Pumped up kicks

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Pumped up kicks
Foster the People
publication 2010
length 3:38
Genre (s) Indie pop
Author (s) Mark Foster
Label Columbia Records , Startime International
album Torches

Pumped Up Kicks is a song by American indie - electro - band Foster the People . The work was released as the group's debut single in 2010 and appeared on the EP Foster the People in 2011 and on the debut album Torches .

With the song, the band made their international breakthrough.

Origin, description and interpretation

Pumped Up Kicks was penned by Foster-the-People front man Mark Foster.

Frontman Mark Foster wrote the song within five hours. First he composed the cheerful melody, the beat of which should be similar to the song Dreams (1977) by Fleetwood Mac . In contrast, he then wrote the gloomy lyrics, which are written from the perspective of a disturbed teenager with thoughts of murder and which largely consists of the following refrain :

All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, out run my gun
All the other kids with the pumped up kicks
You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet.

German translation:

All the other kids with those expensive kicks
You better run away, better run away, away from my gun
All the other kids with those expensive kicks
You better run away, better run away, faster than my bullet.

The text has often been interpreted to mean that the song is about a school shoot . However, Foster emphasized that the song is not about a school rampage, but rather about a person's psyche. The word “school” does not appear at all. Still, since a cousin of the band's bassist, Cubbie Fink, survived the Columbine High School rampage in 1999, it is believed that the song was at least inspired by a school shoot . After the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, US radio stations refrained from playing the song. MTV censored the words "gun" and "bullet" from the chorus and Columbia Records , to which Foster the People are under contract, received complaints that the song glorified violence.

Publication and chart placement

Shortly after founding Foster the People in 2009, Mark Foster put the song online for free download. Soon afterwards, Nylon magazine used the piece as part of an online advertising campaign. Due to the great demand and attention that Pumped Up Kicks received , the band signed a recording deal with Columbia Records in May 2010. In January 2011 Pumped Up Kicks appeared among other songs on the EP Foster the People and on May 23, 2011 on the debut album Torches .

In May 2011, Pumped Up Kicks debuted at # 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and eventually reached # 3 by late summer.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Keith Caulfield: Foster the People's 'Pumped up Kicks' Charges up Hot 100, 'Unique' Vocals and All. In: Billboard. July 15, 2011, accessed November 24, 2019.
  2. ↑ a b c d Xander Zellner: Songs That Defined the Decade: Foster the People's 'Pumped Up Kicks'. In: Billboard . November 21, 2019, accessed November 24, 2019.
  3. ↑ Olivia Barker: Foster the People's 'Pumped Up Kicks' has legs. In: USA Today. November 6, 2011, accessed November 24, 2019.
  4. ↑ Tina Blech: These 10 favorite songs are actually damn uncomfortable. In: Vice. June 15, 2018, accessed November 24, 2019.
  5. ^ Jaclyn Schildkraut, Glenn W. Muschert: Columbine, 20 Years Later and Beyond: Lessons from Tragedy. Praeger, Santa Barbara, CA 2019, ISBN 978-1-4408-6252-6 , p. 165.
  6. ^ A b Mitchell Peters: Foster the People: How a Free Download Begat a Business. In: Billboard. October 3, 2011, accessed November 24, 2019.