Yesterday (Aug. 18), Taylor Swift made three huge "surprise" announcements during her Yahoo! live stream: she's releasing a new album 1989 in October, she has a new pop single "Shake It Off" and "Shake It Off" has its own music video, filled with quirky dancing and plenty of infectious beats. After all the excitement from her announcements died down, Swift sat down with Good Morning America host Amy Robach to discuss the inspiration behind her new (soon to be) hit single.

"Shake It Off" doesn't come from Swift's documented love of Polaroid pictures, but instead came from her own experiences with "takedown culture" and how the only way to beat those haters who gonna hate is to live your life joyously.

"The message in the song is a problem I think we all deal with and an issue we deal with on a daily basis. We don't like just in a celebrity takedown culture, we live in a takedown culture," Swift explained. "People will find anything about you and twist it to where it's weird or wrong or annoying or strange or bad. You have to not only live your life in spite of people who don't understand you; you have to have more fun than they do."

The message is reflected in the "Shake It Off" music video, wherein Swift pulls from her awkward award show dancing and emerges herself in a variety of world class dance troupes, taking on ballet, hip-hop, jazz, lyrical and more.

Swift's GMA interview also touched on her close circle of girlfriends, whom the singer described as "challenging" and "smart."

Watch the whole chat below, via OhNoTheyDidnt:

Swift's poppy new single "Shake It Off" was released yesterday during her Yahoo! live stream. It's the lead single from her fifth studio album 1989, which she billed as her first bona fide pop record.

1989 will be released on Oct. 27.

See More Taylor Swift
Join the Discussion