Foster the People Says Song Not About Ohio Gunman Robert Hawkins

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110818/LIVING/708189973

Catchy pop songs are good for dancing or a summertime, windows-down drive.

But learning the innocuous-sounding tune's true meaning can change the way you think about it.

That's certainly the case with Foster the People's latest single, "Pumped Up Kicks."

The popular song was released in 2010 has slowly climbed charts and pop radio playlists. It's currently No. 2 on iTunes' top-selling singles.

It's no wonder that the song's a hit, with its simple but groovy bassline and dreamy, melodic vocals. The lyrics, however, are somewhat violent.

The poppy song talks about guns, bullets and a kid named Robert, who some have claimed is Robert Hawkins, the gunman who killed eight and injured six people before taking his life at Omaha's Von Maur store in 2007.

But are the rumors true?

"This is completely false. The character name in the song is just a coincidence," the band's publicist told The World-Herald on Wednesday.

The first verse contains lines such as "Robert's got a quick hand," "Found a six-shooter gun in his dad's closet" and "He's coming for you."

And then there's the chorus: "All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, better run, better run, outrun my gun/All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, better run, better run, faster than my bullet."

Whether it's about Hawkins or not, the song was violent enough for MTV to ask the band to submit a censored version without references to guns or bullets. The band complied, even though singer Mark Foster told "Time Out Chicago" that the song's not actually about killing anyone.

"Kids are just getting younger and younger and losing their minds and going on killing sprees. It really was bothering me, and I was trying to figure out why that was happening more and more. I wanted to tell that story and get inside the head of a kid going crazy," he said. "The song's about isolation, being an outcast, and seeing the world through the character's eyes. It's not about him actually physically going and doing anything, it's about his mental state."

It seems the Internet — Wikipedia in particular — and its tendency to proliferate rumors have struck once again.

On SongMeanings.net, a poster posited that the Robert in the song might be Hawkins. An Omahan's reply to his post said that the song is definitely about the shootings, though his only claim to holding the truth was that the poster went to high school with Hawkins.

Additional blog posts on CityUnlisted.com, Tumblr.com and even prominent alternative newsweekly Seattle Weekly all have referenced Hawkins.

Perhaps the biggest offender (and possibly the source of all the rumors) is the song's entry on Wikipedia, which states "The lyrics refer to the shooter Robert A. Hawkins in the murder-suicide at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska on Wednesday, December 5, 2007."

Anyone can edit or add to Wikipedia, which often contains mistakes. Facts are often cited with links to other articles.

The citation next to the entry's lines about Hawkins? There isn't one.

Here is the list to the suspected person the song is about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westroads_Mall_shooting#cite_note-cbs-mother-36

And here is the link to the lyricmeaning site that also gave the topic more attention: http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858837818/

And here is a link to listen to the song if you want: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3ldsF65cLM

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So what do you think of this?

Do you even like the song?

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