Posted on 02/25/2012 1:24:50 AM PST by Yaelle
So my oldest likes to expose me to his playlists in the car, and sometimes this prompts a nice discussion. He played this song for me and I'd never heard it before, and now for days it is on my mind. It disturbs me more than your shoot-up-a-cop rap song.
I'm listening for the first time and can't really understand. It's a sweet, happy, bouncy chorus. Then I understand "all the other kids... Better run faster than my bullets". "outrun my gun.". I ask my son, is this what it sounds like? Is it PRO shooting up your school??
My son tells me what the writer of the song claims, that it's anti-school violence, that it is written from the point of view of an abused boy who has snapped, but I can't believe it. There are a few clues that make that story a lie.
The title is so sweet and cute, the kids with the fancy shoes: the pumped up kicks. And that does point to a jealous poor abused boy driven over the edge by what they all have and he doesn't. But that's not enough. I read that this guy has made money making jingles for commercials. This makes sense. "Pumped Up Kicks" has an earwormy tune for certain. But if this is truly from then point of view of an abused child who couldn't take any more, why isn't the tone bleak or angry? Why doesn't the song end with the kid getting his just desserts: killed by a cop, or caught and put in jail?
The chorus is sung with relaxed, joyful abandon. That would not be a mood of a kid blasting away at his school chums. It's a device to juxtapose sick, senseless murder with a cheerful jingle that could sell bubblegum. And that juxtaposition is thus meant to be edgy, and edgy means "cool" for either attention or "art.". This jingle writing man INTENDED the cognitive dissonance of joy and murder.
There is even one chorus that is whistled so happily it makes the seven dwarfs' commute sound morose.
This guy has written a pro-murder song and aimed it directly at unhappy high school students. Rather than being edgy or cool, I believe this song is nearly an encouragement to mass murder. I have re-listened to it a number of times and I feel it is morally irresponsible to deliberately mix a happy tune like this with such a violent theme.
My son says there are lots of pop songs like this, and he mentioned "I hate mondays" as one of them, which I also did not know was about mass murder.
Interested to know if this song bothered others. I hate to bring it back to the presidential race, but while I am all for freedom of lyrics, I do think that songs like this should be openly discussed for what they are, not banned. The election has us all talking about culture rot and that's a good thing. Kids need to know that this song is just a cheap device and that this guy is using his freedom to cry fire in a crowded theater.
Don’t know why the original link didn’t work. You can also just search for the song on YouTube if you don’t know it. This one does have the lyrics.
He is lying. That is what I am talking about. When I first read his story behind the song, from the poor abused kid’s perspective, bla bla bla, I believed it. But the more I think about it, a jingle writer knows EXACTLY. What he is doing, making murder sound cute and bubbly. Sorry. Not buying his story.
Pure poetry:
“”Robert’s got a quick hand
He’ll look around the room
He won’t tell you his plan
He’s got a rolled cigarette hanging out his mouth
He’s a cowboy kid
Yeah, he found a six-shooter gun
In his dad’s closet hidden in a box of fun things
And I don’t even know what
But he’s coming for you, yeah, he’s coming for you
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
Daddy works a long day
He be coming home late, yeah, he’s coming home late
And he’s bringing me a surprise
Because dinner’s in the kitchen and it’s packed in ice
I’ve waited for a long time
Yeah, the slight of my hand is now a quick pull trigger
I reason with my cigarette
And say your hair’s on fire
You must have lost your wits, yeah
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, outrun my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You’d better run, better run, faster than my bullet””
I’m just a hobbyist wannabee musician but I can tell you from the musician boards I frequent, songs like this are about two things. Notoriety and the cash it brings. Always has been, always will be.
As an 80s kid I grew up as a metalhead. Judas Priest, Dio, Motley Crue etc. Back then sex was the big thing. HBO and ‘Skinemax” were relatively new and sex was still taboo over the airwaves. Before that it was the drug stuff of the era. Before that Elvis was banned from places and edited on Sullavan due to his ‘hip movements.
In the 90s Iced T freaked the world out with “Cop Killer”
In 2008 Katy Perry kissed a girl and liked it.
You will notice that each and every one of these ‘events’ drew on the social taboo of the era to profit from.
It ‘shocks’ the sensibilities of parents that by now should have figured all this out. ‘We” had our era of sleaze rock and today, all that is passe. Now ‘Bullying’ is the buzz word and topic of vast ink and media attention. So poof! a bunch of songs the ‘artist’ will tell you, “deal with this veru sensitive issue...we are a mirror of society...we are change agents out to speak truth to our generation...blagh...blagh...blagh...”
It’s all about building hype and selling downloads. No more, no less.
Except for the unstable souls on the edge who are "validated" by the hype and act on it.
And their victims.
We need to start holding record company executives personally liable (financially and by imprisonment) for any crimes instigated by this stuff.
Freedom of speech does not include the right to shout "FIRE" in a crowded theater; nor "KILL" in a crowded group of unstable fatherless teenagers with access to weapons and no base of morality.
And if someone retorts in reply "you can't PROVE ANYTHING and start autofellating over 'censorship' " -- look how the left reacts to anything promulgating traditional morality, or rejecting gay marriage, etc. etc. Censorship exponentiated, with a helping of supercilious self-righteousness on the side.
Cheers!
Oh I agree. I was just pointing out that most if not all of these brain surgeons have nothing but self interest in mind.
When you get deeper into it, the ‘agenda’ aspect comes into play, but in the examples I listed, the primary force is $$$ obtained from shock value. That they coincide with the agenda is secondary.
The example the OP listed was an indie kid with no record company backing to provide him ‘suggestions’ and steer him. When you start seeing ‘production team’ credits appear in the liner notes, then you can bet the farm that a couple of the songs are very agenda oriented...but $$$ is the primary motivator and the agenda is along for a free ride.
Look up Nine Inch Nails - “Big man with a gun” from the Downward Spiral album.
Just don’t play it in polite company.
Nicely put.
Whatever. It’s a song. I like it. School shootings happened long before this song came out. Why don’t people just blame video games anymore? That was pretty convenient.
LOL We aren’t holding record liable, while they are suing because their crap got downloaded, pirated.
It’s a screwed up world.
Unless, of course, you're worried about them missing out on the comforting social threads that are inevitably woven in the aftermath of a school shooting.
I’ve made a near lifelong habit of tuning out the lyrics, unless there’s something actually compelling or of merit contained in them.
This song hit the airwaves last year here, in the fall. The refrain is unavoidable but the subtext isn’t. The tension between the atmospheric alt-pop sound and singsong, almost childish vocals, with the startling threat of gunfire that just sort of pops out of the blue, is the reason for the pull it exerts, or exerted, since it’s been long played to death and has fallen out of rotation.
There is much cause for concern in modern society, and has been since the sixties at least, and popular music provides the soundtrack. The envelope is continually pushed, toward ever greater depravity.
As disturbing as you found this, there are far worse examples.
Here in Arizona, I'm being rehabilitated again. The radio stations here play WONDERFUL American music.
Still, for about 20 years, I only listened to Pagode and Samba (or classic rock.)
The song in question is a "before" snapshot of a murderer. Not something I need to waste moments of my life listing to. This on the other hand, is music that's a celebrated of love, life and lower urges.
I know, cultural misfit. But I love this stuff so here it is. My wife will always dance for me when I play it so there's no real negative feedback here - lol!
Some great pagode: Grupo Nosso Sentimento - Sonho De Amor - Dream of love
This is some romantic pagode: Doce Encontro - Alucinado - Crazy
Excellent pagode: Ja Virou Rotina
More great stuff from Nosso Sentimento: É tudo ou Nada - All or nothing
Another romantic one:Doce Encontro - Nada vai mudar - Nothing is going to change (heh)
An interesting perspective on class and race conflict in Brasil told through a love song: Bom Gosto Patricinha do Olho Azul - Patricia Blue Eyes
Gratutious sexy video Cia Do Pagode - Dança Do Strip Tease - The "unsafe for work" dance
If you want to try something ‘completely different’ check out the “Ibiza” flavor of Trance music. Heavily Mediterranean/Spanish influenced, mostly instrumental and designed for dancing...at a bit more fast pace 110-120 bpm ;) Some of it is VERY good. Some, not so much. In fact, most Trance is instrumental, thus avoiding the lyrical BS, but it definitely isn’t for everyone. but for upbeat music, it’s hard to beat.
Zack Efron and Taylor Swift did a safer cuter version and the beat is quite catchy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8kCTPPwfpM
Paul is dead ping.
I dont think hes necessarily trying to make murder sound cute and bubbly per se. The song is rather dark IMO. The upbeat bridge with the dark lyrics sort of makes it even darker, a juxtaposition in a way.
I admit liking the song but then I liked it better hearing on my crappy car radio when first hearing it on my way home from work, when I couldnt quite make out the lyrics that I thought were better run out run my dog, faster than my bunny. : ),
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