In the song "Pumped up Kicks" the distortion that is played in repetition throughout the chorus is a sound that gives off a vibe of “damaged” and “destroyed,” this tone alone is playing into the "cool" factor of the song. It is the combination of all the sounds and the words within the lyrics that make this song appear “cool” to the intended audience. In the song “pumped up kicks” by the band Foster the People, it is evident that the tune and lyrics reveals a darker sense of violence that underscores the supposed "cool" that is constantly being portrayed as "hip" to our youth. This need to be “hip” and “cool” is something that most “pop” listeners try to accomplish, not because they lack music variety but because they are attracted to the mass popularity each song possess.
Today kids are more about the sound than they are about the lyrics, it is more apparent in rap music than pop, as rappers constantly talk about “getting wasted” and carrying guns to protect themselves, even boosting about pulling the trigger and getting away with it. All of this proves that lyrics now days are not giving anything of substance to their intended audiences. Music has a way of distracting their listeners from hearing lyrics that contain little to no substance by using electronic boards to create hypnotizing beats, which is pure illusion for some.
When you listen to music, primarily what our pop culture is listening to, you’ll notice the encouragement that violence has on our current society and especially the youth of today. In the song “pumped up kicks” having the song present a cool front and a “hip” beat encourages kids to regurgitate the lyrics till the songs message is imbedded in their heads. This is a problem as the song is promoting violence amongst the youth of our society. In the song the artist takes on the persona of a child who is mentally unstable. They make the character relatable by telling his story as an under privileged, unsupervised child who is desperate for attention by the “cool” kids at his school. Till the day that he snaps and decides to funnel his frustration on the kids that have not accepted him. This is dangerous as it is about retaliation on those who do not accept you. It promotes kids who do not learn to properly deal with rejection to take matters into their own hands by bringing violence into any situation and using it as a way to cope and bring justice to their own state of mind. Due to the lack of adult conversation and parental supervision, this is becoming more avid in children who feel lonely and turn to music and television as a substitute of parental guidance. Violence or promotion of violent solutions to serious situations to a child at a young age is a scarring exposure that will carry a heavy weight throughout the course of that child’s life. Children who do not have a proper support system at home have a compromised self-esteem and will have deep issues with self-image and how the public will perceive them.