TikTok Creator Points Out That Metro Station's "Shake It" Is Not About Dancing and We're Shook

TikTok hasn't just introduced us to new songs, it's also reintroduced us to older songs that we may have totally forgotten about — like Metro Station's 2007 hit, "Shake It." The catchy pop tune is slowly making a comeback on the platform. In fact, over 150,000 videos on TikTok have been created using that sound. But one video attuned to "Shake It" really caught our eyes — and may have just ruined our childhoods.

In a now-viral video, a woman who grew up listening to "Shake It" as a teen, relistens to it as an adult and realizes that she misinterpreted the lyrics. What she thought was a song about dancing, is actually a song about, well, something else.

Stumped? You're not the only one. Keep scrolling to find out what Metro Station's song "Shake It" is really about.

TikTok creator Kate Steinberg (@itskatesteinberg) often posts videos that nod to the childhood of today's millennials. Basically, if you grew up listening to Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, used your hairbrush as a microphone, and wore flare jeans and Hollister polos, her videos will hit home for you.

In an on-going series on her profile, she shares songs from her childhood that she now realizes she misunderstood. In a video from Oct. 2021, she takes on "Shake It. "When you realize at 30 that 'Shake It' is not about dancing," she wrote on the video. In the clip, she's seen bopping along and then making the jarring realization that it is not a playful tune about busting a move.

The comment section was filled with other millennials coming to terms with the song's actual meaning and lyrics. "I was today years old when I found this out," one user wrote. Another user confided that her husband had to explain to her at 31 years old that it's not actually about dancing.

Meanwhile, some TikTokers got creative and started coming up with alternate meanings for the track. "It's obviously about shaking your inhaler," one user quipped. "Can't believe it's about closing a business deal with a firm handshake," another wrote.

Still, not everyone could make sense of the lyrics. "Not me rapidly scrolling through the comments still unsure of what they mean," one woman wrote.

The music video for Metro Station's "Shake It" is pretty clean. It follows a bunch of teens who sneak into a closed-off theater to party. Metro Station tags along and puts on a show. Within the span of three minutes, the teens show off some sick dance moves. But unfortunately, the police come and shut the party down.

Now, if you read the song's lyrics, they don't seem to correspond to that plot. This might be why so many of us were so confused growing up.

A few lines really stick out: "We're on the bed but your clothes are laying right there," "But I was thinking of ways to get you staying the night," and "Your body's shaking, tell me off so I can turn off the lights." Let's be real: This song isn't being sung on a dance floor, it's being sung in a bedroom.

The chorus says it all: "Now if she touches like this, will you touch her right back? Now if she moves like this, will you move her like that? Come on, shake shake, shake shake, a-shake it."

Folks, they're shaking without any clothes on. Not to be the bearer of bad news, but "Shake It" by Metro Station is about sex.

Pretty wild, right? I'm not sure how we all missed those bedroom references in 2007, but the music video was definitely misleading. You can check out @itskatesteinberg's profile to watch her revisit other tunes that may sound different as an adult.