I was a fan of a few boybands and 5SOS was the last boyband I stanned before I swore on myself to never stan another boyband because of how much internalized misogyny that happens within the fandom 😭 I won't pretend I'm better than everyone because my younger self obviously have been jealous of the member's girlfriends, but I would always feel bad of the slut shame and constant harassment the girlfriends would get from the female audiences. even as of last year, I still do see 5SOS's ex girlfriends being talked about derogatorily, like name Arzaylea isn't to be muttered among the fans as if her name is a slur and they were still calling Acacia a slut and attention seeking. I'm not saying these women are perfect, and I won't defend any of the terrible things they've done, but you can't convince me that all of this hate isn't out of jealousy and misogyny. It's the year 2024 why are we still attacking women just because they're associated with a man you have a parasocial crush on??
i remember that phrase was thrown around in the fandom a couple of times back then. it puzzled 10 year old me but im proud of her for not reading the actual article lmao
"One 5SOS fan actually said it best" and boom we're cutting to miss amanda swell entertainment??? she IS the queen of the people, the voice of a generation, the bespectacled nightmare of event managers across the US
Okay my conspiracy theory is that this article was written & approved to actually help 5SOS rebrand as “real” rockstars instead of a boyband and be seen as more adult/less family family (and possibly to purposefully lose some of their young female fanbase)
Yep, that was also my idea back then. I remember how the fandom wanted to think the boys were angels sent from heaven, and not young, horny guys who wanted to be rockstars
It gives supernatural vibes. The writers want their stuff to be taken seriously (which apparently means male fans like what a gross take) so they just shit on their current fan base, I guess out of arrogance that they’re soooo famous, it won’t negatively impact them
@@Toribell1928 that's what drove me away from 5SOS entirely. Not their groupie drama, their desperate attempt for male validation from male fans. This might be a hot take idk, but it's what happened with Matt Rife recently. Male performers don't appreciate their mostly female demographic fandoms because girls loving you is apparently seens as "less than" when it's statistically proven women spend the most money on the things (be it artists, makeup, clothes whatever) that they love. That's when I fled to kpop media, which might be bc of their curated, squeaky-clean image, but the boy groups I follow, love their fanbase even if most of us are women, of any age 🤷♀ Or at the very least if it's an act they have the decency to not shit on the people who keep them relevant lol. I know 5SOS continued to release music but I haven't been able to support them since then
As an old woman who went too hard at a Backstreet Boys concert last year and triggered her plantar fasciitis, I love how boyband drama is a constant that can bring generations of teenage girls together. I can't wait until my daughters get to this age :)
@@reaganbartels9993 oh I’m so sorry that you’re dealing with this at 19! I hope it get better with treatment. My plantar fasciitis first became really noticeable around the time I turned 30. I’m 35 now. I loved the 5sos concert I went to this past summer but I hated the venue- Jiffy Lube live in Bristow, VA. The ground under the seats was sloped. The view of the stage is perfect if everyone sitS. But they don’t. They all stand and that it extremely uncomfortable on feet and ankles due to the slope 😖 I swear next time they tour we gotta lobby them to go to a different DC area venue.
I'm so confused by them using the Beatles as an example cause the Beatles have gotten to this level of fame and popularity BECAUSE OF TEENAGE GIRLS. If you see videos of their concerts or ppl talking abt them back in the day, girlies were passing out for them and selling out shows left and right. I feel like having a teenage girl fanbase is the most lucrative thing you can have and so many of us are still teens at heart and the love of the music/art/films/ whatever it may be never dies so you've got fans for life sometimes.
@@El1society That's what I'm saying! Kpop companies are much smarter surrounding this issue and their idols (some more genuine considering the hardships they go through before debut to even get where they are, and some less genuine i suppose) wouldn't DARE to shit on their female fanbase because their concerts and fanmeets and shit are just JAM-PACKED with girls/women. They're the ones buying the merch, the dozens of albums, mass-streaming, voting etc, etc. It's just so stupid to bite the hand that feeds you and it costed them their career for years
I think the most generous interpretation is that they meant that they wanted to be able to do exactly what the Beatles did where they went from being dismissed as a boy band who teenage girl loved to a band everyone loves. Thats what I think makes the most sense in the context.
@@LeilaleilaZI mean yes and no. Instead they put all the pressure on the idols and forbid them from either having relationships or showing their partners in public to keep up the facade of innocence and accessibility to fans
your description of luke being “a hollister mannequin come to life with the voice of an angel” makes me want to gnash my teeth in distress over how accurate it is. Thank you Ashley
this is just my perspective as someone completely outside this fandom, but my first thought about that Rolling Stone article was that it was written to push their image from boyband to rockstars. it reads like a PG-13 account of a hair metal band's debauchery or whatever. it's hard to believe now, but once upon a time it was seen as a cool thing for a band to be drunk all the time and use their fans as disposable groupies.
I never thought of it like that ! That must be it. Sadly that Rolling Stones article was the downfall for me I starting distancing myself lol , the problem for me is it seemed they always tried too hard to be like other rock artists and never satisfied with being pop or pop rock ! when I think the point is not to try too hard
that’s why i hated it tbh. that was almost 10 years ago and around that time people started waking up realizing that kind of vibe was embarrassing. even at a young age i noticed how they ruined their authenticity to try to seem “cool” and “not a boyband” which ultimately led to them looking like misogynistic assholes lol
@@kirstene9131 well they didn't have any authenticity in the first place, they were manufactured as a boy band from the very start when they wanted to be just a band. Their change of branding did feel like it came a decade too late honestly, like they were managed by someone who had stopped consuming any sort of media after 2008 or maybe they were just assholes. They have a series of podcast detailing their years together on RUclips and listening to it, what really stuck with me was just how young they were at the time. Luke was 19 and asked to be a role model all while his rabid fans were begging Jim to break up with his girlfriend. It's insane they made it as a band for ten years after that honestly
cannot believe I made my grandma sit through their concert 😭 i was sooo jealous of Luke's gfs when i was 14 i'd write really mean journal entries about them #misogyny :-(
Arzaylea was genuinely a toxic person though and i think this video missed a lot of the things that she did and the people who spoke up about it post-5sos
@@AB-tl8vci mean she did say that even though there were things to criticise her for, lets be real, teens in 2015 didn’t care about that as much as they simply hated their favorite boybander’s girlfriend 😅
@@РутаАсадаускайте oh yeah for sure. And she definitely didnt deserve to have her number leaked either cuz thats messed up. I just think its kind of weird how in the video she’s framed as a slightly-more-problematic-but-ultimately-good gf like crystal, when former friends have alleged physical assault from her and she allegedly tried profiting off of her late bf’s death It just painted a strange picture imo of her being completely innocent aside from twitter fights and drop-shipping when she’s caused actual harm. But yea it doesnt change the fact that fans did not give a shit about that and just hated her for much less validated reasons lol
i've been a fan of 5sos since 2014 and i still love them a lot, but i am so much happier with this "quiter" era of their fandom because whew i do not miss the mess of the 2014-2016 drama. i still have vietnam flashbacks of when the rolling stone article dropped and when the bali trip went down AT THE SAME TIME.... also i think it's worth noting they're much more mature now and have shown significant growth since this era, they were dumb teenage boys after all and are now in their mid to late 20's. i mean michael is a full on father now. and everyone should check out their 5sos5 album because it's truly an amazing album.
YESSS.They might not have gotten to live out their punk dreams (screw you Modest and Syco) but they definitely became matured people and artists. The respect they have for music and fans is beautiful. And even now, they're working on new music. I love them so much.
If someone called my number and told me my phone number was leaked after I had been receiving calls all day, I would probably scream. Being grumpy is the least I'd expect from anyone in that situation.
do you guys remember the picture of calum smoking at a gas station ?? Like i remember all of their fans infantalizing him for smoking and being like ‘noo calum ur just a baby dont smoke !!🥺’ but he was literally smoking . while . pumping . gas .
As a 5sos fan during this era... I stopped liking them after the rolling stone article. The misogyny was ridiculous. Twitter when that dropped.... a hellscape
@@yummers9374 the misogyny that the writer of the article communicated through their writing style and how they quoted the band themselves. talking about using fans as disposable groupies doesn't ring as misogyny to you?
I actually do think the Rolling Stones article took a huge hit to their career. I remember them being so popular and then I stopped hearing about them almost completely after that article dropped (I was a 1D stan so I was there for that). Stan’s are responsible for skyrocketing artists to extreme success (look at 1D stan’s and Swifties for eg). You don’t reach that level of success unless you have a large group of die hard fans who keep your name relevant. Once you lose that core group, you rely on the general public to keep you afloat and they didn’t have the mainstream marketability to keep them going at the same level.
It was self-sabotage. That article was what made me stop being a hardcore fan. I used to watch ALL their interviews and loved how sincere and sweet they seemed but the rolling stones article completely destroyed my perception of them. Their music matured after that too- I do wonder if after that article, they thought to themselves 'what are we doing' and woke up to the reality that maybe... having teen girls for a fandom wasn't the worst?
It was horrible timing too. I was a huge fan....I had taken a break from Kpop to "stan" them when the article came out. I was angry and ditched them. Not too long after, BTS entered the mainstream and they really lost it all.
i went back to read the article, and as a 20 year old now, they sounded like teenage boys who were handed fame and industry connections, and were basically just fucking around. sgfg was a great album though ngl, im just glad they eventually matured both as people and as artists.
When I tell you how important these cultural moments are to revisit...I worked for a music website in the early 2010s and I'm FLOORED, absolutely FLOORED at the memory of that Abigail Breslin single. It made noise on the website for like a week and dropped off, but I made it an entire part of my personality and my brain simply filed it away after the site went under. Now, I'm going to be scouring local karaoke haunts just so I can do this number and contribute to making it a camp classic in 2024. THANK YOU ASHLEY
As somebody who was deep in the trenches- there was a definite before and after with this article in terms of the fandom. The Bali trip and the Rolling Stone article happened basically simultaneously and over Christmas/NY… it was truly like a canon moment
I was someone who stopped being a fan after reading the RS article 😂 But I think it was mostly due to me already phasing out of the fandom when it happened. It was just a perfect time to finally get out. BUT, I wound up falling back in love with them during 2020 and find their new music and them as a whole (as mature adults and not chaotic teen boys 😂) better than what it was at their peak of pop culture relevancy. and from what I can tell, they cringe at this era just as much as we do lmao
I stopped being a fan after that article too! I still check up on Calum though because he was my fave and tbh still have a crush on him lol. They seem to be doing a lot better and definitely have a more mature image and sound. I think they needed to lose their peak popularity, I can’t imagine trying to create genuine art with the kind of pressure they were under, and at such a young age too.
I think I must have already stopped being their fan by the time this article came out, because I had no clue about it (thanks, Ashley!). But I totally agree with what you said, as someone who also came back to their music in 2020 and thoroughly enjoys what they've been putting out since then.
@@mjewritesI definitely think you're right. I mean the music industry is hard for adult musicians and they describe it as hell for the most part so imagine being a younger artist. I also know many don't come away as well as they managed to.
literally same exact storyline with me😭😭 and after rediscovering them i went to 2 more concerts. it really does feel like i grew up with them in a way and i can feel the respect they have for their fanbase now, the same way i now respect them more as artists and people rather then just being 13 and thinking they’re hot😭
I remember being up all night on tumblr just reading post after post that were just naturally on my dashboard. Thank GOODNESS my memory is actually awful because I don’t remember anything I felt or what I actually read on tumblr during that time. My awful memory is sometimes a blessing 😌
i saw the rolling stone magazine cover in the thumbnail and my body broke out in hives 😭 edit: also it’s been years but i still bust out laughing whenever someone says the possibilities are endless” and i look like a crazy person because they don’t understand the lore lol
“You suck” is unironically one of the catchiest songs I have ever heard On another note, I saw 5sos for the first time last year at a sold out show at the O2 in London (a pretty large venue) and it was truly a fantastic experience. They sound great live and the fandom is still alive and going strong, just more grown up now
I was part of 5SOS twitter when this article dropped and it was such a MESS. I stopped being a 5SOS fan after the article but not really because of what they said, but mainly because I saw other 5SOS fan accounts that I followed stating that they were upset with the band for their statements and wouldn’t be supporting them anymore(I was 12 😭). I read the article and it definitely changed my view of them, but because I saw other people upset I was like “maybe I should be more upset about this too,” and I parted ways from the fandom after that and have not interacted with 5SOS twitter since. I do still listen to their older music though, I couldn’t leave the song “amnesia” behind like im not crazy! edit: I should also add because I was 12 and stupid I was unfortunately a very toxic fan 😔 I actively hated all the girls the boys interacted with and my middle school friends and I would talk soooo much shit about arzaylea. This video took me back to a time in my life that I was suppressing 😭
Being on 5SOS Twitter AND tumblr when the article dropped ON CHRISTMAS DAY MIGHT I ADD was STRESSFUL for 13 y/o me 😭 literally my entire Christmas I was all over those platforms messaging my online buddies and freaking tf out 😭 I will say I’m not fully on 5SOS Twitter now but sometimes 5SOS content will come up and it’s pretty chill I think it’s mostly older teens who were children when that happened
She said she didn't have any relationships with and just met them in a TikTok I watched. Why does she say different stuff about something that happened years ago, she also has a habit of lying so I can't really trust her, also wasn't she originally linked with Luke😂
@@malihakarim1696 Yeah I tend to not believe anything she says in general, and I couldn't believe when I found videos of drama surrounding her (involving MUCH worse issues) even now as an adult lmao
as a twitter fan 2014-2015 i feel so seen 😭 i feel like the other drama i remember was the "stan wars" between the 5sos fans and 5th harmony fans. voting for best group for the vmas or amas or whatever music show was so ruthless. looking back i remember a lot of the 5th harmony fans pointing out the 5sos members' misogyny like in this rolling stones article. now that im older its crazy looking back to when id defend them !! it all just really reinforced the internal misogyny i feel like a lot of the young fans had in that era
I was in middle school when all of this was happening and was Obsessed with 5SOS... Nothing too crazy but I listened to their music all the time and read a lot of fanfiction. When that article was released (I was like 14 maybe), I was so disappointed in the ways they were talking about women/their fans so I immediately dropped them. Honestly I still think about how awful that article was at random points throughout the year....
oh and the gaslighting by major fans in the fandom about how they article was fabricated or something similar was insane people were so ready to believe it
@@oliviajenkinson2026 i mean the boys did come out in like 2020 to say a lot of the article was just them either using the wrong/stupid word choice or completely taken out of context
I will add, Calum's current GF faced so much hate and had hate threads made on her by people way too old to be doing that when they first started dating. She even called them out on it not too long ago because those same people tried to act like they've always liked her once people realized she's actually not a bad person and the threads were full of nothing. Band fandoms stay being crazy :/
Which I hate. I was following her way before they started dating and although I didn’t pay much attention to her and calums always been my favorite, I was so here for that relationship lol. I was like she’s hot, he’s hot. Please don’t break eachothers hearts lol
I know it wasn’t part of this 5sos era messiness, but the Camila and Michael leaked messages also feel like they should be included just because of the energy. My best friends and I used to do dramatic readings of them and laugh hysterically
@@Izzywildflowerr Camila Cabello’s iCloud got hacked and some messages with Michael leaked but I think the leak happened after they stopped hooking up/dating. There were some iconic lines like “booty come back” and “your cubanism in my hands”. I’m sure if you google it you can find the screenshots
@@Izzywildflowerrpeople say they’re fake but i’d like to believe they’re real just because they’re so fucking funny 😭😭 but they were basically “leaked” sexts between camila cabello and michael and i distinctly remember the line “your cubanism in my hands” coming from michael’s end 😭😭
as someone who was a 5sos stan during that era, it was ROUGH. that article came out on or around christmas and wrecked the fandom, that was the 5sos fams november 5th. i saw a lot of my mutuals go inactive after that but i don’t that article was what killed their momentum. while i fully understand and support them taking as long as they need to put together a new album the wait between their second and third albums was long and that in combination with the article and a general lack of content from them at the time led to a huge drop off in the fandom.
as someone who was a literal middle schooler during the bali trip, TWITTER WAS ON FIREEEE. The rolling stones article still causes war flashbacks. i still appreciate them a ton even though i don’t listen to them as much as i used to.
i got into 5sos in like, 2019, and having the knowledge that they weren't necessarily great people but i could still find them entertaining was really fun ngl. the early 2010s tumblr girlies suffered so i could chill out
They actually were pretty great people back then especially before like 2014 but they were handed the fame and connections by people who had no interest in teaching them how to properly use it and not be affected by it. So it lead to some shitty actions like that article. But they were pretty nice, and many fans have nice stories to share of them.
In my niche of the 5sos tumblr fandom (LOL), when the article came out, people WERE actually mad at the boys themselves. after that most people i used to follow left the fandom (myself included)
i was like 12-15 when all this was going on and i’m getting war flashbacks with this video 😭 i never stopped being a fan of them, i just stopped being so OBSESSIVE after this era. i also grew up lol. but honestly now the fandom is so much more laid back than it used to be. and i think the boys and the fans have matured a lot too over the years. but oh man that was a rough patch…
I was a hugeeeeeeeee stan during the keek era through their first album (truly their peak, surviving off of the crumbs of their eps) , went to the take me home tour had my life changed but kinda just suddenly stopped caring once I started going to high school. if I read that 2015 rolling stone article during the peak I would have collapsed and shit my pants, nothing compares to the pure insanity mindset and complete adrenaline running through your veins as being a teen in the 2010s.
The "peak" is currently Youngblood that outsold the album you are talking about. Crazy fandom have nothing to do with how popular a band is. It just has to Do with how young and ignorant the fans are.
@@ImperialMJG true, I should have clarified to what felt like the "peak" of the fandom itself, not the band. despite feeling truly like a fever dream, it was an incredibly toxic place on the internet and almost always had nothing to do with the music.
i was on twitter as a 5sos stan from 2014-2015 as a 12 year old and the amount of memories you just dug out of my brain is crazy lmao. I also want to add that i was on the spanish side of the fandom and it was a whole other level of toxcity, and let me tell you that, even being a fan from that long ago, until now i'd never read/listened to the quotes from the RS article and i'm so appalled
SWELL ENTERTAINMENT CAMEO LETS GOOO!! I've always loved her content and her measured, logical takes on most things. Didn't know she was in the fandom trenches that long ago, but I love seeing that she's never been afraid to voice opinions with both bluntness and nuance.
Fun fact: 5sos are from my local area & I got to see them open for 1D at the take me home tour. Pretty much everyone from this area have their own stories and interactions with the band, and EVERYONE only has good things to say about them. One time one of the boys had a creepy stalker at the servo and my sister helped them out and took videos for them and sent the girl on her way, they thanked my sister and offered her shit lmao. Good kids! Glad they’ve been able to remain popular despite all the ups and downs and how crazy hollyweird is.
If I'm not wrong, til this day Ashton has a stalker/girl who is obsessed with claiming she's dated him. Even made a bunch of edited photos and stuff, even Ash's sister had to come and call her out
omg it's embarrassing but i so clearly remember the day that the article dropped.. i read the article in my friend's kitchen, super shocked and dissapointed but really only about the 'wanting more than teen girl fans' part. i remember going onto after tumblr and seeing soooo many people saying goodbye and that they would be deleteing their accounts and tbh the article really hurt my 16 year old heart!! i was a pretty big fan (one of the lucky few to see them on the tmh and wwa tours) and i more or less completely dropped them following that article coming out. which in retrospect might have been a bit much, but as a longtime fangirl, i just couldnt look at them in the same way knowing how they felt about fans like me
Damn this video just unlocked a whole lot of memories of my high school and early college fangirl days. Looking back as someone who witnessed a lot of this drama unfold online, a lot of it was so messy and petty af lmao. I started drifting away from the 5sos fandom due to getting more heavily invested in my university studies and after that Rolling Stone article because it really gave me the ick that they were perpetuating the misogynistic idea of disrespecting the credibility of majority female fanbases.
🙋♀ I am one of the fans that left the fandom when the article came out. I have such little memory of everything from this time which is why I'm watching this lol but I went from fully obsessed to cutting them off cold turkey. It just felt very misogynistic and a slap in the face to a 16 year old fan. However, when CALM came out, I became a full fledged fan again. I never stopped liking them, I just was disappointed at the time and ended up getting distracted by life and college. I think it's wild I left the fandom because of an article. I never saw the discourse of blaming the article or writer on twitter, I guess I left before it came on my timeline. All I saw was fans bashing the boys (or I was just blinded by my bias about the situation). At the end of the day, I think we're all guilty of saying things that aren't the best and the 5sos fans and the boys themselves have all grown up. It's amazing what a fully developed brain and some self awareness will do lmao.
Honestly just seeing that Rolling Stone article in the thumbnail made me break out in a cold sweat 😂 So many repressed memories of that time, the fandom got so toxic that I dipped and haven’t thought about 5SOS since 2016 so I was so unprepared to be reminded of the Bali trip, Arzaylea, and how endless the possibilities were 💀
i've been here for 10 years and i can confirm that there has never existed a time of peace within the 5sos fandom. even during peak pandemic. as long as 5sos exists, there will always be some sort of drama driving the fandom apart (and it's not the guys' fault for being together as a band, i just dont understand how after years this fandom keeps getting worser)
I think it's mostly in areas of the internet where vestiges of 2015 crazy fandomness still exist like Twitter or WP or even Tumblr. For the most part all the recent fans I've met a chill people. But other fans in those areas still cling to the boys' past mistakes and simply even hate on them for saying they're happy, love their new music, love their girlfriends and omg it's nuts
Young Swell Entertainment was not on my bingo card for this video, but it should have been, because from the beginning I was thinking about Amanda’s video where she went to a 5sos show last(?) year.
I was a teen too at the time and we had some One Direction / 5sos fangirls at our school and they were unhinged. I remember them stalking their idols, looking up their hotel and trying to linger around the hotel in the hopes they would meet them. They were also more delusional than other teens. I'm embarrassed about many things I did as a teen but I'm so glad that being one of those fangirls isn't one of them.
man i havent thought about this stuff in ages. 5sos have done a really good job over the years of separating their personal lives from career and growing a dedicated fandom who respect that. and its like a happy family now. they’re self aware and candid with their audience, they make jokes about the past and come up with unique content, they share their musical process and keep cranking out bangers. best band in the world tbh
I was just reminiscing this when I came across my old 5sos playlist on Spotify. Crazy how that article was successful in phasing so many of us out of the fandom
I was on 5sos stan twitter during the peak of all of this and we were constantly in the trenches. One thing I distinctly remember is constant fighting with the Fifth Harmony fans for some reason. 5sos and Fifth Harmony were up for a lot of the same awards at the time, which is where I think it stemmed. There was a fan vote for the iHeart radio awards best fandom and the entire night it was a constant fight between the two fandoms, and it was believed that one would win. However, the time for the award came and Beliebers won, so there was a conspiracy theory that I remember seeing that Justin Bieber, his management, or his fans rigged the vote. It was a wild time for sure.
i remember being a 5SOS stan in high school and joined Twitter when i was 13 or 14 years old. Every drama, scandal has always rubbed up on me waking up every single morning, like it’s a newspaper 😭 and i remember talking to some groupies to and oh lord… it was bad.
this really brought me back to my days on 5sos twitter… I stopped engaging with the fandom around late 2014 so I didn’t experience much of what you discuss in this video so it’s crazy to see how tumultuous things got. I still wear my Michael and Calum follows on twitter that I got from spam tweeting them like a badge of honour though
I was a 5SOS fan & this is very very veryyyyyy niche drama. But there was this girl, Lauren Bonnell, that made covers of 5SOS songs & there was like a community of 5SOS fans, including me, that loved her. Well, during ‘DerpCon’ (hope y’all remember that), there was this girl on Twitter that was tweeting how she was going to it & she’s gonna show the boys Lauren’s cover and get her noticed. As her fans, we were super excited & she was super excited too. The girl kept tweeting pics of the event & telling stories about how she showed them her covers and they loved it, they also apparently thought she was cute. But then a few hours later, a group of fans exposed this fan for lying & posting pictures that the boys had already posted, until the girl had to own up and say she lied about the whole thing. So after like 5 hours of being hyped and tweeting at each other how excited we were for Lauren, it turned out to all but a random girl lying, and she got flaaaaamed lmao. I don’t think anyone will know what I’m talking about but that was really funny.
You just unlocked this memory for me and I don’t even like actively remembering witnessing it. Then I went back on my twitter and saw some of my tweets about it back then lol
I've been/was a fan of 5SOS since around 2014 but never had any social media or was a part of any fandom so while I heard these things I never really *knew* about any of it. Likewise, this is my first time actually hearing/reading any part of the RS article and boy was that a ride! So many people had to have read that and thought "yeah this is okay to be published", it's amazing how much absurd writing is able to slip through the cracks. I will say though "Elfin blond coif" did get a chuckle out of me. Loved this video btw! It was like getting all of the lore on old high school drama lol
5sos is my favorite band (I'm 31) and I discovered them 4 years ago during COVID thanks to their album CALM... so I wasn't around during this messing area but thanks for the video it was very interesting. Safe to say I'm glad I wasn't a fan back then 😂
Fell in love with the fact that we are both stuck in the same 2014 niches when I first saw your acacia video so very thankful you did not delete it and actually highly recommend. You’re one of the only people who deep dives into such hard hitting and currently relevant topics (kidding but In all actuality you have hit the perfect sweet spot of nostalgia and moments that make me go “omg I forgot that happened”). Even if you did look like Nora.
Thank you so much for this video! I can’t even count how many times the song You suck randomly comes to my mind, an absolute banger. And as a fan of the band from the start to now, I’m really glad that their hype died down cause now they are making music that they actually like and are able to live a much more chill life without the whole drama and attack on their girlfriends. CALM is an absolute master piece so to any old fans that forgot about the band I strongly recommend this album.
The rolling stones article and bali trip were so traumatic for me as a teen. It hit hard because I had just graduated and felt really lost, and 5sos was one of the only things making me happy at the time. What helped me get through it was listening to an episode of Tyler Oakley’s podcast where he talked about the situation and recommended watching the movie Almost Famous. That was healing, but even 8 years later “the possibilities are endless” gives me flashbacks. I do appreciate 5sos now though and I feel like I have grown with them as a band. I still go to their concerts and I appreciate their new music. I didn’t like their more pop style at first but their ability to adapt is what has kept them relevant and gained them new fans. Side note: I also have really fun memories of watching 5sos youtubers like colliscool, ellenawhat, maddy radtke, and alyssa fouts. I was also really into british youtube back then and I remember caspar lee and ashton irwin were friends. That was a good time :)
It was so interesting you asked if anyone left the fandom due to the Rolling Stone article, because I actually had, Twitter account at all. I think you're right that many artists had done far worse things, but in hindsight, the fandom had a weird tunnel vision to think that the band members were the most perfect, flawless people to walk the planet. I was also super young when I started to be a fan, around 12, and this article came out when I was 15 and started to become more self-aware of how odd it was to put these people on a pedestal. My leaving the fandom was more a mix of getting older, deciding to not idolize real people anymore, as well as being upset with what was said in the article.
The chokehold this group had me in from 2013-2016…I truly feel bad for all those around me at the time. I still to this day though, really love this band and went to go see them at The Forum in mid 2023 and loved it. They are still very passionate and sweet, especially now that they are releasing music they are genuinely proud of! Always a 5sos fan despite the mistakes they made when they were younger.
i just went through my old 5sos fan account on twitter & got hella whiplash. we really were such an unhinged fanbase😭 anyway this video was exactly what i needed rn
living thru this era in middle school was golden, but rather than being obsessed w the girls they were(n’t) dating, my bff and I would argue about whether muke or cake was real💀💀💀just living in complete delusion 😻
I mean who the hell knows. I do know some great fanfics came out from it though. But I also wonder if this is why some people hated their gfs so much, too.
@@inalltheirgorgeouscolors8091 I do believe that idolizing, as much as it is detrimental because they aren't saints, is equally detrimental because it leads to people thinking they own them. I have actually seen nowadays, it tends to be more they want to ship them with each other lmfao. The girlfriend fantasy is definitely more delusional but idk which one is worse.
@@hailsaep13 I actually think the only thing that matters is how we treat each other. Not who we think anyone is dating . All the gossip is fair game and fine by me as long as fans still treat them respectfully. By that I mean respecting their personal space and only writing polite comments and messages.
this video just reminded me of my friend who submitted a lukexreader 5sos breakfast club au fanfiction for an english assignment in the tenth grade.... never forget
being a 5sos fan in that era was so fun! but the music they make now is one one of my favs, they’ve really evolved. it suits me now as a 23 yr old instead of a young teenager, and also i feel the fan base has matured too, their most recent tour was mostly like people in their 20s & 30s and the vibes were great ! it seems like 5sos now have the ability to make the music they want to now that they’re not in that pressurized boy band thing
I love this video! 5sos is my favorite band and I really appreciate this reflection on the article because I was one of those fans that fully believed it was basically all a lie 😂 I was like 14 and refused to think critically of a band that I really admired, thank you for talking about this!
Catch me reminiscing about my early years in the 5sosfandom like I’m an elder in a nursing home just because if this video, damn you Ashley hahah (Also obviously not ignoring the fact that the fans (probably me included) was really horrible at times)
As someone who was also a huge fan of a band with a primary female audience as a teen i have always been baffled by the hatred that girlfriends of these bands get, like i understand the internalized misogyny n parasociality of it all but even as a teen i would just think "these r grown ass men that most of us will never even get to meet, theyre not fucking any of us, were literally kids so just be into them w out making it these womens problem"
Seeing Amanda Swell Entertainment cited as "a 5sos fan" absolutely gave me whiplash just now ??? It's so crazy that every youtuber I like used to be a teenager
5sos stan twitter member here ; not all of us were sucked into this dynamic, my friends and I used to create dating rumors about each other in order to rile the fandom up, and it was hilarious every time
As much as I hate myself for not becoming a fan sooner, I’m also grateful that I only joined the fandom mid 2022 😭 the current drama is still absurd, but at least none of it actually has to do with the band, it all has to do with how terrible some of the fans are
Same! I just got into them last summer when I went to their concert. My friend and fellow 1D fan had been trying for years get me into them, and I finally did because their concert tickets near me were so cheap 😆 I’m so glad I finally committed to listening to their music and going to that concert! I had a great time! I feel like I have maturity now to check my expectations as a fan and just engage with the aspects of the fandom that I like. I follow them on IG and fandom stuff on tumblr, same as I do with 1D. I was a 1D fan and at least into the fandom lore on RUclips back in the early days but took a break in mid 2013 when it all got too sad. I’m older than all the guys- BSB and NSYNC were the boy bands of my generation- so I never saw them as fantasy boyfriends. So I was always a little removed from the most obsessive and deeply misogynistic corners of the fandoms. Not completely immune from it though. I try to take fan opinions with some skepticism. I got back into 1D in 2019 when I was bored and missing their early music. It has been such a joy to discover their later music as a band, their solo careers and what they have been up to while I was away. I deeply miss seeing them too as a band and as friends. That was always one of the most endearing and entertaining things about 1D- they were so close and incredibly funny 😂 But I have adjusted my expectations over time. Getting into 5sos has helped fill the boyband void in my heart. I still think they are very funny, nice, lovable guys. Their music, like 1D’s music is extremely catchy. I’m glad I have found corners of the fandom that I can relate to.
I was a fan of 5sos the moment louis tweeted that video of them. I was stanning them HEAVY until 2016. By the time the article came out I was already losing my fixation of them, but hearing what they said and some of the things I picked up from other drama and other fans, I felt like the curtain was drawn, the act was revealed, i could just see they were just SOME GUYS! like truly, just young guys who make pop punk music (and mind you, I was so in deep, i was part of most of this drama and remember when all of this went down). I think they just got too famous too quick. they were ready and it shows, they wanted to live live like their idols, page, clapton, etc., when in reality their idols werent awful people. I hope they are all doing great, cant believe its been almost a decade now since the stones article lol
What I’ve learned from this video is that being a girlfriend of a boy band member is practically a death sentence
This and the Larry stylinson video proved it’s not for the weak
and that Amanda used to do 5sos commentary (and is a queen)
I mean Taylor Swift said that in the 1989 Vault Tracks. "Everyone wants him, that was my crime"- Sl*t by Taylor Swift
@@graceclifford-hemmings "i'll pay the price, you won't".
I was a fan of a few boybands and 5SOS was the last boyband I stanned before I swore on myself to never stan another boyband because of how much internalized misogyny that happens within the fandom 😭 I won't pretend I'm better than everyone because my younger self obviously have been jealous of the member's girlfriends, but I would always feel bad of the slut shame and constant harassment the girlfriends would get from the female audiences.
even as of last year, I still do see 5SOS's ex girlfriends being talked about derogatorily, like name Arzaylea isn't to be muttered among the fans as if her name is a slur and they were still calling Acacia a slut and attention seeking. I'm not saying these women are perfect, and I won't defend any of the terrible things they've done, but you can't convince me that all of this hate isn't out of jealousy and misogyny. It's the year 2024 why are we still attacking women just because they're associated with a man you have a parasocial crush on??
Boybands might be temporary, but this 5sos trauma is permanent
so so real omg
I will never recover nor do I want to ever
I had stopped listening to them for a while but i came back and it all slapped me in the face, i can’t escape
Fs to this 😭😭
they aren’t a boyband but facts
Also i apologize for my sin of reading fanfiction of these four boys at my great uncle's funeral ...
I’m sorry for laughing at this, but the great uncles funeral part for me😭😭
I THOUGHT YOU MEANT YOU READ IT ALOUD?? LIKE AS A EULOGY-
that’s kind of iconic actually omg
@@kingozymandiass 😂😂😂
Dude, wtf did you do 😭
Crystal having to apologise to a bunch of strangers CHASING HER ON MOPEDS while she’s on holiday is WILD
She really is an angel
no really cuz id be so scared she wasn’t even famous😭
The only thing that brings me up from the post-lunch break depression is Ashley explaining decade old tumblr drama to me
Your pfp is iconic!!
Facts
Real
@@botticellibarbiewhere is it from? It's so cute
@@batty_babette it’s an unlockable avatar from the Neopets message boards, this one is called “emo usuki”
Man. The fact that crystal got shit for telling a group of people who were literally stalking her and her boyfriend to leave her alone. Insane to me.
The phrase “he cracks a devilish grin ‘the possibilities are endless’” sent me in a slingshot straight back to 2015 omg i forgot about that part
There were fanfics written with the sole purpose of using that phrase in them
So gross and made me remember why i stopped being a fan
i remember that phrase was thrown around in the fandom a couple of times back then. it puzzled 10 year old me but im proud of her for not reading the actual article lmao
I confess it was my bio on twitter lol that article divided the whole fandom
"One 5SOS fan actually said it best" and boom we're cutting to miss amanda swell entertainment??? she IS the queen of the people, the voice of a generation, the bespectacled nightmare of event managers across the US
right i literally jumped when she came on screen. the ultimate girls' girl
MOTHER CAMEO!!
"STOP CALLING ME YOUR QUEEN" is such queen shit 😂 Love her.
QUEEN
“miss amanda swell entertainment” like it’s her last name 😭 only ever calling her that from now on
Okay my conspiracy theory is that this article was written & approved to actually help 5SOS rebrand as “real” rockstars instead of a boyband and be seen as more adult/less family family (and possibly to purposefully lose some of their young female fanbase)
not a conspiracy theory, that's definitely why it happened lol
Yep, that was also my idea back then. I remember how the fandom wanted to think the boys were angels sent from heaven, and not young, horny guys who wanted to be rockstars
It gives supernatural vibes. The writers want their stuff to be taken seriously (which apparently means male fans like what a gross take) so they just shit on their current fan base, I guess out of arrogance that they’re soooo famous, it won’t negatively impact them
@@Toribell1928 that's what drove me away from 5SOS entirely. Not their groupie drama, their desperate attempt for male validation from male fans. This might be a hot take idk, but it's what happened with Matt Rife recently. Male performers don't appreciate their mostly female demographic fandoms because girls loving you is apparently seens as "less than" when it's statistically proven women spend the most money on the things (be it artists, makeup, clothes whatever) that they love.
That's when I fled to kpop media, which might be bc of their curated, squeaky-clean image, but the boy groups I follow, love their fanbase even if most of us are women, of any age 🤷♀ Or at the very least if it's an act they have the decency to not shit on the people who keep them relevant lol. I know 5SOS continued to release music but I haven't been able to support them since then
100%
the absolute surprise on my face at seeing baby swell... a crossover i didnt know i needed
SAME! I heard her voice and was like omg, is that Amanda?!
Ditto!
YES! It made me so happy
As an old woman who went too hard at a Backstreet Boys concert last year and triggered her plantar fasciitis, I love how boyband drama is a constant that can bring generations of teenage girls together. I can't wait until my daughters get to this age :)
Girl, your an icon for that
As a 19 year old 5sos fan who struggles at concerts because of my plantar fasciitis, I feel this.
if she ever gets her boyband phase pls make sure to also keep her safe bc the people are getting more chronically online and toxic day by day 😭!
this is so sweet 😭💞
@@reaganbartels9993 oh I’m so sorry that you’re dealing with this at 19! I hope it get better with treatment.
My plantar fasciitis first became really noticeable around the time I turned 30. I’m 35 now.
I loved the 5sos concert I went to this past summer but I hated the venue- Jiffy Lube live in Bristow, VA. The ground under the seats was sloped. The view of the stage is perfect if everyone sitS. But they don’t. They all stand and that it extremely uncomfortable on feet and ankles due to the slope 😖 I swear next time they tour we gotta lobby them to go to a different DC area venue.
I'm so confused by them using the Beatles as an example cause the Beatles have gotten to this level of fame and popularity BECAUSE OF TEENAGE GIRLS. If you see videos of their concerts or ppl talking abt them back in the day, girlies were passing out for them and selling out shows left and right. I feel like having a teenage girl fanbase is the most lucrative thing you can have and so many of us are still teens at heart and the love of the music/art/films/ whatever it may be never dies so you've got fans for life sometimes.
It's the misogyny
teen girls are passionate about this stuff. that’s the audience you want if you want to make 💰 pop culture in general mostly thrives off of teen girls
@@El1society That's what I'm saying! Kpop companies are much smarter surrounding this issue and their idols (some more genuine considering the hardships they go through before debut to even get where they are, and some less genuine i suppose) wouldn't DARE to shit on their female fanbase because their concerts and fanmeets and shit are just JAM-PACKED with girls/women. They're the ones buying the merch, the dozens of albums, mass-streaming, voting etc, etc. It's just so stupid to bite the hand that feeds you and it costed them their career for years
I think the most generous interpretation is that they meant that they wanted to be able to do exactly what the Beatles did where they went from being dismissed as a boy band who teenage girl loved to a band everyone loves. Thats what I think makes the most sense in the context.
@@LeilaleilaZI mean yes and no. Instead they put all the pressure on the idols and forbid them from either having relationships or showing their partners in public to keep up the facade of innocence and accessibility to fans
your description of luke being “a hollister mannequin come to life with the voice of an angel” makes me want to gnash my teeth in distress over how accurate it is. Thank you Ashley
I met him two years ago and I thought that was an good way to describe him haha
What part did she say that at?
@@twiggledowntown3564right at the very start where she explains how they became a band
this is just my perspective as someone completely outside this fandom, but my first thought about that Rolling Stone article was that it was written to push their image from boyband to rockstars. it reads like a PG-13 account of a hair metal band's debauchery or whatever. it's hard to believe now, but once upon a time it was seen as a cool thing for a band to be drunk all the time and use their fans as disposable groupies.
Yeah i thought the same, the article is not 100% truth but it was made just to push away the boyband image and trying to get male audience.
I never thought of it like that ! That must be it. Sadly that Rolling Stones article was the downfall for me I starting distancing myself lol , the problem for me is it seemed they always tried too hard to be like other rock artists and never satisfied with being pop or pop rock ! when I think the point is not to try too hard
Doing crazy shit and living “the rockstar life” like that was normal back in the day so you never know
that’s why i hated it tbh. that was almost 10 years ago and around that time people started waking up realizing that kind of vibe was embarrassing. even at a young age i noticed how they ruined their authenticity to try to seem “cool” and “not a boyband” which ultimately led to them looking like misogynistic assholes lol
@@kirstene9131 well they didn't have any authenticity in the first place, they were manufactured as a boy band from the very start when they wanted to be just a band. Their change of branding did feel like it came a decade too late honestly, like they were managed by someone who had stopped consuming any sort of media after 2008 or maybe they were just assholes. They have a series of podcast detailing their years together on RUclips and listening to it, what really stuck with me was just how young they were at the time. Luke was 19 and asked to be a role model all while his rabid fans were begging Jim to break up with his girlfriend. It's insane they made it as a band for ten years after that honestly
cannot believe I made my grandma sit through their concert 😭 i was sooo jealous of Luke's gfs when i was 14 i'd write really mean journal entries about them #misogyny :-(
#misogyny:-( pretty much sums up the first 15 years of the 21st century.
Arzaylea was genuinely a toxic person though and i think this video missed a lot of the things that she did and the people who spoke up about it post-5sos
lol it got the best of us 😅
@@AB-tl8vci mean she did say that even though there were things to criticise her for, lets be real, teens in 2015 didn’t care about that as much as they simply hated their favorite boybander’s girlfriend 😅
@@РутаАсадаускайте oh yeah for sure. And she definitely didnt deserve to have her number leaked either cuz thats messed up. I just think its kind of weird how in the video she’s framed as a slightly-more-problematic-but-ultimately-good gf like crystal, when former friends have alleged physical assault from her and she allegedly tried profiting off of her late bf’s death
It just painted a strange picture imo of her being completely innocent aside from twitter fights and drop-shipping when she’s caused actual harm. But yea it doesnt change the fact that fans did not give a shit about that and just hated her for much less validated reasons lol
i've been a fan of 5sos since 2014 and i still love them a lot, but i am so much happier with this "quiter" era of their fandom because whew i do not miss the mess of the 2014-2016 drama. i still have vietnam flashbacks of when the rolling stone article dropped and when the bali trip went down AT THE SAME TIME....
also i think it's worth noting they're much more mature now and have shown significant growth since this era, they were dumb teenage boys after all and are now in their mid to late 20's. i mean michael is a full on father now. and everyone should check out their 5sos5 album because it's truly an amazing album.
Yes! 5sos5 is soooo good !
Totally!!! Right now it’s all about the music.
YESSS.They might not have gotten to live out their punk dreams (screw you Modest and Syco) but they definitely became matured people and artists. The respect they have for music and fans is beautiful. And even now, they're working on new music. I love them so much.
It means they aren’t as popular anymore 😂
@@annanguyen345this is unrelated to anything the comment said? 😭
those fans calling that lady's leaked number and then saying she shouldn't have an attitude about it is CRAZY. she should have cussed them out
If someone called my number and told me my phone number was leaked after I had been receiving calls all day, I would probably scream. Being grumpy is the least I'd expect from anyone in that situation.
“That lady’s” 😂
do you guys remember the picture of calum smoking at a gas station ?? Like i remember all of their fans infantalizing him for smoking and being like ‘noo calum ur just a baby dont smoke !!🥺’ but he was literally smoking . while . pumping . gas .
As a 5sos fan during this era... I stopped liking them after the rolling stone article. The misogyny was ridiculous. Twitter when that dropped.... a hellscape
I wasn't on twitter, however I was on tumblr 24/7 and oh boy were those some hard days on us lmao
That was the day I dropped them from my little fangirl life too 💀
what misogyny?
@@yummers9374 the misogyny that the writer of the article communicated through their writing style and how they quoted the band themselves. talking about using fans as disposable groupies doesn't ring as misogyny to you?
@@Maggie-vt8wp oh sorry i wasnt asking defensively, i genuinely didnt know what the context of the article was😭😭😭😭
The fact you uploaded this on the same day Abigail confirmed on Christy Carlson Ramano’s podcast her drama with 5SOS is too perfect
Wait what??
Wait what did she say?
@@Heyheyhaleyd She confirmed that her song you suck was about him and she wrote it after they broke up
@@tbhidk was that ever like A SECRET? what was there to confirm lmao
I actually do think the Rolling Stones article took a huge hit to their career. I remember them being so popular and then I stopped hearing about them almost completely after that article dropped (I was a 1D stan so I was there for that). Stan’s are responsible for skyrocketing artists to extreme success (look at 1D stan’s and Swifties for eg). You don’t reach that level of success unless you have a large group of die hard fans who keep your name relevant. Once you lose that core group, you rely on the general public to keep you afloat and they didn’t have the mainstream marketability to keep them going at the same level.
They also took a big break after that until they released Youngblood a few years after that
It was self-sabotage. That article was what made me stop being a hardcore fan. I used to watch ALL their interviews and loved how sincere and sweet they seemed but the rolling stones article completely destroyed my perception of them. Their music matured after that too- I do wonder if after that article, they thought to themselves 'what are we doing' and woke up to the reality that maybe... having teen girls for a fandom wasn't the worst?
It was horrible timing too. I was a huge fan....I had taken a break from Kpop to "stan" them when the article came out. I was angry and ditched them. Not too long after, BTS entered the mainstream and they really lost it all.
sometimes i forget how young they were when they started becoming famous
i went back to read the article, and as a 20 year old now, they sounded like teenage boys who were handed fame and industry connections, and were basically just fucking around. sgfg was a great album though ngl, im just glad they eventually matured both as people and as artists.
When I tell you how important these cultural moments are to revisit...I worked for a music website in the early 2010s and I'm FLOORED, absolutely FLOORED at the memory of that Abigail Breslin single. It made noise on the website for like a week and dropped off, but I made it an entire part of my personality and my brain simply filed it away after the site went under. Now, I'm going to be scouring local karaoke haunts just so I can do this number and contribute to making it a camp classic in 2024. THANK YOU ASHLEY
As somebody who was deep in the trenches- there was a definite before and after with this article in terms of the fandom. The Bali trip and the Rolling Stone article happened basically simultaneously and over Christmas/NY… it was truly like a canon moment
I was someone who stopped being a fan after reading the RS article 😂 But I think it was mostly due to me already phasing out of the fandom when it happened. It was just a perfect time to finally get out. BUT, I wound up falling back in love with them during 2020 and find their new music and them as a whole (as mature adults and not chaotic teen boys 😂) better than what it was at their peak of pop culture relevancy. and from what I can tell, they cringe at this era just as much as we do lmao
I stopped being a fan after that article too! I still check up on Calum though because he was my fave and tbh still have a crush on him lol. They seem to be doing a lot better and definitely have a more mature image and sound. I think they needed to lose their peak popularity, I can’t imagine trying to create genuine art with the kind of pressure they were under, and at such a young age too.
I think I must have already stopped being their fan by the time this article came out, because I had no clue about it (thanks, Ashley!). But I totally agree with what you said, as someone who also came back to their music in 2020 and thoroughly enjoys what they've been putting out since then.
@@mjewritesI definitely think you're right. I mean the music industry is hard for adult musicians and they describe it as hell for the most part so imagine being a younger artist. I also know many don't come away as well as they managed to.
Literally SAME! And it was crazy to see their growth, they became incredibly talented and highly skilled musicians.
literally same exact storyline with me😭😭 and after rediscovering them i went to 2 more concerts. it really does feel like i grew up with them in a way and i can feel the respect they have for their fanbase now, the same way i now respect them more as artists and people rather then just being 13 and thinking they’re hot😭
as a girlie who was on 5sos tumblr at the time, i vividly remember the night the rolling stone cover drama went down. like, war flashbacks.
Truly same it is a night I will never forget and it’s been like 8 years
it was like the world was ending 😭 you just had to be there
I remember being up all night on tumblr just reading post after post that were just naturally on my dashboard. Thank GOODNESS my memory is actually awful because I don’t remember anything I felt or what I actually read on tumblr during that time.
My awful memory is sometimes a blessing 😌
i saw the rolling stone magazine cover in the thumbnail and my body broke out in hives 😭
edit: also it’s been years but i still bust out laughing whenever someone says the possibilities are endless” and i look like a crazy person because they don’t understand the lore lol
Same omg that phrase is forever ruined for me bc I think of this interview!!
“cracks a devilish grin” haunts me in my sleep
😭😭😭😭i swear those quotes alone ruined my life now I can’t help but laugh every time I hear them
lmao same, i quote it to this day and nobody understands the joke behind it
“You suck” is unironically one of the catchiest songs I have ever heard
On another note, I saw 5sos for the first time last year at a sold out show at the O2 in London (a pretty large venue) and it was truly a fantastic experience. They sound great live and the fandom is still alive and going strong, just more grown up now
i became a fan two years ago and got to see them in october 2023 and it was hands down the best concert i’d ever been to and the best experience
i’ve seen 5sos live a couple times now, but i saw them at the O2 last year too!
@@Izzywildflowerr yes they are so good live! I’ve seen them twice and even the songs I didn’t like much from the albums were really good live
I was part of 5SOS twitter when this article dropped and it was such a MESS. I stopped being a 5SOS fan after the article but not really because of what they said, but mainly because I saw other 5SOS fan accounts that I followed stating that they were upset with the band for their statements and wouldn’t be supporting them anymore(I was 12 😭). I read the article and it definitely changed my view of them, but because I saw other people upset I was like “maybe I should be more upset about this too,” and I parted ways from the fandom after that and have not interacted with 5SOS twitter since. I do still listen to their older music though, I couldn’t leave the song “amnesia” behind like im not crazy!
edit: I should also add because I was 12 and stupid I was unfortunately a very toxic fan 😔 I actively hated all the girls the boys interacted with and my middle school friends and I would talk soooo much shit about arzaylea. This video took me back to a time in my life that I was suppressing 😭
Being on 5SOS Twitter AND tumblr when the article dropped ON CHRISTMAS DAY MIGHT I ADD was STRESSFUL for 13 y/o me 😭 literally my entire Christmas I was all over those platforms messaging my online buddies and freaking tf out 😭 I will say I’m not fully on 5SOS Twitter now but sometimes 5SOS content will come up and it’s pretty chill I think it’s mostly older teens who were children when that happened
i only hope that every year these boys age they realize how insane it was to say "the possibilities are endless" when refering to women lmfao
But the possibilities are endless though.
*he cracks a devilish grin*
@@cthwildflwrstop
Don't even get me started on the 5SOSFam vs Harmonizer VMAS war of 2015. That was the hottest of hot messes.
Im having war flashbacks
Oh man most of my 5sos stan twitter tweets came from that
what happened??
Omg, war flashbacks right now, that day was INSANE
Also interesting to note that Acacia recently confirmed her relationship w Michael on TikTok which honestly brought me a weird sense of closure
She said she didn't have any relationships with and just met them in a TikTok I watched. Why does she say different stuff about something that happened years ago, she also has a habit of lying so I can't really trust her, also wasn't she originally linked with Luke😂
@@malihakarim1696 Yeah I tend to not believe anything she says in general, and I couldn't believe when I found videos of drama surrounding her (involving MUCH worse issues) even now as an adult lmao
@@LeilaleilaZ the baby on the van 💀💀💀 absolutely deranged behavior from miss acacia
ashley is bringing us the hard hitting, current, up to date drama!! thanks bb
as a twitter fan 2014-2015 i feel so seen 😭 i feel like the other drama i remember was the "stan wars" between the 5sos fans and 5th harmony fans. voting for best group for the vmas or amas or whatever music show was so ruthless. looking back i remember a lot of the 5th harmony fans pointing out the 5sos members' misogyny like in this rolling stones article. now that im older its crazy looking back to when id defend them !! it all just really reinforced the internal misogyny i feel like a lot of the young fans had in that era
+ the misogyny 5th harmony faced from 5sos fans
#WorthItVMA *war flashbacks*
I was in middle school when all of this was happening and was Obsessed with 5SOS... Nothing too crazy but I listened to their music all the time and read a lot of fanfiction. When that article was released (I was like 14 maybe), I was so disappointed in the ways they were talking about women/their fans so I immediately dropped them. Honestly I still think about how awful that article was at random points throughout the year....
oh and the gaslighting by major fans in the fandom about how they article was fabricated or something similar was insane people were so ready to believe it
@@oliviajenkinson2026 i mean the boys did come out in like 2020 to say a lot of the article was just them either using the wrong/stupid word choice or completely taken out of context
sounds very convenient for them
I will add, Calum's current GF faced so much hate and had hate threads made on her by people way too old to be doing that when they first started dating. She even called them out on it not too long ago because those same people tried to act like they've always liked her once people realized she's actually not a bad person and the threads were full of nothing. Band fandoms stay being crazy :/
He has a gf now??😊
@@Alexiab yup, idk her real name i forgot but she's an artists called almondmilkunni :)
Which I hate. I was following her way before they started dating and although I didn’t pay much attention to her and calums always been my favorite, I was so here for that relationship lol. I was like she’s hot, he’s hot. Please don’t break eachothers hearts lol
@@unvcornx her name is brandy schwechler :)
I know it wasn’t part of this 5sos era messiness, but the Camila and Michael leaked messages also feel like they should be included just because of the energy. My best friends and I used to do dramatic readings of them and laugh hysterically
hold on hold on, ive been a 5sos fan for like 2 years explain what this is i need to know 😭
@@Izzywildflowerr Camila Cabello’s iCloud got hacked and some messages with Michael leaked but I think the leak happened after they stopped hooking up/dating. There were some iconic lines like “booty come back” and “your cubanism in my hands”. I’m sure if you google it you can find the screenshots
@@Izzywildflowerrpeople say they’re fake but i’d like to believe they’re real just because they’re so fucking funny 😭😭 but they were basically “leaked” sexts between camila cabello and michael and i distinctly remember the line “your cubanism in my hands” coming from michael’s end 😭😭
@@celineee__ HAHAHAHAH i don’t know whether i should go find them 😂😂
I just remembered that they made an Obama joke/reference while they were sexting ……….. I wish that was still repressed
as someone who was a 5sos stan during that era, it was ROUGH. that article came out on or around christmas and wrecked the fandom, that was the 5sos fams november 5th. i saw a lot of my mutuals go inactive after that but i don’t that article was what killed their momentum. while i fully understand and support them taking as long as they need to put together a new album the wait between their second and third albums was long and that in combination with the article and a general lack of content from them at the time led to a huge drop off in the fandom.
as someone who was a literal middle schooler during the bali trip, TWITTER WAS ON FIREEEE. The rolling stones article still causes war flashbacks. i still appreciate them a ton even though i don’t listen to them as much as i used to.
I was on stan twitter at the peak of One Direction, 5SOS, and Little Mix’s careers. Idk how I survived
The Rolling Stone article still gets a visceral reaction out of me all these years later
i got into 5sos in like, 2019, and having the knowledge that they weren't necessarily great people but i could still find them entertaining was really fun ngl. the early 2010s tumblr girlies suffered so i could chill out
Not "great" people? Wtf does that mean? That they are human?
@@ImperialMJGrelax
They actually were pretty great people back then especially before like 2014 but they were handed the fame and connections by people who had no interest in teaching them how to properly use it and not be affected by it. So it lead to some shitty actions like that article. But they were pretty nice, and many fans have nice stories to share of them.
In my niche of the 5sos tumblr fandom (LOL), when the article came out, people WERE actually mad at the boys themselves. after that most people i used to follow left the fandom (myself included)
i was like 12-15 when all this was going on and i’m getting war flashbacks with this video 😭
i never stopped being a fan of them, i just stopped being so OBSESSIVE after this era. i also grew up lol. but honestly now the fandom is so much more laid back than it used to be. and i think the boys and the fans have matured a lot too over the years. but oh man that was a rough patch…
I was a hugeeeeeeeee stan during the keek era through their first album (truly their peak, surviving off of the crumbs of their eps) , went to the take me home tour had my life changed but kinda just suddenly stopped caring once I started going to high school. if I read that 2015 rolling stone article during the peak I would have collapsed and shit my pants, nothing compares to the pure insanity mindset and complete adrenaline running through your veins as being a teen in the 2010s.
the KEEKS oh my god never forget
The "peak" is currently Youngblood that outsold the album you are talking about. Crazy fandom have nothing to do with how popular a band is. It just has to Do with how young and ignorant the fans are.
bruhhh tmh tour? you win.
@@ImperialMJG true, I should have clarified to what felt like the "peak" of the fandom itself, not the band. despite feeling truly like a fever dream, it was an incredibly toxic place on the internet and almost always had nothing to do with the music.
5sos gave us Matt Rife lines and we were okay with it?! 😭
matt rife lines???
nah not we , I left
@@ela-cu8bw their new music bangs tho, and if they did say that shit, they've entirely changed. still, i respect you leaving, good for you!
Andy Biersack would never
i was on twitter as a 5sos stan from 2014-2015 as a 12 year old and the amount of memories you just dug out of my brain is crazy lmao. I also want to add that i was on the spanish side of the fandom and it was a whole other level of toxcity, and let me tell you that, even being a fan from that long ago, until now i'd never read/listened to the quotes from the RS article and i'm so appalled
SWELL ENTERTAINMENT CAMEO LETS GOOO!! I've always loved her content and her measured, logical takes on most things. Didn't know she was in the fandom trenches that long ago, but I love seeing that she's never been afraid to voice opinions with both bluntness and nuance.
The Hey Violet circus was also very memorable 😭💀
omg i almost forgot about them. I was so excited when Nia followed my fan account 😭😭
You just unlocked memories that I deeply repressed
Omg I loved them
Fun fact: 5sos are from my local area & I got to see them open for 1D at the take me home tour. Pretty much everyone from this area have their own stories and interactions with the band, and EVERYONE only has good things to say about them.
One time one of the boys had a creepy stalker at the servo and my sister helped them out and took videos for them and sent the girl on her way, they thanked my sister and offered her shit lmao. Good kids! Glad they’ve been able to remain popular despite all the ups and downs and how crazy hollyweird is.
If I'm not wrong, til this day Ashton has a stalker/girl who is obsessed with claiming she's dated him. Even made a bunch of edited photos and stuff, even Ash's sister had to come and call her out
Words can not accurately describe how much I appreciate your channel
Truly, thank you. Your vids are so comfy to watch & really inspire me to finally make stuff!
omg it's embarrassing but i so clearly remember the day that the article dropped.. i read the article in my friend's kitchen, super shocked and dissapointed but really only about the 'wanting more than teen girl fans' part. i remember going onto after tumblr and seeing soooo many people saying goodbye and that they would be deleteing their accounts and tbh the article really hurt my 16 year old heart!! i was a pretty big fan (one of the lucky few to see them on the tmh and wwa tours) and i more or less completely dropped them following that article coming out. which in retrospect might have been a bit much, but as a longtime fangirl, i just couldnt look at them in the same way knowing how they felt about fans like me
i can’t believe both you and swell uploaded today AND we got a crossover. incredible
i have never been more ready for a video to retraumaize me
Damn this video just unlocked a whole lot of memories of my high school and early college fangirl days. Looking back as someone who witnessed a lot of this drama unfold online, a lot of it was so messy and petty af lmao. I started drifting away from the 5sos fandom due to getting more heavily invested in my university studies and after that Rolling Stone article because it really gave me the ick that they were perpetuating the misogynistic idea of disrespecting the credibility of majority female fanbases.
Good thing they came out in the recent years defending girl fandoms being criticized.
🙋♀ I am one of the fans that left the fandom when the article came out. I have such little memory of everything from this time which is why I'm watching this lol but I went from fully obsessed to cutting them off cold turkey. It just felt very misogynistic and a slap in the face to a 16 year old fan. However, when CALM came out, I became a full fledged fan again. I never stopped liking them, I just was disappointed at the time and ended up getting distracted by life and college. I think it's wild I left the fandom because of an article. I never saw the discourse of blaming the article or writer on twitter, I guess I left before it came on my timeline. All I saw was fans bashing the boys (or I was just blinded by my bias about the situation). At the end of the day, I think we're all guilty of saying things that aren't the best and the 5sos fans and the boys themselves have all grown up. It's amazing what a fully developed brain and some self awareness will do lmao.
Honestly just seeing that Rolling Stone article in the thumbnail made me break out in a cold sweat 😂 So many repressed memories of that time, the fandom got so toxic that I dipped and haven’t thought about 5SOS since 2016 so I was so unprepared to be reminded of the Bali trip, Arzaylea, and how endless the possibilities were 💀
i've been here for 10 years and i can confirm that there has never existed a time of peace within the 5sos fandom. even during peak pandemic. as long as 5sos exists, there will always be some sort of drama driving the fandom apart (and it's not the guys' fault for being together as a band, i just dont understand how after years this fandom keeps getting worser)
I think it's mostly in areas of the internet where vestiges of 2015 crazy fandomness still exist like Twitter or WP or even Tumblr. For the most part all the recent fans I've met a chill people. But other fans in those areas still cling to the boys' past mistakes and simply even hate on them for saying they're happy, love their new music, love their girlfriends and omg it's nuts
I HAD FRONT FLOOR SEETS AT THE 5SOS AND ONE DIRECTION SHOW AND I’LL NEVER GET OVER IT
Young Swell Entertainment was not on my bingo card for this video, but it should have been, because from the beginning I was thinking about Amanda’s video where she went to a 5sos show last(?) year.
a Swell Entertainment cameo???? what an amazing new years gift for us :)
SWELL ENTERTAINMENT USED TO MAKE 5SOS FAN VIDEOS
The random tiny Swell cameo made me scream omg I never knew Amanda covered anything besides events 😂
I was a teen too at the time and we had some One Direction / 5sos fangirls at our school and they were unhinged. I remember them stalking their idols, looking up their hotel and trying to linger around the hotel in the hopes they would meet them. They were also more delusional than other teens. I'm embarrassed about many things I did as a teen but I'm so glad that being one of those fangirls isn't one of them.
man i havent thought about this stuff in ages. 5sos have done a really good job over the years of separating their personal lives from career and growing a dedicated fandom who respect that. and its like a happy family now. they’re self aware and candid with their audience, they make jokes about the past and come up with unique content, they share their musical process and keep cranking out bangers. best band in the world tbh
best band in the world is crazy 😭
I was just reminiscing this when I came across my old 5sos playlist on Spotify. Crazy how that article was successful in phasing so many of us out of the fandom
I was on 5sos stan twitter during the peak of all of this and we were constantly in the trenches. One thing I distinctly remember is constant fighting with the Fifth Harmony fans for some reason. 5sos and Fifth Harmony were up for a lot of the same awards at the time, which is where I think it stemmed. There was a fan vote for the iHeart radio awards best fandom and the entire night it was a constant fight between the two fandoms, and it was believed that one would win. However, the time for the award came and Beliebers won, so there was a conspiracy theory that I remember seeing that Justin Bieber, his management, or his fans rigged the vote. It was a wild time for sure.
This. The whole “keeping cutting Ash” thing really opened my eyes to how crazed teenage girls could be. It was horrific.
i remember being a 5SOS stan in high school and joined Twitter when i was 13 or 14 years old. Every drama, scandal has always rubbed up on me waking up every single morning, like it’s a newspaper 😭 and i remember talking to some groupies to and oh lord… it was bad.
and that Bali trip WAS A MESS.
this really brought me back to my days on 5sos twitter… I stopped engaging with the fandom around late 2014 so I didn’t experience much of what you discuss in this video so it’s crazy to see how tumultuous things got. I still wear my Michael and Calum follows on twitter that I got from spam tweeting them like a badge of honour though
I was a 5SOS fan & this is very very veryyyyyy niche drama. But there was this girl, Lauren Bonnell, that made covers of 5SOS songs & there was like a community of 5SOS fans, including me, that loved her.
Well, during ‘DerpCon’ (hope y’all remember that), there was this girl on Twitter that was tweeting how she was going to it & she’s gonna show the boys Lauren’s cover and get her noticed. As her fans, we were super excited & she was super excited too. The girl kept tweeting pics of the event & telling stories about how she showed them her covers and they loved it, they also apparently thought she was cute. But then a few hours later, a group of fans exposed this fan for lying & posting pictures that the boys had already posted, until the girl had to own up and say she lied about the whole thing. So after like 5 hours of being hyped and tweeting at each other how excited we were for Lauren, it turned out to all but a random girl lying, and she got flaaaaamed lmao.
I don’t think anyone will know what I’m talking about but that was really funny.
you mentioning derpcon just unearthed so many memories for me 😭
You just unlocked this memory for me and I don’t even like actively remembering witnessing it. Then I went back on my twitter and saw some of my tweets about it back then lol
Holy FUCK I was obsessed with Lauren Bonnell! Hope she's doing well now
I've been/was a fan of 5SOS since around 2014 but never had any social media or was a part of any fandom so while I heard these things I never really *knew* about any of it. Likewise, this is my first time actually hearing/reading any part of the RS article and boy was that a ride! So many people had to have read that and thought "yeah this is okay to be published", it's amazing how much absurd writing is able to slip through the cracks. I will say though "Elfin blond coif" did get a chuckle out of me. Loved this video btw! It was like getting all of the lore on old high school drama lol
the rolling stone article was a giant meme on my side of quotev. my tagline was *cracks devilish grin* for a long time
LMFAOOO youre funny
0:01 in the sense that we are the class and you are the teacher, you are 100% the english/choir teacher that instantly becomes your school mom
5sos is my favorite band (I'm 31) and I discovered them 4 years ago during COVID thanks to their album CALM... so I wasn't around during this messing area but thanks for the video it was very interesting. Safe to say I'm glad I wasn't a fan back then 😂
Damn, I'm so glad I got into 5SOS way after all that drama was over. Great video, very informative 👍
Hearing that Hot Chelle Rae song always makes my day slightly worse if I'm being honest, but I can respect it's contribution to this timeline.
The ancient Amanda video got Me I didn't see that one coming
can't wait to experience intense fomo for a fandom I was never a part of 😂
feeling mega fomo coz i joined the fandom last year and so i’m so upset i missed out on this whatever this is 😭
Fell in love with the fact that we are both stuck in the same 2014 niches when I first saw your acacia video so very thankful you did not delete it and actually highly recommend. You’re one of the only people who deep dives into such hard hitting and currently relevant topics (kidding but In all actuality you have hit the perfect sweet spot of nostalgia and moments that make me go “omg I forgot that happened”). Even if you did look like Nora.
Thank you so much for this video! I can’t even count how many times the song You suck randomly comes to my mind, an absolute banger. And as a fan of the band from the start to now, I’m really glad that their hype died down cause now they are making music that they actually like and are able to live a much more chill life without the whole drama and attack on their girlfriends. CALM is an absolute master piece so to any old fans that forgot about the band I strongly recommend this album.
The rolling stones article and bali trip were so traumatic for me as a teen. It hit hard because I had just graduated and felt really lost, and 5sos was one of the only things making me happy at the time. What helped me get through it was listening to an episode of Tyler Oakley’s podcast where he talked about the situation and recommended watching the movie Almost Famous. That was healing, but even 8 years later “the possibilities are endless” gives me flashbacks.
I do appreciate 5sos now though and I feel like I have grown with them as a band. I still go to their concerts and I appreciate their new music. I didn’t like their more pop style at first but their ability to adapt is what has kept them relevant and gained them new fans.
Side note: I also have really fun memories of watching 5sos youtubers like colliscool, ellenawhat, maddy radtke, and alyssa fouts. I was also really into british youtube back then and I remember caspar lee and ashton irwin were friends. That was a good time :)
as someone who is a part of the 5sosfam, i approve of this video HAHAHA. way to go ashley i love it!
It was so interesting you asked if anyone left the fandom due to the Rolling Stone article, because I actually had, Twitter account at all. I think you're right that many artists had done far worse things, but in hindsight, the fandom had a weird tunnel vision to think that the band members were the most perfect, flawless people to walk the planet. I was also super young when I started to be a fan, around 12, and this article came out when I was 15 and started to become more self-aware of how odd it was to put these people on a pedestal. My leaving the fandom was more a mix of getting older, deciding to not idolize real people anymore, as well as being upset with what was said in the article.
The chokehold this group had me in from 2013-2016…I truly feel bad for all those around me at the time. I still to this day though, really love this band and went to go see them at The Forum in mid 2023 and loved it. They are still very passionate and sweet, especially now that they are releasing music they are genuinely proud of! Always a 5sos fan despite the mistakes they made when they were younger.
i just went through my old 5sos fan account on twitter & got hella whiplash. we really were such an unhinged fanbase😭 anyway this video was exactly what i needed rn
living thru this era in middle school was golden, but rather than being obsessed w the girls they were(n’t) dating, my bff and I would argue about whether muke or cake was real💀💀💀just living in complete delusion 😻
Those were the debates worth having 😂
I mean who the hell knows. I do know some great fanfics came out from it though. But I also wonder if this is why some people hated their gfs so much, too.
@@hailsaep13 some yes, but others were jealous because they wanted to be their girlfriends. Which is more delusional in my opinion.
@@inalltheirgorgeouscolors8091 I do believe that idolizing, as much as it is detrimental because they aren't saints, is equally detrimental because it leads to people thinking they own them. I have actually seen nowadays, it tends to be more they want to ship them with each other lmfao. The girlfriend fantasy is definitely more delusional but idk which one is worse.
@@hailsaep13 I actually think the only thing that matters is how we treat each other. Not who we think anyone is dating . All the gossip is fair game and fine by me as long as fans still treat them respectfully. By that I mean respecting their personal space and only writing polite comments and messages.
this video just reminded me of my friend who submitted a lukexreader 5sos breakfast club au fanfiction for an english assignment in the tenth grade.... never forget
being a 5sos fan in that era was so fun! but the music they make now is one one of my favs, they’ve really evolved. it suits me now as a 23 yr old instead of a young teenager, and also i feel the fan base has matured too, their most recent tour was mostly like people in their 20s & 30s and the vibes were great ! it seems like 5sos now have the ability to make the music they want to now that they’re not in that pressurized boy band thing
I loved your Acacia video! Its a good overview of her socials and holds up!
I love this video! 5sos is my favorite band and I really appreciate this reflection on the article because I was one of those fans that fully believed it was basically all a lie 😂 I was like 14 and refused to think critically of a band that I really admired, thank you for talking about this!
Oh my god, "Polly Pocket wig" is such a specific thing but I know exactly what you're talking about.
Liz would NEVER tweet that omg I don't believe that's a real tweet😭
Catch me reminiscing about my early years in the 5sosfandom like I’m an elder in a nursing home just because if this video, damn you Ashley hahah
(Also obviously not ignoring the fact that the fans (probably me included) was really horrible at times)
As someone who was also a huge fan of a band with a primary female audience as a teen i have always been baffled by the hatred that girlfriends of these bands get, like i understand the internalized misogyny n parasociality of it all but even as a teen i would just think "these r grown ass men that most of us will never even get to meet, theyre not fucking any of us, were literally kids so just be into them w out making it these womens problem"
Seeing Amanda Swell Entertainment cited as "a 5sos fan" absolutely gave me whiplash just now ??? It's so crazy that every youtuber I like used to be a teenager
5sos stan twitter member here ; not all of us were sucked into this dynamic, my friends and I used to create dating rumors about each other in order to rile the fandom up, and it was hilarious every time
Was just telling my husband I needed some serotonin and here comes Ashley to lift my spirits. We love a psychic queen. 🎉
My BIGGEST flex will be that my very first concert was One Direction with 5SOS as their opener
As much as I hate myself for not becoming a fan sooner, I’m also grateful that I only joined the fandom mid 2022 😭 the current drama is still absurd, but at least none of it actually has to do with the band, it all has to do with how terrible some of the fans are
Same! I just got into them last summer when I went to their concert. My friend and fellow 1D fan had been trying for years get me into them, and I finally did because their concert tickets near me were so cheap 😆 I’m so glad I finally committed to listening to their music and going to that concert! I had a great time! I feel like I have maturity now to check my expectations as a fan and just engage with the aspects of the fandom that I like.
I follow them on IG and fandom stuff on tumblr, same as I do with 1D. I was a 1D fan and at least into the fandom lore on RUclips back in the early days but took a break in mid 2013 when it all got too sad. I’m older than all the guys- BSB and NSYNC were the boy bands of my generation- so I never saw them as fantasy boyfriends. So I was always a little removed from the most obsessive and deeply misogynistic corners of the fandoms. Not completely immune from it though. I try to take fan opinions with some skepticism.
I got back into 1D in 2019 when I was bored and missing their early music. It has been such a joy to discover their later music as a band, their solo careers and what they have been up to while I was away. I deeply miss seeing them too as a band and as friends. That was always one of the most endearing and entertaining things about 1D- they were so close and incredibly funny 😂 But I have adjusted my expectations over time. Getting into 5sos has helped fill the boyband void in my heart. I still think they are very funny, nice, lovable guys. Their music, like 1D’s music is extremely catchy. I’m glad I have found corners of the fandom that I can relate to.
I was a fan of 5sos the moment louis tweeted that video of them. I was stanning them HEAVY until 2016. By the time the article came out I was already losing my fixation of them, but hearing what they said and some of the things I picked up from other drama and other fans, I felt like the curtain was drawn, the act was revealed, i could just see they were just SOME GUYS! like truly, just young guys who make pop punk music (and mind you, I was so in deep, i was part of most of this drama and remember when all of this went down). I think they just got too famous too quick. they were ready and it shows, they wanted to live live like their idols, page, clapton, etc., when in reality their idols werent awful people. I hope they are all doing great, cant believe its been almost a decade now since the stones article lol