah, it's clicks and sales and all of that, you know. She's like, this actually has nothing to do with me. Yeah, it just goes round and round and round, and so you get the same line over and over. Yeah. I think that's what happens at the end as well. Right, yeah.

Okay, you know, I go on too many dates. Ha, ha. Okay. It's hyperbolic, you know, too many. That's kind of subjective judgment, right? How many is too many? You know, I don't know. How many boyfriends is too many?

It's subjective. It's not an objective fact. Right. You know, you don't know how many people she's dated or how often or how many times they go. You know, it contributes to that exaggerated media image of, and I'm going to use air quotes, Taylor Swift. Right. Right. So here's the image of who Taylor Swift is.

And you even see that in the parenthetical laughter. Right. She's like, this is not serious criticism. Right. It's like a stage direction. Uh-huh. Right. It's like you're reading a play.

and this becomes like a stage direction and she just refuses to treat the criticism as if it's serious. And for her, throughout this song, humor is a rhetorical strategy. Yes. She's going to laugh at these things that are essentially outside of her power

and by doing so she reclaims the power of her narrative. And I like that. Yeah. Yeah. But I can't make them stay. Okay. The coordinating conjunction but introduces complexity into this little caricature.

So she has lots of dates. However, you know, she's got a contrasting line, juxtaposed lines. Here I have lots of dates, but I can't keep any of them. It's kind of an emotional understatement. It's narrative compression.

She doesn't have to tell the whole story of every one of her dates. Right. Right. And so it's actually very clever. I mean, you think about the nature of what I mean when I say narrative compression. If she was going to go in and tell the whole story, it would be a 10-minute song. And Lord knows we can't have that.

Never. Yeah, it's the same thing you were saying, or a similar thing you were saying with the economy of language. Like, we get the story in just those two lines. Yes. It's the whole story. It's right there. It's pent up in that line. You know, it's a single conversational observation and we can just move on.

Yeah. It also, I think, makes light of the criticism. For sure. Yes. At least, that's what people say. Okay. And so what we have is a kind of rhetorical shift here. She uses the phrase, at least, you know, and literally may mean at the very least because

she takes these as qualified statements, right? Because the phrase, at least, is a qualifying statement where she introduces doubt into the statements of her critics. Done with two whole pages now. Look at us go. That's what people say. You know, we've got circular structure. She's introduced kind of that motif of going back to the people say over and over again. it becomes a recurrent motif of external judgment.

Right. And it's also, you're going to like this phrase because I typed it up and I have to use it, cadential repetition. Oh, like a cadence. Yeah, it's a cadence. Yeah, it's a case. Bump, bump, bop, b, b, right? Yeah. So it's trocheque in terms of, you know, which one of these, you know, rhythmic patterns, trokeys, I.M's, antipas, dactyls.

look them up in your home handbook. Yeah, but it's a type of cadence. And the effect is that the verse ends, not with self-definition, but with other people's opinions making the shift in the speaker's own voice. When she comes to, I keep cruising, feel significant. Okay. Right? So verse one ends with that's what they say.

Okay. And now we're going to suspend the moment. Okay. We're going to go to the pre-chorus, and you're going to hear what I say and do. Yeah. Right. Okay. So she lays out the argument.

Here's the argument. Yeah, this is people's arguments against me. That's right. And here's what I have to say. And now here's my rebuttal. Okay. I like that. Yeah, it's fun.

Yeah, I think structurally the poem is really fun. I mean, I liked it as a song, for goodness sakes. I mean, it's a perfect pop song. Yeah. Because it's probably been in your head all. All this, the last few days. For 72 hours at this point. Yeah, I know.

I know. It's a perfect Friday afternoon dance hall for a bunch of very serious deans. Actually, when different teachers found out about it, and we had when the students from the Honor Society that I was one of the mentors for the Honor Society found out about, they would come up. And we would, we have a snack cart. in my office, we would roll the snack card out. Just eating and dancing. Yes, yes. Well, it's fun.

It sounds fun. End of an academic week. Pre-chorus. Yes. But I keep cruising. Okay. Again, introduction of the coordinating conjunction, but, you know, clearly it's important for the pre-chorus.

We're going to signal the reversal of perspective. So now they've had their say, here's what I'm. I do about it. Here's what I have to say about it. It is, in fact, a rhetorical turn. I'm trying to remember the literary device that describes... A volta. It's a volta.

This is a volta. And it changes emotional directions from the passive reception of criticism to active preservation of her identity. Yeah. Okay. It also has for me what is a possible double entendre. And I'm really curious if she intended this or how it works. They use the word cruising. Because when a woman is cruising. Like looking for more boys. She's looking for more boys. Oh, that's fun. Right. You know, I mean, certainly it means moving. Right. Right. Yeah. And so moving, movement will become. a functional artifice for this poem. It'll become a symbol of her

continuance in her life and her adventures and music. Right. Right. And I wonder of Cruz if she's also echoing that line that she goes out on too many days. That's a fun thought. Yeah. Yeah. I did wonder about it.

It is ironic that we pin we make valuations of people based on their gender or sexual preferences and their sexual adventures. You know, I mean, you know, what do you call a woman who is cruising? Oh, she's a harlot or something worse. Yeah. You know, what do you call a guy who's cruising? He's a player.

Yeah. Or he's like just a guy. Yeah. Or just a guy. You know, and that's hardly a fair valuation. You know what I was reminded of just now is, you know, Dion, Dion in the Belmont's an old group? No. Oh, yeah, they had a song about a girl who plays around.

Gosh, I cannot remember the title of it. What was the... Run around Sue? Ah, that's it. Thank you very much. She looked at it. Yeah, the song is Run Around Sue. Okay, that's terrible.

Well, it's terrible, right? Yeah, you can't trust her. She goes out on one of the lines is she goes out on dates with other guys. And yet that was a hit. So they wrote another song, and the other song uses almost exactly the same melody, and it's about a guy. And it goes, I'm the kind of guy who likes to play around. And it's like positive. It's positive.

Yeah. Yeah, he's okay. But run around Sue you want to stay away from. Interesting. Yeah. So I think that she has to feel some of that gender bias. Yeah, for sure. Inside this song. Yeah. Okay. You know, the use of the word cruising is, I think, also part of an extended metaphor that's going to go. Also, it has to do with cars.

Yeah. That's what when you said cruising, I thought, oh my God, it's a car. Yeah. We're back to the cars. And it extends this metaphor, the comparison, the larger metaphorical idea of motion being emotional or resilience you know pressing on with life creative exploration that kind of thing you just made me think talking about the you know

men get a pass and women get judged for the exact same activity on a vault track from 1989 so we just got it like in 2020 so it wasn't on the original 1989 but it's on 1989 1989 Taylor's version

is a song called slut Oh, really? And in it, she says, she's like talking to the guy and she says, I'll pay the price, you won't. Yeah. So that is kind of, like, she is like, you know, she already has at this age, like, understood that, you know? Yeah, that's Dion's run around Sue versus the wanderer. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It's, you know, unfortunately, I think it's a cultural evaluation that I'm not going to say women should or have to put up with. I think that, you know, this type of expression is important. Yeah. Oh, my, did I just say the song is important? Uh-oh. The next line, can't stop moving. So it intensifies motion from the previous one.

Parallelism, can't stop, won't stop. It's kind of an aphra-like repetition. It's also, here's your second literary device for the day. Polyptotum. Yes, I know. P-O-L-Y-P-T-O-N, polytotin is using the same word in slightly different grammatical context. Can't Stop, won't stop.

Okay. It highlights the inability and the refusal. So you see how they're two, it's the same word, but they're two different grammatic context. Interesting. Yeah, so she's unable to stop doing what she does. And she, by her own volition and conscious decision-making, won't. He's not interested in stopping.

That's right. Won't stop doing it. So the first one kind of suggests that the momentum of movement has taken over. But the second one really makes it a deliberate choice. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. And I like that too. You know, and then motion itself is a symbol. And I said it's a symbol of emotional recovery.

It's a symbol of adaptability. It's a symbol of resilience. It's a symbol of the refusal to dwell on criticism. She's going to move past all of that. So, yeah, the recovery is victory itself. Your summer travels deserve an upgrade. With select Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac vehicles connected by OnStar, you can stream, game, and more on the go.

Whether you're headed to a music festival or a cottage getaway, You can access hundreds of apps on Google Play right from your center display. Explore OnStar Tech Today at OnStar.ca and discover how to take your summer to the next level. OnStar. Better never stops. Right, right. It's like I got this music in my mind, which I actually thought that was a linchpin of a line for this poem. So, agreed. Um, oh, several months ago, I asked people on Instagram and TikTok, what one lyric is like the thesis statement to Taylor Swift and to Taylor Swift's whole discography. And there were several that came up and several that I had like three or four that I thought were that. And then some, some people commented, like two or three different people commented that it would, it might be, it's like I got this music in my mind saying it's going to be all right. And it's like, you know what, that might be it. Because.

all of her songs are just how she's dealing with literally everything that happens to her, you know? And so I think that could be, that could be like the linchpin, not just to this song, but like to Taylor's entire career. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I liked it in the context of this, of this poem a great deal. I think that it's, you know, I mean, you can say it's a simile. It's like.

It's as if I have this. I'm not sure it's a true simile because it's not comparing two dissimilar things. But certainly she says that she has something inside of her that impels her to explore her creative self. Right. And, you know, nothing is going to stop that, you know, so that music becomes for her a symbol of self-appreciation. It becomes a symbol of joy, kind of internal creativity that, you know, that you can't stop. I think it's also, it's part of her argument. artistic identity.

Yeah. I mean, it's who she is to say it's in my head. Yes. Can't stop, won't stop moving. It's like I got music in my mind. It's a metaphor for art. She is the artist, symbolizing self-expression, creativity itself, saying it's going to be all right. Personification, the music is kind of personified as something capable of, of, of

speaking, we're at the end of the chorus, and this is her argument, at the end of the pre-chorus, and we get to the chorus, and here comes the very famous, very controversial. Players got to play, play, play, play, play. I understand she had some legal difficulties. Yeah, yeah. Some guy said that, actually, I think there's been a couple of lawsuits about this song. There have been, yeah. I did look it up because I was interested.

Yeah. And there have been two different lawsuits from two different artists who say that he wrote the original lyric. You know, both cases were dismissed. Yes. You know, to say player's going to play, haters going to hate are common expressions. Again, this is a catalog poem. So she's making a list. Yeah, and she's saying like these, like it's like this is, it is common phrases on purpose, kind of.

Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, again, I think that she is, you know, maintaining that monosyllabism of tone because she's constantly poking humor of the fact that she's not aware of these things. Of course she is. Right. So these are also archetypes, you know, large symbolic images, you know, the player. Yeah. Okay.

The hater. Yeah. Right. So there are archetypal images. It is also, to say players go to play or haters got to hate, it is. is a tautological expression. Okay. You have lots of big phrases for us today.

I got big words for you. I'm real smart. I wasn't expecting any of this for shake it off. So you didn't expect me to discuss tautology? I didn't, no. Ah, yes, tautology. Totological expressions are when embedded in an expression are words that don't really need to be said.

Oh, okay. It's like the expression free gift. Okay. Okay, okay. If it's a gift, it's free. It's free. Okay, okay, okay. ATM machine. Yes, I hate that one.

Pin number, the worst. Yeah, I mean, it's like ATM. Well, the M means machine, all right? The automatic teller machine machine, right? That is tautological. You don't really need to say it. Gotcha. So you don't need to say players going to play, play, play, play, play, play.

You just need to say there are players. There are haters. Right? But, so why does she engage in tautology? So I can say the word. Yeah, because it's fun. I don't, because it's fun. It's also epizuxes, so let's not forget.

A tautological expression where using epizuxes? That is correct, ma'am. So, yeah, I think that she is deliberately stating the obvious. Right. And she's saying, this should be so painfully. apparent to anyone who cares or watches, but somehow or another, people still read this crap and care. Yeah. Yeah.

And now, you know, 12 years later, it's worse than ever. Yes, we're still doing it. Let's not forget her poetic chops, you know, players play, nice alliteration, haters, hate, parallelism, archetypes, epizuxes, you know, consonants, so more illiteration. haters hate, parallelism, archetypes, epizuxes, you know, consonants, so more alliteration. All of that is poetically really fun, and it also is a catalog of people who, you know, are going to say these things should be tautologically expunged from the public conscience. But somehow all she has to do is just shake, shake, shake, shake. Shake, shake, shake, right? You got a baby in there, too.

And a baby. Baby, I'm just going to shake, shake, shake, shake. You know, I love the word baby in my poetry. You love it. So shaking extends the governing metaphor of motion. Right. Right. So motion leads to joy, self-expression, self-fulfillment, you know, moving on, rationalization, internal rationalization.

So shaking is synonymous with the cruising. Yeah. Yeah. It's nice. She knows what she's doing. She sure does, doesn't she? What do you know? I will shake it off.

So shaking it off is a metaphor, you know, like physically removing dust, water. You know, it's deliberately, essentially metaphorically releasing the emotional burden of all the criticism. Right. I'm just going to release it and move along. Yes. I'm just like some old dog who is going to... That's a dog. It's also a really kind of fun performative language, right?

So it's kinetic imagery, you know, because the shaking itself is very kinetic. That's a fun connection between this and last week's episode with State of Grace. You were talking about the kinetic energy of that song. That's right. I was talking about kinetic energy. Yeah, there's a really fun poem by Theodore Rethke. I wake to sleep and take my waking slow. I learn by going where I have to go.

And he says, this shaking keeps me steady, I should know. He uses the line, the shaking keeps me steady. That's nice. That's what this song is about. It's all about it. Yeah. Yeah, it's ironic. It is counterintuitive.

It is paradoxical that shaking would keep her steady. Yeah. But it does, right? Interesting. That's fun. The shaking keeps me steady. I should know.

And then she goes on with the list. Heartbreakers got a break, break, break, break, break, break. Okay, so she's cataloging again. We've got players, haters, heartbreakers. You know, don't forget polyptoton. She's there, too. And then fakers got a fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake. And this rounds out our list of four suspects, players, haters, heartbreakers, and fakers.

So they're all archetypal. They're all images of the falsity of public criticism. And she says, baby, I'm just going to shake, shake, shake, shake, shake. So repetition becomes this incremental repetition becomes a motif for her. She's going to shake it off. And that gets us to the end of the chorus. Yeah, did it. So I made a list.

I went back and I kind of rerounded. up all the different literary devices. Okay. You know, and it's really for a poem that is monosyllabic and apparently very simple, the functionality of the literary devices is really interesting. I mean, you've got the extended metaphor, the shaking that symbolizes emotional release, resilience, self-determination. You've got the parallelism, the repeated lines, suggesting that human behavior follows certain

patterns that there's a circularity about all the ridiculous criticism. Epizuxis, the immediate repetition of playing, hating, shaking, breaking, faking, right, creates a rhythmic energy reinforces her key ideas. You've got the archetypes of the big four, right? The players, haters, heartbreakers, and fakers that are these universal social types that she says, you know, these aren't people. Right, right, right. These are not your friends.

These are not people I grew up with. This is not you or me. This is not someone in our family or someone you know. These are, you know, who knows who are anonymously posting on Reddit. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Yeah. You've got cataloging of all the archetypes. You've got the refrain, all the sound devices with alliteration consonants,

rhythmic repetition, making the chorus memorable and movement really, really fun. Okay. I have a question for these people. I need you to tell me in the comments. If you thought that Uncle Jerry was going to find all of this stuff and shake it off, because I did not. This is shocking to me. It really is.

Not because I doubt you. I just doubted the song. Okay. So, you know, it is interesting that we, the song. the song appears simple. Right. Right. But you pointed out it was like four weeks at number one.

And yeah, I mean, I looked it up. It's like number one in 30 different nations. Yeah, so many countries. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And 10 million downloads in America. And, I mean, it's like 10 times platinum and multiple gold. And the Aussies love it. Yeah.

You know, I don't know. Yeah, it's There are reasons why these things are good And and a part of it is the rhetoric of the song Interesting, yeah Yeah, I really do believe that I think that embedded in the upscale music And the fun video and the alluring imagery

that you see inside the video, which by the way is visual rhetoric Yes, yeah You know, are a number of rhetorical devices that simply please our mind. Yeah. You know, I mean, if you think about it, rhetoric is all about how we perceive things, you know, the words create perceptions in our brain. Right. You know, and really good rhetoric does a good job of pleasing our brains.

Interesting. Yeah. And so this has really good rhetorical elements. I feel like people are skipping this episode. Because they're like that, what are they even going to talk about? Yeah. And you shouldn't. Tell your friends.

Don't skip it. I mean, you should never miss a beat. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. What I'm saying. Because we are lightning on our feet. That is correct. Oh, that's the next line.

Verse two. Yes. Are you ready? Yeah. I never miss a beat. Okay. The second verse opens with a declaration of confidence. She has laid out the argument of others.

She has laid out her rebuttal, a refusal to accept it, and she has characterized them in one of four archetypal areas where they all sucky. Yeah. And now she's going to say, I never miss a beat, right? She has confidence. It contrasts with the insecurity of the criticism in the first verse. Right. It is an idiom, you know, to never miss a beat.

beat, you know, literally means to be composed, um, to be adaptable under pressure. Uh, for her, it's a double entendre. Right. Right. Right. She never misses a beat because she is composed and adaptable under pressure, but also she's a musician. Right.

Right. And she's saying, I'm a consummate musician. I don't miss a beat. Right. Right. So, uh, I think it's kind of fun. Me too. There's also a little foreshadowing, you know, because we're going to keep dancing.

Yeah. Um, I'm lightning on my feet. Okay. So I made a note Compared to feet in Marjorie, feet on the ground. In Marjorie, right, the feet were you couldn't touch the bottom. And in Peter, she hoped

someday his feet would be on the ground. Yes. Okay, yes, yes, yes, yes, coming to the ground. But they're not. And then in Opelite dancing through the lightning strikes. And I knew you. She's memorizing the sound of bare footsteps.

Oh, that's right, bare footsteps. Running wild. Oh, so clearly, Taylor Swift has a foot fetish. This is actually a thing that people think. Oh, no, really? Well, I'm glad we came upon it then. Only just because, like, her first album, like, on the CD, you know, back when we, I know. I was, I was, like, ready for you to say that after that.

I was like, he's going to say it. He's going to try to make a joke, but I'm going to. She had a picture, like, of her feet on the, like, her feet wore the picture on the CD. And they're just always, like, she had her feet. is barefoot in pictures and she's all showing off her feet and people, I don't think people actually think it, but it's like a joke that Taylor has something weird with feet. Yeah. And I'm glad you picked up on that. Yeah. So now we have to add, to the list of haters, liars, fakers, and foot fetish people. Yeah. Yeah.

Gosh. Okay. It's a metaphor. Yes. Gotcha. comparing lightning to having exceptional speed, ability, vitality, right? It's hyperbolic. It's also kinetic imagery, right? And alliteration. And maybe it has to do with a foot fetish. I'm not sure.

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and has just dropped their new limited edition deodorant and antipersprint collection for 72 hours sweat and odor protection, helping you stay fresh from Kempel off to the final whistle. Visit dove.com slash CA slash E.N. slash men dash care to shop now. Hopefully not. And that's what they don't see. Mm-hmm. Okay, so now we've got contrasting lines. You know, that's what people say, but now it's, this is what they don't see.

Yeah, they're saying it because they don't see the real meaning. They don't see it. Yeah. So she's constructing this compare contrast or contrasting image. Essentially, she's setting it up in us versus them because we see it. Or it's a me versus them. Right. She sees it.

Or it's a reality versus perception kind of thing, right? You know, this is their perception, but here is the reality. Yeah. She's saying this is who Taylor Swift is at home versus Taylor Swift, the brand. That's right. At home, I bet she just has her feet up. Yeah. Give her a break.

That's what they don't see. mhm, epizuxis, she's repeating parallelism. It's got that motif of repetition. You know, so, you know, one thing to say about repetition that I hadn't mentioned is

the more times, rhetorically, the more times you say a thing, the more acceptable it becomes to people. Interesting. Yeah, and I think it works in this song. It can also be a little scary. Okay. Right, because politicians

will use the same catchphrase over and over and over again. And despite all evidence to the contrary, just keep saying it. They keep saying it, and people will begin to believe it because they hear it over and over again. But it does work epizuotically. I'm dancing on my own.

Okay. Dance, you know, takes, goes back to that central image of motion. She's shaking. she's dancing, she's moving, she's cruising. Dancing is also an artistic expression. Right. And notice that she says, on my own, which is interesting, she's declaring her being single.

Maybe she really is cruising. So it adds to that extended metaphor. I was interested in the phrase, on my own, because it felt ambiguous. Literally, she's dancing without a partner, but figuratively, she's dancing. She's choosing her own path regardless of other people's opinions. Okay.

Right. And I think that she does intend it both directions. Okay. Yeah, she's saying, I'm following my own, you know, my own inspiration, my own artistic creativity, you know, and she's also saying I'm doing it despite and without the help of what the critics have to say or offer. Yeah, that's a nice thought. She's like, I'm doing what I've got to do.

So come with me or not. Yeah. I make the moves up as I go. This may be one of her philosophies of life, you know, extending the idea of dance. I think that improvisation here is symbolic. It's about adaptability. It's about confidence. It's about self-authorship, right?

You know, I'm creating my own work and I'm creating my own public persona. I want that creative freedom. Thank you, I don't need your input. Right, exactly. Yeah. Right. And that's what they don't know. Yeah.

You know, it's a kind of progression. So in verse one, she says that's what people say. Early in verse two, she says, that's what they don't see. And now here she says, that's what they don't know. Yeah. Right. And so the internal. integrity of the poem is constructed at a sophisticated level.

Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's very intentional to have that progression of these three lines. And I don't think you should miss that, you know. The three lines sound simple. You know, that's what people say.

That's what they don't see and that's what they don't know. But they're not simple. Yeah, but taken in the verse, they all, that tells a real story. Right. Yeah. So we get to the last line. That's what they don't know. So she is underscoring, reiterating, creating that circularity that we saw in the previous area, that cadential closure.

I don't know. I just, I really like it a lot. And I liked it so much I wrote a little paragraph. Okay. Let's hear it. Verse two's contribution to the song. Okay. I think it transforms the song from a simple rejection of criticism into a mediation of the limits of public criticism, right?

Because she's really, I mean, she's asking this question and making a case for herself. Yes. But is she not also asking these questions and making a case for every other celebrity or every other person or you in the context of your life? Right. Anyone. We don't really know. Anyone. Right. You know, we know our friends probably. But, like, anybody, like, at work, we don't know what those people are, like, actually going through. We don't know what their actual motivations are.

Right. You know, and I have to say that, you know, I will use myself as an example when, you know, 19 years ago, 20 years ago now, when I became a dean. And I moved from professorial rings into being a dean into administration. you know, I still had dozens of friends who were professors. And yet, you know, and in the closest cases, their perception of me didn't change a bit. Right. But some of them did change in their perception of me based on my being an administrator. Right, yeah.

You know, it's hard to walk around the corner into a dining room and hear someone talking about Dr. Coates in a most pejorative way because of a decision that I made. that may or may not have affected their life at that time. And that's a hard thing. I mean, I would wish that they would trust me and know that I'm making the best decision possible. But... Yeah, but you're not on the same team anymore, really? No. Yeah.

No. And I am subject to that criticism. So essentially, in verse two, rather than simply dismissing her critics, she suggests that they are fundamentally incapable of seeing the qualities that matter most. resilience, creativity, adaptability, explorations and expressions of joy. You know, here's what I'm trying to do.

I'm just trying to make things adaptable, joyful. I'm just trying to explore my own self-expression, and you've got to go cashed on me. You know, why are you going to do that? I think that the recurring imagery of the dance extends that metaphor of self-authorship. She not only wants to maintain authorship of her own, music, but authorship of her own self-image.

Yeah. Right. Yeah, and choosing dancing, now that you're saying, oh, this is funny. Like, this song is, like, I think she's talking about just dancing, shaking it off. That's the motion that we're feeling, that we're seeing. And at this time, I mean, still to this day, but at this time, especially, people were always making fun of how bad of a dancer she was. Oh, is that right?

Yes. Like, that was, like, a huge thing is, like, this girl is a terrible dancer. she's not a good performer. Like, I don't understand why anyone pays to go to those concerts because she's a horrible. Like, she just looks so awkward up there. And so it's funny to, like, use dance in a way to be like, well, y'all can say whatever you want, but I'm going to stay over here, like, looking like a dork, and I'm going to have fun with it, you know? Yeah.

You know, I hate to be self-deprecating, but, you know, when I was in the musical, hairspraying. I played Edna, and one of the dance teachers did the choreography for it. And I sing fairly well. Dancing is not

my forte. And so in the big final number, I'm supposed to dance and sing. And at one point during rehearsal, she said, Jerry, if you'll just move your arms, it will look like you're dancing.

So Taylor, you and I have something in common, barely. But you're doing it in heels. Yeah. She does it in heels. I know. It's, that's difficult. Okay, back to the second verse. So, yeah, I think the second verse is really important for us.

Yeah, agree. I think that what she's doing is she's claiming an authentic identity inside of self-expression despite external judgment. Yeah. Right? She says, you know, those people. external to my life, external to your life, you know, and I'm just trying to make music here, and I'm not missing a beat.

Yeah. And then we get to the pre-chorus, the chorus, the chorus, the post-corrhose, and to be honest with you, it's more of the same. Yeah. It is repetition. She's underscoring her ideas. So really, it's nothing that we have an R&C. No, the only changes from, and the first pre-chorus is Can't Stop, One Stop, Move in, and the

second pre-chorus is. can't stop, won't stop grooving. Yeah, grooving is good. Yeah. Then we get to the interlude. Yes. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey.

The interlude begins with an attention-geting exclamation. And I'm reminded of the very first word of Beowulf in Anglo-section, Hwatt, which essentially means no one quite knows how it translates. We don't know what that means. But Huat, Gordina. But Huat means. hey or listen it's usually translated listen

or something like that yeah so she starts out hey hey hey she's she's going to create an apostrophe an apostrophe is a direct address of someone who is not present yes right so

she is yelling hey trying to get the audience's attention remember this is an oral performance so she's going to say, just think while you've been getting down and out about the liars and the dirty, dirty

cheats of the world, you could have been getting down to this sick meet, yes, to the illness of her music. Yeah, it's, so what's different here in the interlude is she's talking directly to us. Right. Right. So you notice the second person address shift. Just think while you've been. getting down.

And, you know, she's going to use ambiguity in the word or polyptoton in the word down. Because to get down means to be emotionally depressed. Right. But to get down means to dance. To dance. To groove it out. To groove it out. Yes.

So we have colloquial diction, and I think she means both. Right. You know, she creates, she uses the D. alliteration kind of sonically heavy. And she goes back to those liars for the archetypal group to pick out. So, you know, she's, she's, what I find interesting in the first two words, just think. That's an imperative mood. So she's telling us, you'd better, she's telling you, not asking you, telling you,

and addressing you directly. rather than getting sad and depressed about all the dirty, dirty cheats of the world, you know, back to cataloging, hyperbotic language, she says you could have been getting down in a different way. So we have the double meaning rather than feeling discouraged, dancing enthusiastically to this sick beat. And sick here does not mean illness. No.

Good. Good. Fun. That's right. The beat is really fun. And then we get the bridge. You know, as much as I like this poem, the bridge is a funny turn for me. It is, yeah.

You know, it's, I mean, I think I understand why she does it. Okay. But I'm not sure it works poetically. Okay, yeah. If she were to publish this as a poem, I think I would maybe use, use my editing pen and say maybe not or maybe amend it

to just a couple of lines. Okay. But the bridge she says my ex-man brought his new girlfriend she's like oh my God but I'm just going to shake and to the fella over there with the hell of good hair

won't you come on over baby we can shake Shake, shake, yeah, oh, oh. That was delightful to hear you read. The phrase, my ex-man, deliberately informal, slightly playful, you know, if she wanted to have a little more respect, she would say, my former lover or my ex-boyfriend, but she says, my ex-man. Again, this is called slanted argument, rhetorically slanted argument, with his new girlfriend. and I wondered if either the ex-man or the new girlfriend are real or are they symbols of moving social awkwardness and metonymy, you know, are they examples of things you see in public?

She creates this scene whereby she walks into someplace, sees her ex with a girl, and the girl says, oh, my God, and she just says, I'm going to shake, shake, shake, shake, shake. It is kind of like You're talking about all this motion that's happening And it is kind of like here is more motion Like he moved on There's a new girl

But what I'm going to do is I'm going to move on and shake And then I'm actually going to say Oh there's another guy They said I date too much But there is another guy And I'm going to move forward with him And I'm going to go dance with him instead That's right

He has he has hella good hair, after all. Can't say no to a man with nice hair. Exactly right. And internal rhyme with there and hair. Uh-huh. Right. Yeah, I mean, I think that's why she does it. She's been talking in abstracts and in archetypes up till now.

Mm-hmm. In this poem, she's been creating an argument whereby, you know, critics are going to say these certain things about her, but she's going to ignore it and she's going to move on and she's going to indulge in her or, you know, in her artistic endeavor. and to explore her own persona. All right, perfect.

But what she hasn't given us is a concrete example, right? And so I think that what she's doing here is she's giving us a concrete example. For example, if I walk into a social situation and one of my exes is over there with a new girlfriend who says, oh, my God. You know, then I don't care. I'm going to move on with the next guy. So there. Yeah. Yeah.

We're just going to shake it together. That's right. Also notice the use of direct dialogue, oh my God, says the girl. She said, oh, my God. You know, last time I talked about free indirect dialogue or free indirect discourse, you know, where you slide into the mind of the person. Right. This is direct, it's essentially objectifying the girlfriend. Interesting.

And all she has to say is, oh, my God. Well, if there was ever a vacuous thing to say, that would be it. So, you know, now who doesn't have a brain? Mm. Right? And it's the ex-boyfriend and it's the new girlfriend. The new girl, yeah. They're the ones.

Which I found to be an interesting, an interesting moment because essentially is she casting shade on him? Yeah, she like doing the same thing that she's saying that people shouldn't do to her. Ooh, Taylor. Interesting. And then we have this mini Volto where she suddenly turns to the guy with the hell of good hair and says, you know what? That's part of my life. I'm going to explore that too. Want to come over here?

Let's shake, shake, shake, yeah, oh, oh. I thought the O's were kind of cathartic. It also signals a sort of musical transition. So we end to that little tableau, that little scene, and we just go. We're right back into it. Yeah, we go playing off into the musical wilderness. Because the whole rest of the poem, the chorus and the post chorus, is essentially. you know, these repeated elements.

Right. The final chorus is, I mean, I think they're seeking affirmation through the repetition, right? So they... Yeah, yeah. So they conclude that there's... I don't know that it reflects on any important psychological insight. No, yeah.

It's just... We're just shaking. It's just like, whoopie, I'm shaking it off, and I'm moving out. Thank you very much. Yeah. And that's the song. My name is Peter Parker, but I'm also...

Spider-Man. This July We're faced with a threat That could be anyone The world may have forgotten Peter Parker I'm just a neighbor Friendly neighbor But he hasn't forgotten them

Sometimes Spider Man has to do the hard thing That's my responsibility Talk to Banner I didn't know you could get that big Spider Man Brand New Day In theaters July 31st Hey y'all's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair

Ever order furniture online And wonder what if Like what if it doesn't hold up That sofa was four days old You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what-if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit Wayfair. Every style, every home. Overall motifs and theme? Several recurrent motifs. Performance versus authenticity. She distinguishes between her true self and the version created by public discourse. And she suggests that her identity is partly bound to performance. motion versus paralysis. She's not going to be paralyzed by what critics have to say.

She's going to prefer motion. Dancing becomes an antidote to the immobilizing and shaming effects of public criticism. So on Speak Now, which is two albums before this, there's a song called Mean. And it's about, I think it's about a specific critic, but it's about critics in general. and she's like, all you are is mean. Someday I'm going to be this big thing living in a big old city, but all you'll ever be is mean.

And I think Taylor was probably, you know, 18 when she wrote that song. And in this song, she's probably like 22, 23. And I think there is a lot of growth from mean to this, because this song, that song is almost like, she's very much like, why are you being mean to me?

I'm just a little kid, you know? Like, I'm just a child trying to live my, dreams. Like, why are you criticizing everything I do? And in this one, she's just like accepted, like, oh, this is just part of life, you know? So I just need to like tune that out and keep moving forward. You know, it's, it is kind of stunning. I mean, I can't imagine what goes on in her head as she matures as a human being. You know, you pointed out to me that she started, that she first got noticed when she was 14. Yeah, she had like a songwriting deal. Like she wasn't, it was just a songwriting, like publishing deal when she was 14 and then her debut album came out when she was 16.

When she was 16. I remember that. She got the actual record deal. That's just stunning. Uh-huh. So how old is she when she's writing this? This is like probably 22-ish. Yeah.

This is 12 years ago. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's a lot to live with. Yeah, but she's doing all right. Okay.

Taken as a whole Yes Holistically shake it off You know I think that it's You know I mean The first few times you actually read through And pay attention to the lyrics It feels like she's trying to put up a persona

Of indifference toward the critics But it's more than that She is essentially It's a rhetorical performance The rhetorical argument of resilience and resistance Yeah. She's saying, you know, you guys are not just bad. You're the worst.

And here's a list of the types of things you do. You know, she essentially takes the criticism and she reframes it through her humor by laughing at it. And, you know, it is, it's by laughing at something that you can effectually render it powerless. Right, exactly. And so I think that's what she's doing is she is, you know, no one's going to ever achieve in some. silencing your critics. No. But, you know, you can render them less powerful by laughing at them,

and you can, you know, maintain your own inner peace by shaking. Yeah, ignoring it and dancing on your own over there. That's right. Yeah. Okay. I know you already heard this song. I have. Do you want to hear it again?

I have intentionally not listened to it. Okay. But it's been playing in my head. nigh these last few days. Maybe if you listen to the whole thing, it'll get out of there. Sure. Sometimes that helps me. Okay.

And then should we have a word about the visual rhetoric? Oh, do you want to talk about that now or after we watch the video? We can talk about it now. Do you want to? Sure. Yeah, it's, I mean, I understand that people talked about cultural appropriation. I can understand why they would say that. It is a concern, you know.

I will say that, I mean, if my sister listens to this episode, she's going to be very disappointed because for me, the movie White Christmas is flawed. Yeah, I could see your face. You knew I was going to say White Christmas, didn't you? Yeah, that was exactly what I thought you were going to bring out. Yeah. Yeah, if you've ever seen White Christmas, 1954, Danny Kay. Big Crosby.

I love that movie when I was little. Yeah. The menstrual show that they put on. Yeah. Is troubling to me. It's genuinely troubling. For sure. I mean, you know, in menstrual shows, for those of you who are not Americans and don't know what a minstrel show is, they're originally performed in the early 1800s by white people.

and they essentially made fun of black people, African Americans in black culture. So there is a white interlocutor called Mr. Interlocutor, and then there are two black characters generally called Mr. Tambo and Mr. Bones. And Mr. Tambo plays a tambourine, Mr. Bones rattles bones, and they tell jokes. And they were played in blackface by white people. Right.

After the Civil War, they began to be played by black people. but audiences still required the black people to wear black face because they thought it was funny. Oh, Jesus, I didn't know that part. Yes. And the expression Jim Crow may affect originate out of minstrel shows, you know, characterization of them as lazy, flippant, you know, from this song without a brain. It troubles me in White Christmas that they have that scene. And they literally call one of them Mr.

Tambo and the other one, Mr. Bones. They actually thought or they decided not to do it in Blackface, thank goodness. Oh, wow. They really saved themselves there. Yes, but 12 years earlier in the movie Holiday Inn, also starring Bing Crosby,

there was a Blackface musical number in that movie that was the first use of the song White Christmas by Irving Berlin. So a lot of the elements from Holiday Inn were reprised in white Christmas. The other

scene that bothers me a lot is I like modern dance. I didn't always like modern dance. I've always liked ballet. I used to take students to ballet. When I taught high school, I taught high school students to the ballet.

But when I became dean of liberal arts, I was also over dance. And the dance teacher is primarily contemporary dance instruction. And And they gave me a really good education. I got to sit in on their classes. And I learned about enough about modern dance to understand some of it

and to be just a huge admirer of it and a huge appreciator of it. And in White Christmas, Danny Kay has a parody moment where he drops into a modern dance scene. And it's the song, Choreography, where they make fun of the American contemporary dance scene. Gotcha. And I have a problem with that. I do. I have a problem with making fun of someone's art. For sure, yeah.

And if you've never seen modern dance, if you've never seen the athleticism and the creative and the beauty of it, then the dance teacher on campus would be so proud of me for saying. Yeah. You know, then you have to be an admirer of it. And it's painful for me to watch Danny Kay make fun of it. Yeah. It's just hard.

So I get it. When I watch this video, when I think about it, you know, when she drops into the various scenarios with the different kinds of dance. Right. Yeah. I mean, I understand why some people were critical of that. Yeah. To me, it was what I was just saying. Like, everyone was saying she was a terrible dancer and terrible performer.

And so she was like playing that up with being like, yeah, these people are all amazing performers. And here I am trying and I'm like failing at all of it. And I'm, you know, I'm the mockery. but I do also understand where that was coming from at the same time. And please don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that I agree with the critics. Yeah. I really disagree with those critics.

You know, I do believe that she is, as you say, you know, having fun and mocking herself. Yeah. You know, like this song, there are moments of self-depreciation that make this a believable, credible. It adds to the ethos of the song. I think it adds to the ethos of what we see in terms of this. visual rhetoric. Yeah. And I still, when she comes out with the glasses and the straight hair and she looks like Lady Gaga,

I laugh every time. Yeah. I do enjoy the video. I was watching. I hadn't watched that in many years. And last night I was like finding links and figuring out what we were going to watch today. And I ended up watching the video a couple of times. I ended up watching the performance of Shake It Off through like the 1989 tour, the rep tour,

the ERAs tour, the final show of the Ares. I was watching so much, and I was like, is this my favorite song? I don't know. I was having a really good time with it, but yeah. So let's watch the video. Okay. And we'll come back after that. Sounds great.

Okay. It is a fun. It's a fun song. It's fun. I never, I never, I'm never turning, shake it off on. But if it comes on, I'm there, you know? Okay. I got one more for you.

Okay. Okay. So this is when I need my, my, My true scholar hat. I was really, one of the reasons why I stopped Friday night working on this song and went to the other one is because I kind of got overwhelmed. I thought about a book by Richard Dyer titled Star. It was published in 1979. Okay.

And I don't have a copy of it here. Shocker. How many of yours is shocked by that? Yeah, I actually checked it out from the library. but it's really about movie actors, but it's been applied to any kind of celebrity anywhere. And Stanford University of Stanford, Stanford University in California,

has a project where they explore the nature of star. And he's got a whole rubric for analyzing, for example, dissonance between, You know, a celebrity's self-perception and reception in public and, you know, perception of skills. You know, we begin to evaluate celebrities in different ways with a whole set of expectations. And what they do is a kind of explore expectations. So you take somebody like Tom Cruise. Okay.

Right. You know, what do you know about Tom Cruise? You know, what's your opinion of Tom Cruise? What do you read about him in articles? What do you see about him in interviews? What do you know about his private life? Do you know about his romances? A couple of them are kind of famous.

Yeah. What types of movies are, is Tom Cruise in? Action movies. Action movies. He's very famous for, you know, doing his own stunts. So the expectation among fans is he's going to be athletic, he's going to do his own stunts. There have been some stuntman who say, well, he doesn't do all of them. Yeah.

Right. And so there's a dissonance between the story that his press group puts out and what other people put out. And essentially, the nature of celebrity is that it is crafted from a variety of desperate, from different elements. Like who you are really, who you want to be, who you aspire to be, how you're characterized by your press agent, how you're moving. movies represent you, how your songs represent you. Yeah. And if you think about what Taylor Swift does is she very carefully crafts a persona that allows people to buy into the nature of that crafted persona. Absolutely, yeah.

For example, I mean, I thought about the song Marjorie. Uh-huh. You know, what's she's saying there on a macro level? she's saying, I loved my grandmother. Yeah. Right. Who doesn't respect that? Right.

Right. We respect that. You know, what's she saying in a song like Peter? She's saying, I remember my childhood and I miss it. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm sorry that celebrity has taken me away from that. Oh, we respect that. You know, what's she's saying in this poem?

She's saying, you know, other people write about me in it's just not true. You know, I'm not that person. I'm just trying to pursue my craft. Right. Right. Are any of those really her? Yeah, I guess not. I mean, we don't know.

We don't know. It could be. Right. You know, and then you take your life and you superimpose that onto some of her songs. Yeah, because she's a mirror ball. Because she is a mirror ball, right. You know, a couple of weeks ago, you know, we did a song. song about, you know, lost love, about trying to transition through lost love.

She has a lot of those. You know, well, everybody's lost love. Right. And so when we hear that, we superimpose it. And so we say, oh, she's just like me. Yeah, she's just like me. That's right. Yeah.

We're best friends, me and Taylor. I think it would be interesting to take Richard Dyer's rubric in Star and do her whole catalog of songs and try to. to see how she's crafting through the interviews, through the grand expos like her marriage, you know, through her public appearances and performances. And please tell, please know that showing up at a chief's game

and sitting in a box where she knows she is going to be featured is a performance. Right. Yeah. And people are going to look and see how did she dress. Right. What was she wearing? What was that jewelry like?

Yes. I mean, I even remarked on the jewelry she wore on Stephen Colbert. Oh, yeah. Yeah, with the red and the, yeah, yeah, I remember. Yeah, the rubies. Yeah, and so everyone's going to be analyzing all those. And those are intentionally crafted elements that create celebrity. Exactly, yes.

It would be interesting to see how she crafts her own celebrity. Interesting, yeah. And this song would be a part of it. Absolutely, yeah. And I mean, I feel like that is a little bit of a conversation, a part of the conversation that people have been having recently because she is just so, like, you can't, I mean, you know it now, Like you can't, people are talking.

People are asking you about Taylor now. Right. And people that you wouldn't assume would have any desire to know anything about Taylor. Like they want to know things. They want to know what you know. And it is so interesting to think about how she's almost become like, I can't think of the word I'm trying to think of. She's like a lightning rod. Yeah, she certainly is a lightning rod.

I guess, I mean, maybe that is like the right word. She is the lightning rod for like everything that we want. Everything that we think is bad about celebrity and money and all the things. Like people put all of that onto her. Yeah. Whether it's fair or not, you know. Oh, sure. I mean, so she made a buck selling music.

Yeah. What's wrong with that exactly? Yeah. I don't know. It just was, it was kind of overwhelming because I guess a number of these songs kept coming back to me. You know, I mean, in love. story. She talks about falling in love, you know, at first sight. Isn't that sweet? Taylor Swift is a kind of girl who falls in love at first sight. Taylor Swift is a kind of girl who wants the fairy

tale. Taylor Swift is a kind of girl who loves her grandma. Right. You know, I mean, and she's essentially sending message after message after message after message after message, you know, through these songs and interviews and appearances and, you know, does she ever get mad at her dancers and yell at them. I don't know. I wonder if she does. I didn't see it when we went to see the movie. You know, it was always just like happy times. Right. Yeah. I wonder if they would show that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's a crafted image. And I guess I just got really, really interested in it. And you can cut this whole last part of it. No, no, not at all. I think that's like, it's like such, And I feel like that's such a timely conversation, too, because I just feel like she kind of is like the celebrity at the moment that we're all throwing positive or negative things at, you know.

And I think it really does say more about all of us and it does her. I wondered about that too because, yeah, each of our individual personalities is going to have an opportunity to interact with everything that we see. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. You know, it's like I see her video and I think, yeah, I understand how someone. Some people might consider that to be cultural appropriation, but if you really want to see cultural appropriation as worst, go watch White Christmas. Right. Right. Yeah. You know, and that's in me, right, because I'm a movie buff and I recall those things and think about that movie and it's reception.

Yeah, it's, I don't know, fascinating. Someone asked me, you guys have been asking, when am I going to write a book? And I told my wife I'm not going to write a book. And now I'm thinking, you know. You've got like 100 pages there on Shake It Off. I know. And I'm thinking, you know, it would be interesting to analyze the message, the celebrity messages she is crafting through her songs. Because these are messages.

For sure. Yeah. Yeah. That's a fun thought. Okay. That's all I got. Let's shake it off. Simple, easy.

This has been a shocker of an episode for me. I'm not going to lie. It's fun, though. Okay, good. I'm having a great time. Okay, you ready to grade? Yes, I am. All right.

Shake it off from 1989. Lyrical Strength. You know, the multifazed repetition, and it just, it didn't have a lot of the same typical tailor elements. Yeah. It didn't have the heavy metaphorical use. It did have the focusing metaphor of motion, which is really nice. Yeah. So I'm going to say a 93.

Okay. Narrative and structure. So, you know, I'm going to say maybe a rhetorical ability instruction. Okay. Because the rhetoric to me is what was really interesting. Okay, yeah. You know, the way she crafts an argument. She says, here's what they say, here's what I say, here's what we should feel.

Here's what you should feel. And here's an example. Yeah. Right. 96. Okay. Production and atmosphere. I mean, come on. I played this for dance hall on Fridays. I mean, it's a number one hit. It's a hundred.

Okay. I know. Yes. Is that the first hundred I've given from? Maybe. I don't know. Maybe Peter. New Romantics you gave a hundred for production. Oh yeah. That was fine. And Peter. Yeah. Those are the only two. That's funny. Yeah. It's like the gamut, you know? Yes. Shake it off to Peter. It's a new romantics. Okay. Um, lore and literary references. Oh, you know, I just, I don't know that it counts for this. Yeah, I guess not. I mean, 88. Okay. And emotional impact.

I was, I was twisted up by this one. I was going to say, you really. Yeah, I was. Not in a happy way. I mean, it was really fascinating to me to begin to think of it rhetorically and to begin to think of it as, as one. one tiny Lego chip in this whole edifice that we call Taylor Swift. Yeah. Yeah.

So 98. Oh my goodness. Okay. That gives us a 95 for shake it off. Kind of all over the place. Yeah. The grades go from 88 to 100 on that one. Yeah.

Not very consistent. Oh, those look great. Thank you. Okay. This is a higher score than I was expecting this to get. I thought this was going to be another bee. Oh, no? But she did it.

She knocked out of the park. She did. That glitter gel pen. She whipped it out and there you go. Okay. Is that all you got? That's all I got. You got a little dog.

Got a little lady here. Okay. Please come back next week for our one year anniversary episode. What? And on social, you can follow us at Swiftie and Scholar Pod. You can follow Uncle Jerry at Dr. Uncle Jerry. You can follow me at Angela Wyatt McDowell and we will see you next week. Bye. Peace out.