Taylor Swift in a $42 Million Dollar Copyright Law Infringement Lawsuit
The first single of Taylor Swift's current album "1989" is a crucial turning point for her career as she used it to launch herself into full pop stardom. Stepping out of her usual country romantic, highschool love songs, she took a risk with releasing an album that is full of songs completely unlike what her fans are used to hearing. Swift's risk definitely paid off as she released "Shake It Off" and it became an instant hit everywhere.
However, with her fame comes a lot of criticisms, and now, perhaps one of the most expensive hits on Swift is about to happen. Swift is currently facing a $42 million dollar lawsuit filed against her by R&B artist Jesse Graham. According to Taste of Country, Graham claims that the certified 8-platinum song by Swift had borrowed lyrics from his 2013 song "Haters Gone Hate." Although it wasn't entirely copied, Graham specifies that the line in "Shake It Off" chorus "Cause the players gonna play play play play play / And the haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate," was taken off from his lyrics, "Haters gonna hate, players gonna play."
Although the tunes of both songs are very different from one another, Graham states otherwise to NY Daily News, as he says "Her hook is the same hook as mine." He also pointed out that the phrase was used almost 72 times and added that, "If I didn't write the song 'Haters Gone Hate,' there wouldn't be a song called 'Shake It Off.'"
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Apparently, Graham initially didn't think of suing, and simply requested to be written as one of the writers of the song. He also requested a selfie with Swift. After both his requests were denied, saying that his claims had no merit, he then turned to to file the lawsuit. Graham said, "At first I was going to let it go, but this song is my song all the way."
