The first time I heard the song “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster
the People I didn’t really think much about it. I thought the song was catchy,
but didn’t pay much attention to the lyrics or the meaning behind the song, and
I don’t think that too many other people did either. After the song had been out for a little
while someone told me that I need to listen to it more closely. I later
realized that the song had to do with a shooting, which should have been
obvious from the very beginning. I looked closer to the song and perceived the song
as a school shooting. After some research on the song, and the background of
the band I decided that Mark Foster (the lead writer) may have been trying to
show their audience what it’s like inside the mind of someone who goes on a
school shooting rampage. Shootings are really common in today’s society and I
think that they wanted to address the issue. I feel like Foster and his group
had good intentions and that they went about it in the right way, but I don’t
believe that they did as well as they could have in communicating their
message.
Before Foster started this band he was a jingle writer. I
feel like because of this, he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew how
easily a jingle can get stuck in your head after listening to it for a while, and
I think that’s what he wanted to happen with this song. I believe that Foster
wanted to give his audience something to think about. When the chorus says that
all the other kids better run, I think it’s referring to the fact that people
should be aware that this can happen anywhere, and that people should be afraid
of
the people that surround them. While I feel like the group had good
intentions, I don’t feel that they did that well at making their song serious.
I think that because of Foster’s past as a jingle writer, it made the song more
like a jingle, where it’s more memorized for its catchiness than really read
into. I feel like the song was too peppy, for the lyrics themselves, and what
they were trying to do with them, but I think it appealed to the audience they
were trying to reach, which made the song successful. I think that they were
doing a good thing but personally, I don’t really take the song as seriously as
they may have wanted me to.
(430 Words)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI had the same problem when I first heard the song on the radio. It is not exactly my type of music so I had only heard it a few times. From the few times I did listen I did not read to deeply into the lyrics and just took it at face value. After I did a bit of research, just like you did, I discovered that the song bad a way darker tone. I took it that he was a kid who did not have much home life and after killing his Dad he went and began to murder the kids at school.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Fosters previous experience as a jingle writer attributed to the song getting stuck in others heads but I also think this made people overlook the true meaning of the song itself. They are so caught up in the beat and catchy words they do not stop to analyze what there the lyrics are really saying. I do disagree though on one thing, I believe that the peppy music was a nice touch. It made me feel like I was really in the mind of someone who was psychotic and happy with what he was doing.
-Ashley Kocanda
205