liking a song then realized "pumped up kicks" is really disturbing

[Anonymous]

Thank you for starting this thread! I'm one of those clueless ones who can never understand lyrics so I had no clue what they were saying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i am a child myself and it completely horrifies me that i was the first of my friend and family to discover the true lyrics. i believe that it is trying to glorify columbine and it should be taken off the radio immediatly. i hear it every morning while driving to school and it sickens me that people listen to this terrible song and are completely ignorent about the message this song is sending my generation.

No. It isn't trying to glorify Columbine. But I can understand the confusion for children who aren't sophisticated enough to get the nuance of lyrics that appear to support this. I've seen interviews with the group/singer who wrote the lyrics and they were trying to raise awareness. And they have, haven't they? People are talking about the song. Some find it wrong to play, but the point is that people are TALKING about it. TALKING about things like Columbine and gun violence and the isolation that some teens feel that brings about violence is a GOOD thing.

If you hear this song on mainstream music and don't want to have a discussion with your kid, then turn it off. My kids are too young to listen to this type of music - we don't play any of this mainstream stuff in the car. My 4 yo tends to prefer Duran Duran and - though he is too innocent to understand the lyrics - it isn't like those are completely benign either.

Personally, I prefer Pumped Up Kicks over songs like Motivation (love the song, but no WAY am I letting my kids listen to it. I don't need to have that conversation with them just yet).

If it is really meant to be a statement against gun violence, then they should not have used a cheery melody to put behind it. The guy who wrote it was a jingle writer who thought he was being clever, and now that the song is a hit he is being asked to justify it.

An artist can make any claim about the purpose of their work. But the work has to back it up. This one does not. It's just playing on irony, like Cee-Lo singing a Motown song titled "Fuck You", or Amy Winehouse singing like she's in the Ronettes but making the song about avoiding rehab, or for that matter hearing Betty White tell a sex joke. It's a pretty package with dirty words. It's just an attention-getting trick. Not a statement.

[Anonymous]

my 4 sings it.

[Anonymous]

PP here. we also support shooting kids who wear fancy kicks.