“It’s 5 AM, clinging on my couch and everyone I’ve ever knew is standing in my house; Oh, I wonder who I’m looking for, ‘cause you don’t go to parties anymore.”
– “You Don’t Go To Parties,” 5 Seconds of Summer
It is 5:27 AM and I’m staring at the off-white lights that line my wall. I’ve long given up on trying to sleep and decided to listen to music instead.
It hit me that I’ve been a fan of the band 5 Seconds of Summer (or 5SOS for short) for almost a decade. I think that’s the longest I’ve been actively dedicated to an artist before. Sure, I still listen to some of my childhood music. My mom raised me on Paramore, Evanescence, and My Chemical Romance, but all of those bands broke up at one point and I’ve been a casual listener to them. I went through phases of heavy listening and obsession over some artists, like the dark hole of Billie Eilish and Joji or the middle school era of Fall Out Boy, but I haven’t really stuck with one artist besides 5SOS.
I remember waiting for their Eps to arrive in the U.S. iTunes store (their label at the time was British) and waiting for any album news to drop. I remember running into Target in 2014 to buy their first album with my sister and memorizing all of the lyrics to their songs. I remember when the second album came out and I hated it, but I still listened to it because it was them.
I’ve been with them since 2013, which is a decade next year, and it’s all thanks to my sister. She was a big fan of One Direction, and they toured together in 2013. She used to show me their music when I was 11, and while I teased her at first, I got started to like them too. Now here I am, at the ripe age of 21, listening to their fifth album and finding a place in their music.