Pumped
up Kicks by Foster the People is a rather interesting song. It takes dark
lyrics and puts them to an upbeat tune. Most people who have heard the song
probably don’t even realize what the lyrics are about. The lyrics tell of a
school shooting where the main character is a boy named Robert who shoots
people in his school with a six shooter he found in his dad’s closet. This is
indicated by the chorus” … outrun my gun…” that indicates a shooting is occurring
and “pumped up kicks” indicates children who were wealthy enough to have
purchased such shoes. The author of this
song is Mark foster who suffered from bullying in school. He overcame this and
pursued his dream in music. He later suffered from drug addiction in his first
few years in L.A. The dark side of the author comes to light in the lyrics from
the song, but what influenced the beat which mismatches the lyrics so much? I believe
it is so the song gets stuck in your head. This way you sing it to yourself
over and over again without realizing it.
After a while most people begin to
wonder what the lyrics are for a particular song they have been hearing about
and eventually realize what the song is about. This leads to them realizing
just how dark this song really is. This also helps raise awareness about
bullying in school. It shows that bullying
is a serious issue. The side is that the beat is something unique to Foster the
People and that could be why the song is the way it is. So the song ends up
with dark lyrics that tell of a kid who feels the only thing he can do is shoot
people with a beat that most people dance to. This poses and interesting dilemma
for me. I do not know whether to keep liking the song and enjoy the beat or do I
stop because of the disheartening lyrics. The fact that it poses such a dilemma
might have led to it becoming as popular as it has become. It makes me wonder
if that was the intention of the author or if it was just chance. Analytically I
think that it is the way it is be design and that the author purposefully
constructed the song so that more people would try to understand how important
the bullying issue currently is.
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Codie Rome (408)
I agree for the most part with your analysis Codie. I like how you thought on a deeper level than most people might have when you said, “The dark side of the author comes to light in the lyrics from the song, but what influenced the beat which mismatches the lyrics so much? I believe it is so the song gets stuck in your head. This way you sing it to yourself over and over again without realizing it.” I wouldn’t have thought of that myself, and I think that you are probably right. People will listen to the catchy beat and think about it a lot, but they may not realize what they are actually listening to. When they do, they are likely in for a rude awakening. I agree also that the song is important because bullying is an important issue that needs to still be addressed, even after so many people are already doing so much to attempt to prevent it. Finally, I appreciate your dilemma about whether or not to continue to like the song, and I know you didn’t ask for my opinion. But, in my opinion, I think you should continue to like the song now that you know the meaning of the lyrics for that reason. Even though the song is dark, it is about an important topic, and you shouldn’t change your opinion on the song just because the topic it covers is dark. To be honest, I didn’t really care for the song before, but I do a little now because the song seems to be deeper than I originally thought. Regardless of my opinions, you did a good job on your post. Keep up the good work.
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DeleteI always seem to forget that.
-Jon Faw