Baumgartner8

Marlee BaumgartnerAshley Humphries ENC 1101-0001March 6th, 2015 Pumped Up Kicks, a popular song released in 2010 by Foster The People, brought the notion of school shootings to national attention. The lyrics of the song are parallel to the events of the Columbine shooting, a massacre that took place in a Colorado high school after two students refused to be bullied anymore. A video cover by Dani Shay and Justin Chase, released in late 2011 as part of the Be More Heroic campaign, reinterprets the message as a preventable tragedy. Be More Heroic is a viral movement dedicated to inspiring individuals and communities to evoke positive and courageous action formed by Dani Shay, after she was eliminated from Americas Got Talent in early 2011. (Mixer 2014) With the use of slightly modified music, shocking visual elements, and societys pressure to conform the video creates the argument that by simply standing up to bullying one could prevent catastrophe.The covers opening scene begins with Justin Chase, a singer in the video, standing at the front of what appears to be a high school classroom of some sort. One concludes this to be a history classroom, due to the amount of maps and globes around the room. Mr. Chase is signing acoustically holding a guitar and writing a message on the chalkboard that says We are. Mirrors facing each other. As he is doing so, the students walk into the room in the stereotypical high school cliques. All of the students seem to be having a good day until one student enters who appears to be dressed as a boy, later in the video it is revealed the student is a girl, Dani Shay. As soon as she enters the classroom she is tripped by two other students. While she lies on the ground the audience observes the looks of embarrassment and pain on her face, the students around her laughing and high fiving each other. As soon as she reaches her seat Dani is immediately hit with paper balls, spit balls, and paper airplanes displaying as to what degree she is being bullied. The video then cuts to a close up of the journal Dani is writing in, which displays various violent thoughts and feelings. Just as the course begins to sing the lyrics All the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run, better run, out run my gun; All the other kids with the pumped up kicks better run, better run, faster than my bullet the shot pans out to a view from the side of the classroom displaying the students sitting at desks and moving their feet to the beat of the music. As the shot circles the room, the audience realizes Dani is not moving her feet like the other characters. Right as this scene ends, we see Dani sitting at her desk again, writing in her journal. The camera switches focus to a female student sitting behind her, she seems to be looking at Dani in a sympathetic way. The camera quickly shifts back to Dani, as some students behind her attempt to place a sign on her back that says GO TO HELL DYKE. Dani stands up and begins to speak her mind to the other students in the classroom as the music speeds up. At the peak of the music, and of Danis expression of emotions, she reaches down and retrieves a large gun from her backpack. With which she then begins to simulate shooting the other students in the classroom. When she shoots each student red streamers and confetti burst from their chests and their arms begin to flare in the air all at once until everything comes to an immediate stop and all the students are assumed to be dead. She then turns back to face Mr. Chase, who is still singing, until she finishes the song and it begins to fade out. Right as the audience believes the video to be over, it cuts back to the scene where the female student in the background looks at Dani sympathetically. Only this time, when the other students begin to place the sign on her back, the student snatches it from them and crumbles it up. Her and Dani then exchange a smile and the screen goes black to display the text BEMOREHEROIC.COMThe artists choice to modify some of the musical melodies for the cover completely change the way one thinks while listening to the song and allows the cover videos message to be more powerful. The first change is that the instrumental in the beginning of the song, just before the lyric, is longer which sets a different mood then that of the original song that has a very upbeat and catchy rhythm. The slower melody is kept throughout the whole cover by the acoustic genre, which forces the audience to actually listen to the lyrics. As opposed to the originals fast moving lyrics that de-emphasizes some of the more violent words like bullet, run, and gun. When listening closely to lyrics it is obvious to the audience what the song is about and creates more of an emotional appeal. This is especially true when it comes to the modified lyrics towards the end of the video. The original song repeats the chorus for the last four stanzas. The way the cover was created there is an extra stanza added in. This takes place in the video when the main character, Dani Shay, realizes shes had enough and turns towards the class and voices her own thoughts, standing up to the bullies. She sings Sometimes you think you know what Im thinkin, But let me tell you what, tell you what, I am an over flexion of your lack of self-reflection, so open your eyes, we whats inside, Cause I am more than the cowboy kid, And I am more than your pumped up kicks, But weve all been hiding, So come out, come out, wherever you are. As she begins to sing these lyrics the melody becomes faster to display the energy she has within herself and the emotion she has been feeling. This faster music does the opposite of what the faster music did in the original song though, it creates emphasis on what she is singing whereas the faster music in the original song led the audience to ignore the more violent lyrics. This increase in speed of the music to convey emphasis happens once more in the cover, right after this stanza of lyrics when she begins to display her rage by stimulating shooting her classmates, the audience can hear a repetitive beat of the drums which is nowhere else in the song. This again puts more emphasis not just on the lyrics but also the visuals of that particular scene. Societys pressure to conform often leads individuals who are different left out, which can lead to bullying. (Koebler 2011) As the video opens up it displays a classroom, the students walk into the room by well-known cliques-first a couple, some smart kids, the typical preppy boy, a jock, and last two punk skater boys. Each of these cliques behavior is parallel to that of their stereotypes in the video. Dani however, isnt in any of the cliques. This suggests that because she wasnt in any of the cliques she was bullied. Instead of being centered on shared values and beliefs, cliques focus on maintaining their status, popularity, and tend to not welcome people to join. (Koebler 2011) If one views the video from a different perspective it suggests that the cliques society creates cause bullying because it leaves people who are different feeling alone. The shooters from Columbine had moved from another school and couldnt fit in at their new school. (Rosenberg 2003) This is one of the reasons for the feelings they had bottled up that caused them to do what they did. The shooters themselves also had claims before that of the shooting, that they were bullied by certain cliques, so it could be looked at in the way that it was the bullys fault also. ( Rosenberg 2003) Just as the second verse of chorus of the starts, the camera cuts to a shot of the students siting down at their desks, except the shot is only of their shoes. All the students are dancing their feet to the beat, at the same time, in the same direction, except for Dani. The most emphasized part of the lyric here is all the other kids with the pumped up kicks, while the shot scans across the room forcing the audience to notice the quality of shoes of the other students versus that of Dani. The other students shoes are much nicer then the main characters implying that these are the pumped up kicks described in the song. Here the shoes count for a status symbol, in that the nicer your shoes are the more money you have and the more likely you are to fit in with the crowd. It displays a possibility that the main character maybe underprivileged and that is be one of the reasons she is being bullied. Another thing one cant help but notice is that the main character doesnt move her feet or dance at all to the beat like the others. This is because she is different in a way that she may not want to conform just because society wants her too. Because she is being herself and not following the crowd, this is another reason for her bullying. There is a reoccurring theme of mirrors and reflections in the lyrics and visuals of the video. As the students are walking in during the opening scene of the video, the audience sees Mr. Chase, the teacher, write on the board We are. Mirrors facing each other. This is a method of foreshadowing the contents of the video, because he writes it on the chalkboard in the front of the classroom how a teacher would write the lesson for that day in class. This depicts that this is the lesson for the video. There is a superstition that when two mirrors face each other the devil immerses from the mirrors. (Goodwin 2012) Maybe here Mr. Chase is suggesting that the bullies reflects the victims actions and that the victims reflect the past of the bullies. Due to the common notion that people who practice bullying do it because they were once bullied. Or that once the mirrors face each of the bully and the bully they create a domino effect (like the one created when one stands in a room full of mirrors and see 100 of themselves) spreading the violence, eventually possibly creating catastrophe, which is where the devil appears like in the superstition. Another portion where reflection is emphasized is in the modified lyrics, is where the main character stands up to the class and one of the lines she sings is I am over flexion of your lack of self-reflection. This lack of self-reflection is the bullies inability to see how much damage they are causing to their victims and how it could eventually effect themselves. She is saying that she is a product of that and all of her actions is a part of that. Meaning at the end when she simulates a shooting of her peers, the bullies are the source of that because they are the ones who led her to the action.In contrast to that of the original music video, the cover version thrives with graphic imagery. The beginning scene goes right into it with the harsh image of a girl being tripped by two jocks as she walks into class. Even when she is on the ground, they continue laughing and high fiving each other, to congratulate themselves for their act of violence and bullying. The next image in the video at which shocks the audience is the portrayal of the Danis journal. Although it is a quick flash to the screen, the audience sees multiple visuals and texts that pin point the way she feels more than anything else. One of which is a gun shooting a bullet into a heart, and it is exploding. This acts in two ways, representing the words and actions of others shooting a hole into the Danis heart, and foreshadowing the way she wants to shoot the bullies directly in their heart like they did to her. Later in the video, a couple students create a sign and tape it to her back that says GO TO HELL DYKE. This use of the word dyke is frowned upon and shocks the audience by suggesting a religion-based hatred. The most important instance of graphic imagery is just before the last scene in the video at which the main character pretends to shoot her classmates and as she points the gun at each and every one of them red streamers pop out of their chest. By doing such an unpredictable scene it draws the audiences attention more than anywhere else in the video and really puts the point across that not standing up to bullying could cause a catastrophe. Another thing to notice in this scene is that not only the bullies get shot, everyone does. Suggesting that if you choose not to stand up to bullying you could also be hurt by the outcome of it. The last scene or alternate ending, displays just how easily the catastrophe demonstrated in the video could be avoided. If the girl had spoken up when she had originally noticed the bullying then nothing would have come of the situation and video could have ended with the audience noticing an opportunity for change. When Be More Heroic created this video, they intended to depict the harsh consequences of bullies and to not only encourage the elimination of bullies, but to encourage bystanders to stand up for what is right in situations similar to this. One does not know that breaking point of a victim, to which would lead them to hurting themselves or others. VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wc4KvT8SCOI

Works CitedMixer, Abbi. "General Bullying Statistics." NoBullyingBullying Cyber Bullying Resources Advice. NOBULLYING.COM, Aug. 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.MultiMusicVideoVEVO. Dani Shay Pumped Up Kicks.Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 2 Dec. 2011. Web. 13 Feb. 2015. Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Columbine Massacre." About Education. About.com, Sept. 2003. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. Goodwin, Michael. "OldSuperstitions.com." A List of Good Luck and Bad Luck Superstitions. ImpulseCorp, 2012. Web. 05 Mar. 2015. Koebler, Jason. "Bullying Effects on High School Students." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 24 Aug. 2011. Web. 05 Mar. 2015.