Jeremy And Pumped Up Kicks: Song Analysis

Each year many children, teachers, and other innocent people died because of gun shooting violence in school. Most of the time, it’s the person who was oftenly being bullied and teased at who commits this crime. Thus, we should prevent bullying and promote the consequences of gun violence. The songs, “Jeremy,” by Pearl Jam and “Pumped Up Kicks,” by Foster the People, both addresses the issues due to gun violence in school, but the first song is more successful because the meaning of the lyrics is more clear, the tone and music style described relates to this serious issue, and the music video did a better job in telling this problem. The lyrics to “Jeremy” are very straightforward and easy to understand. In addition, it tells a story to the audience and the image is very vivid. It starts out with Jeremy picturing himself as a hero/leader, but in real life, it’s the exact opposite where he is always laughed at and left out by his classmates. At the same time, his parents neglected him, which made him more depressed. Until one day he can’t take it anymore, he came to school acting differently, and committed suicide in front of his …show more content…
In the lyrics, it stated, “...Clearly I remember pickin’ on the boy...try to forget this, try to erase this from the blackboard…” Also, you could hear the singer’s screaming in the background. This shows the perspective of an classmate, who was involved in bullying Jeremy, as a result to gun violence in school. He’s very surprised and regretful of Jeremy’s suicidal. Meanwhile, for the song “Pumped Up Kicks,” the tone is very “chilled” and told in a first person point of view. In the lyrics, it stated, “...All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, you’d better run, better run, outrun my bullet...” In addition, the song is very calm. This makes it not as effective compared to “Jeremy” because it’s supposed to be a serious