A metal song has been recorded in protest at Taylor Swift trademarking the phrase “this sick beat”, a lyric from her single ‘Shake It Off’.
Musician and activist Ben Norton uploaded the track onto YouTube under the moniker Peculate. The two-minute song, entitled ‘This Sick Beat’, contains just those three words screamed repeatedly.
“Trademarks are a direct attack on one of the most fundamental and inalienable rights of all: our freedom of speech,” Norton wrote about the song, which you can listen to below. “If you give the bourgeoisie an inch, they will take a mile… and everything else you have in the process. They have already privatised land, water, and words. After language, they will next try to privatise air. But, although the rich can try, they will never truly own the words we use and the language we speak.”
Norton described himself as a “committed activist,” who hopes to “challenge, and help to eventually resolve, these gross obstacles to human progress – progress for everyone, not just the few.”
It was reported last week that Taylor Swift had trademarked the use of the phrase “this sick beat” as well as a number of other lyrics from her album ‘1989’. It means Swift now owns the rights to lyrics from the 2014 album, with the phrases ‘Party Like It’s 1989’, ‘Cause We Never Go Out Of Style’, ‘Could Show You Incredible Things’ and ‘Nice To Meet You, Where You Been?’ registered with the US government.