Pumped Up Kicks is actually 10x more tragic!

[iamRIELL]

Follow so you don't miss the full version ❤

[medearene]

Slowing it down really puts more emphasis on the seriousness of the lyrics - i need a full version like this

[Piecesoftheshadow]

I always found it wild they played this on the radio and people sang along to it like it was some fun pop song and not actually dark and sad.

[scarlettefox]

Its astounding to me that people didn't know what pumped up kicks was about until now.

[Maegaphone-yeic]

My brother taught me the meaning of this song when I was nine. He always makes sure I understand the truth and gravity of situations like these. I am forever grateful for his awareness.

[shespeex]

My observation, as someone in her 40s, many missed it at the time, especially the adults who “didn’t want to listen to modern (aka Pop) music. These kids today…” sort of thing.
The kids who learned the words and sang along were shouting out their abhorrence of adult inaction; of being required to attend school, but forever not feeling safe there.
Now that we are finally getting old enough to be taken seriously and boomers are retiring, many of us are putting our energy into ensuring the next generation gets better than we had it.
*edited to say I’m sure we will mess up in our ways, too. I’m hopeful.

[LALIL]

They created a beautiful song that no one had the balls to interpret and talk about in school, but we all loved it.

[noellegardner]

I went to a private Christian high school in Florida and I got a text from a classmate saying “you’re cool you were always nice to me” and the next day he brought a gun and a knife to school with the intent to harm his bullies… thankfully he changed his mind and decided to leave them in his locker

[elisep]

I love the way you sang this song. And the writers definitely succeeded in bringing awareness to gun violence in the lyrics of this song with the imagery of someone named Robert smoking and finding a gun. It's interesting how the chorus changes to Robert's perspective where he may use his gun to harm the other kids.

[KodaKittenShadowMoon]

"I don't like Monday's" by The Boomtown Rats has a similar story. It's about the very first school shooter who shot at an elementary school across from her house. When asked why she just said "I don't like Monday's"

[itscaylanotkayla]

They played this song at my senior prom

[karlettathirkill]

I was also confused about how this song became popular, but no one talked about the lyrics.

[sparklepugtea]

I remember intently listening to pumped up kicks on the radio as a kid, and then went through 2 school shootings. I was always the quiet one in the back of class, and sometimes others would actually mention some way or another that I might be the one holding it. I was sick to my stomach just thinking about it. “Art disturbs the comforted and comforts the disturbed” as they say. I’m glad awareness is still being brought about these awful things 💜

[nevermusic]

Its a great song. They said they wanted to make a song about school shootings. They were determining if it should be from the perspective of the class or shooter, but they felt it would’ve been a copout to do it from the class perspective.

[Mazygolucky]

I remember this song from when I was a kid still and it deeply disturbed me at the time. I did live in fear of him violence and this just brought that to the front of my mind.

[animelover]

Tbh, when I was young, we knew its significance. But gun violence is so foreign to us that it felt more like us feeling disappointed with how school was treating for us than thd original violence it intended. We loved singing it.

[RosesAndTea]

As an incredibly bullied kid that had a bunch of other bullied kids as classmates, this song was a warning basically. We had multiple bomb threats, drug scandals, guns on grounds, blackouts/lockdowns, knives, at one point a whole ass machete. Like.... We lived as close to it as we could've without mass tragedy, I'm just glad most of us lived

[thebigdreamerpink]

I remember this song getting banned from my school and if we were caught even humming it we would get detention. But they never actually cared about the students to check in on them mentally.

[elfiiarts]

I loved this song when I was younger, listened to it on repeat. I didn't really listen to the lyrics but thought it was about someone's brother who ran really fast, and the kids at school would race him and try to be faster. ("All the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run better run, faster than my brother" Is what I thought it said.) THat was until I saw a meme that said the song was about a school sh00ting which I then revisited the song and listened to the lyrics...

[spiderwickian]

holy shit! the piano and your beautiful voice really bring out the lyrics