The message in “Pumped Up Kicks” is directed towards
all the shootings that are going on in today’s world and that it is a growing
problem that is a threat to anyone and everyone. It seems that there are
beginning to be more and more public shootings throughout this country. It is a
problem that I think this artist felt needed to be addressed and that was
important to him, and his way of expressing this was through this song. The
lyrics of the song could very well be describing a school shooting through this
artist’s point of view and his interpretation of what a killer’s thought
processing would be like. This song was written for people to listen to and to
raise the awareness of the growing amount of violence going on. It is not
condoning violence it is just presenting ideas in a very abstract way. Some of
the lyrics aren’t straight forward so there are several different ways you
could interrupt the setting of the shooting and the people involved. The way
the lyrical content is set up in this song it seems as though it is from the
point of view of the shooter, or aggressor in this situation.
Looking
beyond the lyrics of the song, the musical content of the song is a very catchy
and repetitive, probably because the creator of this song is a jingle writer.
How this works to successfully get the message of the song across is that it
has a friendly vibe to the music so it is very inviting to listen to. It isn’t
a really heavy song or a song that the general population might not listen to.
The way this song is written almost anyone could listen to this and enjoy it
and respect it for what it is worth. This works great for the fact that the
issue it talks about is a problem that the general population has to deal with
and worry about so the goal of raising awareness of the problem is accomplished
because of the broad range of listeners that hear this song due to the great
success it has had on the radio. The song uses repetition not only because of
the stylistic features of the artist and his background of writing jingles, but
to emphasize the severity of public shootings and to create a scary image
through his words that will grab the listeners attention. (407 words)
As I do agree with some of what you are saying, not all of it makes sense to me. I don't think this song was directed towards any shooting that has been going on. I think it is directed solely to school shooting. I think that in a way it is condoning violence, the catchy beat makes it seem like it's not a bad thing that he is telling people to run from his gun. Yes Mark Foster was a jingle writer but he seems twisted to me. This song is catchy but completely messed up in so many different way. If he wanted to raise awareness of school shootings he could have found a better way to do so, rather than having all the little kids go around singing "You better run, better run, out run my gun". I think creating a scary image would have been better. If there is a scary image people tend to think it is a bad thing, instead of sugar coating it and making it seem "okay" or as less of a big deal. Although over all I think you did a good job arguing your point of view in your post.
ReplyDeleteAndra W.
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