By Jonah Marshall, Staff Writer
According to the K-12 School Shooting Database there have been over 150 school shootings since the start of 2025. The latest school shooting occurred on September 10, where a 16 year old student shot two people at Evergreen High School. The 16 year old gunman, Desmond Holly, shot himself and was announced dead following the mass shooting. This incident shows a repetition in history as this was the same county in which the 1999 Columbine school shooting took place, leaving 13 dead. Is there a link to popular music?
As the 15th anniversary of the song “Pumped Up Kicks” by Foster the People approaches, its underlying meaning still holds relevance to the state of fear U.S. students are forced to live in today. The popular indie pop song “Pumped Up Kicks” was released on September 14, 2010. The band’s debut single was nominated for multiple awards including three Grammy Awards, and earned the band a multi-album contract with Columbia Records. At the time, Foster the People consisted of three friends including Mark Foster, Mark Pontius, and Cubbie Fink.
“Pumped Up Kicks” is about a young student named Robert who decides to instigate a school shooting using his father’s gun. The song incorporates an upbeat instrumental that consists of an intro of drums and an electric keyboard. The positive energy of this instrumental music plays on its symbolism as the underlying meaning goes unnoticed. The lyrics begin by saying “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.” Initially, the song can easily be mistaken as being innocent and fun until the lyrics read “Yeah he found a six-shooter gun / In his dad’s closet with a bunch of fun things.”
The lyrics explain how Robert is planning to shoot his peers. It is titled “Pumped Up Kicks” in reference to the shoes students must use to outrun Robert’s gun. The lyrics explain “All the other kids with the pumped-up kicks / you better run, better run, outrun my gun.” Mark Foster’s voice in combination with the drums, keyboard, and bass guitar, and his lyrics further explain the meaning of the song by saying “You better run, better run, faster than my bullet.” The lyrics go on to explain that Robert was waiting for his father and explaining his building urge to commit such a crime. The song tells the story of Robert’s father working long nights and how Robert has “waited for a long time / Yeah the slight of my hand is now a quick-pull trigger.” The chorus is a repetition of the urgent need for Robert’s classmates to get to safety. The end of the song alters the lyrics to whistles, shielding the deeper meanings of the lyrics once more.
This 15 year old song’s meaning still holds much relevance to today’s society as seen with the incident taking place on September 10. Are school shootings inspired by this song or is this just a reflection of the normalcy of hearing of more frequent school shootings?
