Foster the People: Pumped Up Kicks Meaning
Song Released: 2010
Pumped Up Kicks Lyrics
He'll look around the room
He won't tell you his plan
He's got a rolled cigarette
Hanging out of his mouth he's a cowboy kid
Yeah found a six-shooter gun
In his dad's closet hidden in a box of fun things, I don't...
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Another reason why i think the kid is high because of the tune of the music its happy and well u see the connection
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i think this song is about a lonely angry teenager. This kid is a loner his dad is a drunkard his mother has either left him at a young age or is dead. Anyway mad teenager (could b anyone his name isnt necessarily Robert) finds his fathers gun in the closet, he gets high, father comes home from work goes to make a frozen dinner and sounds to me like the kid kills him. I think he is mad at his father because his father was never there for him, mother left because of the father and he is neglected and fed up with it.
~ this is wht i think~ -
I thing the change from third to first person is there to make the listener make tha change. After listening to the whole song I imagine Roberts dad saying good bye before going to work everyday, and telling him he would bring him a surprize after work to make up for the beating the night before. But instead he goes to the bar after work and comes home drunk and gives him another beating.
That circle makes him confused and unsure of himself. Which likely makes him an outcast at school. Being an oucast gets him picked on by other kids trying to look cool which is almost always the "popular kids. I picture him spending his days imagining he is a cowboy or other hero and what he would do if he had a gun. Being unsure of himself he assumes he would lose a fist fight. One day he finds a revolver in a box of his dads private belongings. Revolvers are affordable and common for home defence because they are simple to use. The hero story he has been imagining in his head can now be real. He likely talks to his belongings and his joint because he has no real friends, which he blames his dad for.
I see him sitting at the table waiting thinking about what he is going to do the kids who harass him at school while he is waiting for his dad to come home. Dinner is the revenge for ruining his life. -
This is the whole truth and nothing but the truth this song is about the shooting at the Westroads mall in Omaha I would know I live in Omaha my school went into lock down because of this so we had to hide in our classrooms the shooters name was Robert A. Hawkins. He was a loner at school and he had mental issues. In fact one of the first persons he shot was in a line that my great aunt was in. In fact it was the lady right in front of my aunt he looked at the lady then her and then shot the lady in front of her while still looking at my aunt. And she had to pump up her kicks to get out of there we all made snowflakes for the lost ones and everything it was a very tragic thing to happen in Omaha for me it is still hard for me to go into Von Maur
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According to the artist, it's about school shootings from the shooters point of view.
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Crap, Im glad I wear flip flops!
OK, this is the worst fear all kids have. Being shot at school, camp, the mall OR a place like MCDonalds. And now there is this fun great sounding song making shootings so fun loving. I really wanted to like this song. The beat makes you feel happy and then you start to understand the words. After what has happend in Norway I am just so uneasy with a song saying you better run faster than my bullet. It scares me. -
ok i agree with alot of people, but some theories are not even close. and i wont name names because u all left anonymous, and i perfer too. any way i think robert is just a name they decided to use. found a 6 shooter gun in a box full of maybe other guns, grenades, or other stuff that could be dangerous. rolled up cigarette hanging out of his mouth (made the cigarette) feels like a cowboy and wants to get the kids with the "pumped up kicks" because he is poor and cant afford nice things. so jealousy toke over, tryed to shoot but some part of him said gotta out run my gun, and didnt exactly want to shoot them. the father obviously works late and leaves frozen food for him to heat up. the surprise is most likely a spanking or he is drunk. when they say hes coming for you, they r referring to you as the kid with the pumped up kicks. when he "reasons with his cigerette" hes talking to it like its his friend. when his hairs on fire and he must hav lost his wits he caused cause and probably burned a building while hes in it. but the weirdest thing about this song is its about killing and going crazy, when the melody is cherry and there's whistling. so very catchy, yet horrible meaning.......
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I disagree that this song is about robert Hawkins. Im not sure what years but there were shoes called kicks. And you could pump them up (they were sneakers) kids (in bad areas) would literately hold guns up to their heads for their sneakers. That's why the gun is in it. The name Robert in the beginning of the song could just be a name or a coincidence. Yes, Robert hawkins has somewhat of a similarity but I do not think that it what it is about.
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Oh, sorry. Here is the website where I found the interview with Foster the People
http://www.spinner.com/2011/03/04/foster-the-people-sxsw-top-100/ -
I dont need to interpret. Here is the meaning straight from and interview with Foster the People. 'Pumped Up Kicks' is about a kid that basically is losing his mind and is plotting revenge. He's an outcast. I feel like the youth in our culture are becoming more and more isolated. It's kind of an epidemic. Instead of writing about victims and some tragedy, I wanted to get into the killer's mind, like Truman Capote did in 'In Cold Blood.' I love to write about characters. That's my style. I really like to get inside the heads of other people and try to walk in their shoes.
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You are all not right. It's about a kid getting revenge on bullies.
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It's about a kid's slow descent into insanity. A boy named Robert, probably a teenager, finds a gun that his father used to own, and claims it as his own. His mind immediately flashes to the popular kids at school that pick on him for being different and are revered for it. Robert shoots these children, and fueled by this new power, inspires others to do the same. Somewhere else in the world, a boy like this decides to follow Robert after finding a gun of his own and kills his own father after years of abuse and mental torture. The two boys, now together, hit the brink of madness, Robert killing the other child, considering him to be a slave of society to follow in his footsteps and sets him on fire after killing him, talking the the body as it happens.
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Well 90s pumped kicks was more of hip hop elements and i think that if hes trying to express about homocide indie rocks ..... like where its going
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The kid is home alone and getting into trouble - finds a gun - in a box of fun, which we can only imagine.
His dad is coming home late and his "dinner" is chilled alcohol. Possibly alluding to the fact that he comes home, drinks and beats his son (bringing him a surprise).
The kid is going to shoot his dad.
Pumped Up Kicks may refer to the kicks that other kids get in bullying him.
Cowboy kid refers to being the son of a redneck. -
The Mark Foster of FTP grew up in Cleveland OH, not Omaha, and he moved to LA about 8 years ago.
In interviews he has stated that the song is not about any particular incident, although I think he may have chosen the name Robert in allusion to the 2 Roberts of the shootings in Omaha and in Germany.
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