You may or may not have heard of this song. I've heard it a few times but it never occured to me until it was pointed out by Robert Brockway of cracked, that it's a generic indie song that's NOT supposed to mean the one thing it could mean.
Maybe it's because I came from an age where both school shootings and pumped up kicks were in the current. I took the part about the shoes to mean those shoes you pumped, which were very popular in the day. Further I took that to mean the person they'd be advised to run from disliked the trend following nature they represented. You see, it never even occured to me that the lyrics could be anything but literal.
That doesn't have to mean they're glorifying the idea, which is a completely reasonable thing for the band to distance themselves from. I thought what with the soft and distorted nature of the music they could have been speaking from the dream state of a shell shocked survivor, or just telling a story like in the pearl jam song, Jeremy.
This is something the young and hip seem to have forgotten. Speaking literally doesn't only mean "Here I am, as my self, condoning every word I say." That's just what you hear when your father's talking, probably set to dubstep.
All literal has to mean is that they are literally telling the story the words they're using tell. Yet they claim to not be doing this at all. This band is made of grown-ups. These are things that have happened within their lifetime. And what with the college shootings the last few years, the columbine anniversary and the media attention for bullying, it's not exactly outside the public conciousness.
Like I said at the start, I was in that age group while these things were happening. Fortunately nothing like that ever happened around here. Still, I can only imagine that to people who did experience these making a song like this is just as tasteful as putting a pithy bassline behind "gonna go to heaven cause today is...." Not even going to finish that line.
Blah blah, kids today, what the fuck is dubstep? ? My back hurts.