An introspective piece by a former 5 Seconds of Summer stan. Photo from amazon.com.
I was first introduced to 5 Seconds of Summer when I saw them open up for One Direction at the Take Me Home Tour in 2013.
I wish I would’ve known then how much of an impact they’d have on my life.
I was the definition of a fangirl: I had multiple fan pages for them, set them as my screensaver on my phone, only listened to their music, bought all of their merch, never missed a tour and, yes, I read fanfiction. 5 Seconds of Summer completely took over my life and became one of my only personality traits.
I spent an ungodly amount of time online, reading their tweets and others about them. I could tell you where their next concert was, each of their birthdays and the words to every single one of their songs. They were, for lack of better words – my everything.
Seven years later, I can safely say that I have matured past the crazy fangirl stage of my life. Although I still have some posters up in my bedroom at home, I definitely don’t watch their every move.They are still my favorite band of all time, however, and that will never change.
If you’ve never obsessed over an artist, you might not truly understand the sense of community you can feel. To an outsider, it seems like absolute insanity, full of hormonal pre-teens who only are fans because of their looks. Yes, that is partially true – Luke Hemmings is my self-proclaimed “husband” and will continue to be forever — however, fandoms are deeper than that.
I vividly remember multiple fan accounts that I followed. Lots of them were run by girls my age, many who lived on opposite sides of the country or even across the world. I could still tell you their names and usernames. On these fan accounts, girls talked about more than just the band that brought us all together – a lot of them were struggling with mental health issues and made others struggling with similar things feel not so alone.
The thing that was so special about the “5SOSFam” was that they were always there for each other. These “internet friends” formed real, genuine friendships with girls who lived miles apart.
There were many girls who had 5SOS YouTube channels. I grew up watching them, looked up to them and was inspired by them. I looked forward to their videos every week. One of them in particular is currently a journalism major at Arizona State University. If it weren’t for her talking about her experience so openly on her channel, I probably wouldn’t be a journalism major right now.
I met so many cool girls that I never would’ve known existed if it weren’t for 5 Seconds of Summer. I still follow some of them on Instagram today, despite our fan accounts having been long deactivated.
Sometimes an artist’s impact on their fans is underestimated. I found a sense of comfort in their lyrics as a lost little seventh grader. Their music transported me to another world. I found a sense of community in their fandom. I truly believe that I would be a different person today without them.
That, to me, is the beauty of music. It brings people together. It makes people feel free. It makes people feel less alone. Everyone has their music that makes them feel good, whether you were a hardcore “stan” like me, or a casual listener. To me, it’s so much more than just music, it’s the bond that people have because of it.