Pop music is constantly ridiculed for disguising over-sexed lyrics with bubblegum pop beats that encourage a younger audience to sing along.  It’s not until you actually take some time to absorb the power of the lyrics that you realize the intensity of them. For example, a little while ago we played Rihanna’s “S&M” at my place of work.  I witnessed & overheard a group of 3 or 4 girls, who appeared to be no older than 13 or so, singing along to lyrics such as “sex in the air, I don’t care, I love the smell of it, sticks & stones may break my bones but chains & whips excite me”.  It’s not exactly the sort of thing a 13 year old should be proclaiming in public, but most of them would honestly have no idea what they’re actually singing about, they’re just reciting the words to the beat. Besides, the area that I work in is notorious for teen pregnancy, so it’s likely that they DO enjoy those things.  This song is quite blatantly sexual so it’s not a very good example, but right now I can’t think of anything more subtle so it’ll have to make do.

The reason I’m writing this post is because today I realised that I have also been blinded by the beat & found myself singing along to a morbid tune whilst grinning from ear to ear.  The song in question is that in the title of this post… “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People.  Some might argue that this is not exactly a ‘pop’ tune, but I consider pop music to be anything that is currently POPular, so let’s not address that right now, because what I really would like to address is the violent nature of these lyrics: 

“He found a six-shooter gun, in his dad’s closet within a box of fun things
I don’t even know what, but he’s coming for you, yeah he’s coming for you”

Alright, so this Robert kid just found his dad’s gun & wants to kill me… Oh dear.

“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”