How Foster The People almost created another “Pumped Up Kicks”
At the time of writing this, it has been almost 8 years since Foster the People came into the indie scene with their breakaway hit Pumped Up Kicks. After the release of that single and subsequent success of their 3 other singles that accompanied their 2011 album Torches, no-one truly know where they would take their brand and their music. Than Supermodel was released. And it did not nearly perform as well as they and fans had hoped. It received lukewarm reactions from critics and fans and underperformed in terms of sales and billboard charts. This is really where it all changed for Mark and how he created music. He has said in multiple interviews that Supermodel was written during a very negative state of mind and it’s very evident in the albums lyrics. He’s gone on record multiple times saying that he never really imagined himself playing these songs for too long after he got out of that state of mind.
It would be a whole year after the release of Supermodel until we got another glimpse into what Foster the People had been working on in terms of music. The Unforeseeable Fate of Mr. Jones was released in 2015 and was a direct reference to a interlude on their previous album. The song was praised by both critics and fans for the lyrical depth that was present in Supermodel accompanied with a more bombastic and pop influenced instrumental similar to Torches and seemingly the departure from their new found psychadelic influences heard on Supermodel. After the release of that track the only news we would get on the album was the departure of founding member “Cubbie” Fink. While the details were vague at the time of the announcement, we later learned in 2018 that the decision for their founding bassist was needed and the departure was far from amicable. Mark Foster said in an interview that “We have mutual friends and I’ve heard he’s doing well. But it was a bad breakup. It was a very high pressure situation for a number of years, but we did so much together.”
Cue late 2016. We finally get a glimpse into Foster the People and their future musical adventures with the band performing never before heard tracks such as Lotus Eater and Pay The Man. Then in early 2017 we saw the release of a 3 track EP entitled III. It featured the tracks Pay The Man, Doing it for the Money, and III. The three tracks were met with praise from fans for going in a different direction from not only Supermodel but Torches. Then in July of that same year we saw the release of their third studio album Sacred Hearts Club. While initially no track stood out in terms of charting success, the song Sit Next To Me was beginning to pick up traction within online communities like Reddit and Twitter, garnering support from both old fans and new fans alike. Those who had only heard Pumped Up Kicks up to that point had no idea it was even the same band. The indie pop tune perfectly blended Foster’s high vocal range and a simple but sweet chorus verse chorus format into a slow but steady hit. Up until now the song the song has recieved over 84 million plays on Spotify, and 40 million on youtube.
So… what happened?
Why didn’t the song recieve the same prowess that their previous smash single had recieved? It clearly had all the makings to be a top 10 hit but it never hit that mark, and with the song slowly falling off the top 100 we begin to ask, what could’ve the band or their label done differently to ensure it’s success?
One of the first issues that stood out to me immediately was the overall roll out of the album and subsequent advertisement. The band (or label) chose to release 3 tracks ahead of the album along with 3 more singles. By the time the album was set to release we had heard almost 70% of the album. All that was left was a few songs and a short interlude for the fans to hear. Then we get into the way the single itself was promoted. After the single began to pick up steam it was accompanied by a video. The video while a nice attempt to try something new in terms of production and theme, fell flat. Only recieving a measly 2 million views compared to the official audio video. It wasn’t eye catching enough or popular enough to get into any mainstream publications and thus lost a lot of steam on the charts. Radio stations began to play the single less and less and thus began to lose any chance of becoming a sleeper top 10 hit. Accompany that with big acts like Drake pushing it lower and lower the top 100 it seems that the song is on it’s last legs of it’s lifetime.
So what can we learn from? Is taking risks on album rollouts and video production worthwhile for these indie pop / indie rock acts? It really did seem like they had a hit on their hands. But we’ll never really know why it didn’t become that second hit single…
You can buy Foster The People’s newest album Sacred Hearts Club at the link below.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sacred-hearts-club/1247002400?l=es
@SampledThis
