The Shaken Idealist’s Tracklist
The Past
Cinderella Scene Intro-0:29
Try Everything- Shakira 0:31-2:52
Brave- Sara Bareilles 2:52-4:18
Diamonds- Rihanna 4:18-5:31
Heartbeat Song- Kelly Clarkson 5:31-6:49
The Present
Barbie Movie Scene 6:49-7:23
the lakes- Taylor Swift 7:23-9:48
Mirrorball- Taylor Swift 9:48-13:01
This is me trying- Taylor Swift 13:01-15:39
Archer- Taylor Swift 15:39-17:04
Fine Line- Harry Styles 17:04-21:32
Long story short- Taylor Swift 21:32-24:23
The Future
Winnie the Pooh Scene 24:23-24:27
Daylight- Taylor Swift 24:27-End (Whole Song)
A teenager who has enjoyed a “fairytale” childhood bravely decides to leave home and embrace the “real world.” Unfortunately, they quickly realize how unkind life can be and begin to feel isolated and unwanted. In response to this harshness, the teen seeks solace in a hidden space where they can heal from their pain. With heartfelt DJ effects, they open up about their inner struggles, amplifying their voice to convey a deep yearning for connection. The shaken idealist desire to share their love with others—love that is open, honest, and free of judgment- hoping to remind everyone that they are worthy of love and understanding.
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The Shaken Idealist Past
A teen with a “fairytale” childhood decides to leave the comfort of home to start on a journey. The shaken ideaist’s Cultural Identity Audio-Biography even starts with a quote from Cinderella where a mother is telling her child –
You have more kindness in your little finger than
most people possess in their whole body.
And it has power, more than you know.
And magic,
magic,
truly.
Have courage and be kind, my darling.
Will you promise me?
Being a good person is essential and likely instilled in them at a young age. The shaken idealist’s CIAB begins a series of echoing oh oh oh from Shakira’s Try Everything from Zootopia. The song is upbeat, with thumping drums & accompanied by a tambourine. The message is one of optimism, resilience, & empowerment –
I messed up tonight; I lost another fight
Lost to myself, but I’ll just start again
I keep falling down, I keep on hitting the ground
I always get up now, see what’s next
Birds don’t just fly, they fall down and get up
Nobody learns without gettin’ it wrong
I won’t give up, no, I won’t give in
The song continues with –
Look how far you’ve come, you filled your heart with love,
Baby, you’ve done enough, take a deep breath,
Don’t beat yourself up, no need to run so fast,
Sometimes we come last, but we did our best.
The teen muffles the end of the song with
No, I won’t leave,
I wanna try (muffle) everything
I wanna try even though I could fail
This song’s resilient message transitions into Brave by Sara Bareilles – a more earnest song played with piano and steady drum beat where the teen is reminded that –
You can be amazing,
You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug.
As the song progresses, the piano and drums play faster, and the teen turns the music louder and louder as if to build the urgency to go out and explore the world –
I just wanna see you (3X),
I wanna see you be brave.
The urgency builds further as if to provide the strength and resilience needed to leave home. Rihanna’s Diamonds is used to convey this feeling, which begins with hope –
Shine bright like a diamond;
Shine bright like a diamond;
Find light in the beautiful sea, I choose to be happy;
You and I, you and I, we’re like be, a vision of ecstasy;
When you hold me, I’m alive,
We’re like diamonds in the sky.
As the song progresses, the slow rhythm becomes more predominant, increasing in speed and transforming into a rhythmic marching sound (da da da; da da da; da da da) that is accompanied by orchestral sounds that become stronger, louder, and more urgent.
The Shaken Idealist Present
Using Kelly Clarkson’s Heartbeat Song ,the teen begins their present by turning the listener forward to the color and vividness of their current world.
You, where the hell did you come from?
You’re a different, different kind of fun
And I’m so used to feeling numb
Now, I got pins and needles on my tongue
Anticipating what’s to come
Like a finger on a loaded gun,
I can feel it rising,
Temperature inside me,
Haven’t felt it for a long time,
This is my heartbeat song and I’m gonna play it.
Been so long I forgot how to turn it up, up, up, up all night long
Oh up, up all night long
The song is raw, and the tempo is set to the heartbeat of her baby. A newborn baby’s heartbeat (100-200 beats per minute) is the same or faster than a teenager experiencing strong emotions (over 100 beats per minute). This tempo mimics the strong, intense feeling of falling in love the first time you see someone, a first kiss, or a first embrace.
When the teenager moves to a new part of their present, they use a quote from the movie Barbie:
Take my hands. (about 8 seconds of silence).
Close your eyes. (longer silence)
Now feel.
Then Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For? begins. The scene in the movie is when Barbie has chosen to go from being a doll to becoming human. It is an emotional moment in the film and captures how the teen experiences the rush of a series of beautiful moments of different women. It is intense and matches the feelings of the joy of — becoming.
The soft, silent beginning of Tayor’s Shift’s the Lakes continues the teenager’s story. Acoustic guitar, violins, and string instruments are used to accompany the singer:
Is it romantic how all my elegies eulogize me?
I’m not cut out for all these cynical clones
What should be over burrowed under my skin
In heart-stopping waves of hurt
I’ve come too far to watch some name-dropping sleaze
Tell me what are my words worth
Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don’t belong, and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I’m setting off, but not without my muse
I want auroras and sad prose
I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet
‘Cause I haven’t moved in years
And I want you right here
A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground
With no one around to tweet it
While I bathe in cliffside pools
With my calamitous love and insurmountable
The teenager cuts off the song before the last word in the sentence …
grief
This is the only time the teenager cuts a song off mid-sentence, and it suggests that grief is too difficult to confront. Perhaps the love they found ends tragically. Perhaps they are avoiding the remorse of not acting on their feelings. It is a subtle removal of the word and perhaps meant for the listener to not notice the exclusion as the CIAB moves into Mirrorball.
Swift’s Archer continues this theme:
Can you see right through me?
They see right through (2 X)
I see right through me (2 X)
…
Help me hold onto you
I’ve been the archer I’ve been the prey
Who could ever leave me, darling? But who could stay?
Harry Style’s Fine Lines is an attempt to find balance:
We’ll be a fine line (x6)
Test of my patience
There’s things that we’ll never know
You sunshine, you temptress
My hand’s at risk, I fold
Crisp trepidation
I’ll try to shake this soon
The teenager ends their present story by providing resilience and hope –
Fatefully – I tried to pick my battles ’til the battle picked me
Misery – Like the war of words I shouted in my sleep
And you passed right by
I was in the alley, surrounded on all sides
The knife cuts both ways
If the shoe fits, walk in it ’til your high heels break
…
This time, I’m ready
‘Cause I fell from the pedestal
Right down the rabbit hole
…
I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things
Your nemeses
Will defeat themselves before you get the chance to swing
The Shaken Idealist Future
There is optimism about the shaken idealist’s future. Using a quote from a childhood movie Winnie the Pooh provides an optimistic future:
I always get to where I’m going by walking away from where I have been.
The final CIAB song is Swift’s Daylight – a song of self-forgiveness and hope. It starts sofly –
Everyone looked worse in the light
There are so many lines that I’ve crossed unforgiven
I’ll tell you the truth, but never goodbye
…And so I became the butt of the joke
I wounded the good and I trusted the wicked
The song’s rhythm increases with several instruments added. The vocal becomes more confident –
And I can still see it all (In my mind)
All of you, all of me (Intertwined)
I once believed love would be (Black and white)
But it’s golden (Golden)
And I can still see it all (In my head)
Back and forth from New York (Sneaking in your bed)
I once believed love would be (Burning red)
But it’s golden
Like daylight, like daylight
The very end of the song softens and drifts, suggesting the shaken idealist’s turning inward to reassure themselves that –
I wanna be defined by the things that I love
Not the things I hate
Not the things that I’m afraid of, I’m afraid of
Not the things that haunt me in the middle of the night
I, I just think that
You are what you lo
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