5SOS - "Don't Stop"

This video is an experience. For an experience that's not so weird, below is the lyric video.

Album: 5 Seconds of Summer
Released: May 2014 (single)
Writers: Steve Robson, Busbee, Luke Hemmings, Calum Hood

When I first got into 5 Seconds of Summer (after hearing She Looks So Perfect), I was alone for a while. I told my friends about them, and I even entered a contest to meet them, but I didn't show anyone their music at first for some reason. By the time this song came out, though, I was trying to get my friends behind them as well. When this lyric video was first released, I would play it everywhere I went--on the way to class, studying, at the gym (the few times I went that semester), in the shower...everywhere. After a while, I just couldn't handle it by myself anymore. I sent the lyric video to my roommate, Aley, and my friend Cori, whom I mentioned before. Based on their responses and what I already knew about their interests, I strategically picked out songs, videos, and pictures to send them. It worked beautifully. They were in.

Since Aley and I shared a room, our love for 5SOS spiraled out of control rather quickly. We fed off each other's hysteria. We followed update accounts on Twitter so we would know about upcoming events and performances, followed 5SOS blogs on Tumblr so we could be totally plugged in to the fandom, and watched every single twitcam the band had ever done (all while lamenting the fact that we weren't around for the twitcam era...it was bad).

I'll share a couple anecdotes to illustrate how far gone we were.

Story #1: Some early morning performance in May

After Don't Stop was released as a single, 5SOS did a good deal of traveling to promote the song. We tried to keep up with all of this and watch as many performances as we could. One of their performances (I can't remember which one) happened around 10 a.m. our time on a Saturday, which was the same time we had made plans to go to brunch with a group of our friends. Luckily, this brunch was held in our school's dining hall amidst a great deal of noise, so we could still watch the performance live on my phone without disturbing anyone!

And we did. Well, the first part at least. We underestimated how excited we were going to get about the song, so we spent most of it with our hands covering our mouths, trying to hide the fact that we went to great lengths to watch some Australian teenagers (but Ashton was almost 20!) singing a three-minute pop song LIVE. Unfortunately, the performance was followed by an interview, and how could we skip out on that?! I'm sure I squealed numerous times. I think one of our friends found us out, but he was kind enough to keep it to himself. We were a little ashamed, but probably not enough.

Story #2: Billboard Music Awards 2014 + Don't Stop Music Video Release

Shortly after that last performance, Aley and I found out that 5SOS would be performing at the Billboard Music Awards. I didn't even know what the Billboard Music Awards were, but I didn't care! This was huge! It would essentially be their biggest platform in America to date. Yes, they had opened for One Direction on the Take Me Home tour, and yes, they had made several previous appearances in America, but this would be their biggest televised performance yet. Since we followed fans on various social media sites, we knew that some fans were anxious about the rest of America seeing 5SOS. They were sort of possessive of 5SOS and had enjoyed the intimacy that came with being part of their fan base. #herebeforebbmas was a popular hashtag on twitter for real fans who wanted to make themselves known. Aley and I were there before the BBMAs, but only barely, so we joked about it a good bit.

Somehow, we found a way to watch their performance on our apartment's TV. When it was time, we huddled together on the couch, stifling screams when we heard the first notes of She Looks So Perfect. I held my breath through most of the song and fell back on the couch when it was over. We were pathetic. Still, it wasn't over yet. Don't Stop was being released at 3 a.m. our time (or maybe 12 a.m.--I can't remember), and of course we were going to stay up for that. We just needed to find a way to pass the time until then. We decided that we wanted to figure out what our favorite 5SOS song was, but that was no easy task.

Obviously, we would have to have a tournament. We made a bracket and spent way too much time talking it over. How should we pick which songs to pit against each other? How should we compare upbeat songs and slow songs? Should we take music videos into account?

We came up with a winner eventually. Keep in mind that this was very early in our listening experiences.

We were very proud of our bracket and tweeted about it. By the time it was all said and done, there were only 30 minutes left until the video premiered. Like I said, we spent way too much time on it.

The video was glorious. They had released pictures of themselves dressed up as superheroes in the days leading up to the video, so we knew what the theme would be, but they outdid themselves. The video was so endearing, and we were reminded of why we loved them. The song is so much fun and has such a high energy level, and I think the video reflects that really well. It's not my favorite song of theirs, but it's a solid pop song, and the video elevates it in my mind. It still brings a smile to my face, and so do the memories surrounding it.

You're like perfection, some kind of holiday
You got me thinking that we can run away