5 Seconds of Summer are the cutest Australians to hit us since Peter Andre’s ‘Mysterious Girl’ phase, and they’ve been happily welcomed by fans, musicians, the internet and, surprisingly, the alternative music scene. Rock Sound recently adopted 5SOS for their latest cover in light of new album Sounds Good Feels Good, showing a definite alternative takeover.
It would be fair to say that the new Aussie superstars are hardly anarchic troublemakers; their PG-13 brand of pop-punk is closer to McBusted than blink-182, Sum 41, Green Day and the like. So what makes 5SOS special? What do they have that other soft-core bands lack? 5SOS have managed to play off their commercial success, cheesy lyrics and chubby cheeks for acceptance as an alternative band, and we’re not quite sure how.
It’s easy to see why people love 5SOS; their facial piercings, crazy hairstyles and Sex Pistols t-shirts make them look the perfect part, while their catchy pop hooks, insane energy and angsty teenage vibe is enough to reel in anyone. Put the two together, and you’ve got the makings of a rock band to win over the masses. The question isn’t why 5SOS have made it into the alternative scene, but rather, why other bands haven’t.
Take McBusted, for example – a band who have all the same ingredients as 5SOS, but don’t seem to quite know their way around the kitchen. They play their own instruments, write their own songs and have a definite rock feel, with members Matt Willis and Dougie Poynter being self-confessed pop-punk fans (just like 5SOS member Michael Clifford!). The difference between the two is so minimal that we’re struggling to find it – the only real difference is that alternative magazines wouldn’t be seen dead putting McBusted on their covers because they lack that lucrative ‘something’ to which apparently only 5SOS hold the key.
There’s no doubt that alternative music is getting softer by the second. Bands that we could once rely on, such as Fall Out Boy and Panic! At The Disco, have ditched their rock roots altogether in favour of preppy pop and electronic beats, but they remain in the scene because we just can’t quite bring ourselves to let them go. But they had to work their way through Reading & Leeds and release pinnacles of pop-punk before they dared even dip their toes in mainstream waters.
5SOS have jumped straight to dancing between sugar-sweet pop and light-hearted punk, milking both audiences until they are dry. No other band as commercial as 5SOS has been accepted so readily by the alternative world, especially not before laying some serious groundwork first. You have to pay your dues to one genre before you can move onto the next… right?
So where do we draw the line? One Direction – who both McBusted AND 5SOS have toured with – had rock undertones on their last album, so shall we start putting posters of them on our walls alongside Bad Religion and The Offspring? Should Harry Styles be the next Billie Joe Armstrong? Should the release of their next album be on the cover of rock ’n’ roll magazines? Thanks to bands like 5SOS, the line between alternative and mainstream is more blurred than ever.
