“Pumped Up Kicks” Podcast Script [revised]

0:45 OPENING: [Clips from news coverage]

tape -- Columbine [0:05-0:18] ← Note, these are the times in the source material

...if you are just joining us, two young men apparently dressed in long black trench coats opened fire about an hour and a half ago at a high school just outside of Denver in Littleton, Colorado. At least three students have been injured and possibly as many as eight…

tape -- Virginia Tech [0:35-0:50]

...the aftermath of the horrible shootings on the Virginia Tech campus. He was asking for prayers, asking for healing for everyone involved, and a lot of healing is needed because the latest death toll we can give you is 22 people killed in two separate shootings on the campus this morning. More than 20 people are said to be injured. It is said by all involved to be the work of a lone gunman, no idea what he was after today…

tape -- Sandy Hook [0:00-0:08]

...right here in Newtown, Connecticut, the sight today of a mass shooting, and this time gunfire aimed at elementary school children.

1:20 tape -- Intro to song (audio only)

1:30 NARRATOR: Like many Americans, Mark Foster has found himself feeling distressed after watching the news, as news stories about gun violence in the United States seem to arise every day. Mass shootings, especially in school settings, have become more and more frequent in the last few decades.

In 2010, Foster had no idea how much worse this situation could get in the following nine years, but he still felt called to speak out against it. The result was the 2010 indie pop hit “Pumped Up Kicks,” the band’s breakout single that peaked at #3 on Billboard’s Top 100 list in September 2011.

1:50 tape -- Play chorus: 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

2:00 While the song became wildly popular for its upbeat, psychedelic sound, many listeners may not have realized what lay beneath the electronic surface: a dark narrative of a young boy planning to shoot his classmates.

Mark Foster, lead singer of the band Foster the People, has been open in interviews about his inspiration for the song. Here’s Foster in an interview with NME Magazine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djk0Fa2AFmk

2:30 tape -- [clip from Foster’s NME interview] ← Note, source time missing It forced the public to have a conversation, not only about guns and gun regulations, but also about art itself and where the line is, what should be edited and what shouldn’t be edited. And I feel like in terms of pushing the envelope of culture and forcing people to have those conversations, I think it was a really healthy thing for my country.

2:50 Foster has said that he believes the role of an artist is to hold a magnifying glass up to society and bring attention to the prominent issues in our culture. In this case, Foster wanted to illuminate the recurring tragedy of school shootings.

Although the song does not specifically refer to a school setting, in today’s culture, our minds go immediately to the many horrors that have taken place in schools around the country when we hear...

3:00 tape -- 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, found a six-shooter gun In his dad’s closet oh in a box of fun things I don’t even know what But he’s coming for you, yeah he’s coming for you

3:50 The song’s lyrics are vague. They tell a story about a boy named Robert who has a plan. We don’t know at first what that plan is, but the chorus makes it clear that Robert has a gun, and the other kids have to run.

So what exactly is Foster trying to tell us? 4:30 According to a 2012 study on the characteristics of mass shootings published in the Social Science Journal, author Michael Rocque found that many of the school shootings in the past 20 to 30 years have had some striking common threads, many in regard to the perpetrator:

These similarities include that “nearly all are middle to lower middle class white males;” they are male victims of harassment and mental illness; their “target is generally symbolic...what matters in these instances is not exacting revenge on particular people, but to make a statement with violence.”

Foster’s lyrics reflect many of these characteristics. The song alludes to themes including mental illness, a strained home life, a low social status, and a general goal of harming the kids with “the pumped up kicks,” a reference to wealthy children who can afford nice shoes.