Ultimate Fandom Playlist: @Tha5SOSFamily & @5SOSVoteStats

Welcome to our brand new strand here on MTV where we put the fans in control. 

Ultimate Fandom Playlists are curated by some of the biggest and best fan accounts on the internet and this week we're letting @Tha5SOSFamily and @5SOSVoteStats takeover.

Here are @Tha5SOSFamily and @5SOSVoteStats’s picks of live performances, underrated songs, and covers for mandatory listening.

Castaway

‘Castaway’ is about a breakup and the isolation and self doubt many people experience as a result. In this case, the singer is searching for what went wrong in the relationship and unable to find it since they had shielded themselves from the truth in preceding track ‘Vapor’. 

We chose this song especially because it’s pretty relatable. A lot of the fans have grown up with 5SOS over the last 5 years and have gone through a quick breakup that left them feeling lonely. (The song is especially amazing if you remember that Luke came up for the concept of this song while on the toilet!)

Lost Boy

‘Lost Boy’ is about a celebrity/public figure’s struggle with missing a relationship. The singer has it all - passionate fans, getting to tour the world, practicing the art they love - that most people can only dream of, but they are still devoid of the one they love most, the one who completes them. 

The singer is left without direction after seeing almost every face in the world except the one they truly miss. They feel empty inside and are sat in silence, unable to enjoy their celebrated life, the world of noise they are living in. This song’s bridge is incredible! (Appreciation sentence for the bridge!) Also in our opinion, it’s by far one of 5SOS’ most underrated songs.

Vapor

‘Vapor’ is about a damaging relationship built completely on lies. The singer is aware of this and is still desperately trying to hold on as long as they can: savouring every word they can get from their core, promising that they “won't ever waste them” and “printing their [lover’s] hands in the pavement” like a parent who doesn't want to let go of their child’s childhood. 

The love in this relationship is compared to an addiction and even though it’s not good for them, they both can’t seem to let it go. They are hiding from the truths to save a doomed relationship, allowing their lover to make every lie in the relationship “sound so sweet” and hold them in complete desperation and helplessness. We chose this song because it tells a great story and it’s a different sound than most of 5sos’ music – it was also definitely a fan favourite when they sang it on tour.

Outer Space/Carry On

‘Outer Space/Carry On’ is a unique two-part song that concludes 5SOS’ sophomore album. In ‘Outer Space’, the singer is reflecting on the heartbreak story they have shared over the course of Sounds Good Feels Good with direct connections to their lover’s lies prevalent in ‘Vapor’ and extensive loneliness and isolation inflicted in ‘Castaway’.  

In ‘Carry On’, the singer addresses their audience of those who are stranded on their own islands, in broken homes, and involved in damaging relationships, that not too long from now they'll find their true home and reminds them that everything will undoubtedly get better. They plead their audience to not lose yourself to the negativity / forget about the happiness and encourage them to move on and hold out for a better life. It portrays an inner fight that everyone has experienced and its end message is that the person should focus on the good things and to outlast the ignorance.

Safety Pin

‘Safety Pin’ is an anthem for the people of the New Broken Scene: the broken, the rejects, and the unwanted, represented by two halves of a broken heart held together by a safety pin. The Safety Pin Heart symbol was used during the New Broken Scene, when 5SOS flew fans from all around the world in and talked about all the problems and demons in our daily lives.  

For 5SOS drummer Ashton Irwin, one half of the heart is the band and the other is us, their fans. Everyone has their own interpretation of who or what keeps them going. In this song, two broken people heal each other's hearts with the love they were unable to share before, in doubting themselves and deleting unsent messages (everything they didn't say). Together, their two wrongs make a right and they will save each other from falling, just like 5SOS’ music has helped fans and us fans have in turn helped 5SOS - real bands save fans, real fans save bands.

Independence Day

‘Independence Day’ is about a damaging, controlling relationship where the singer realises that their lover is criticising their every action and controlling the singer’s life, and the singer’s escape from it. There's an unfortunate misconception that people should prioritise others way ahead of themselves and end up in actuality wasting away their lives for the sake of another person who does not prioritise them in the same way. 

Don't let someone try to live your life for you or exploit you for their benefit - declare your own ‘Independence Day’. This song was chosen by us because many people can relate to this situation and the strong melody makes it a feel-good song that emphasizes that it’s better to be happy and have confidence in oneself rather than remaining stuck in a bad relationship.

Greenlight

‘Greenlight’ addresses a very important topic that is often blindsided or ignored in today's society - the importance of consent, represented in this song by the green light. In several instances in which people have been taken advantage of, the victim is constantly blamed for having been drunk, high, dressed provocatively, or not having said no “loud enough”. 

There is entirely too much victim blaming especially when being taken advantage of is a damaging experience that often leads to the victim being shamed and terrified to love for their entire life. A sexual act is not okay, excusable, or legal unless your partner gives their consent, metaphorically similarly to how driving past a traffic light is not legal unless it has turned green and given you the right to continue.

Lost In Reality

‘Lost in Reality’ is about a lover who has the singer completely at their mercy. Similarly to ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’ and ‘Voodoo Doll’, the singer’s lover takes advantage of them and leaves them helpless. Their lover is older, has more experience, and uses this exploitatively to mess with the singer's mind. 

The singer is left lost in reality, unable to function or escape from their lover haunting them. They are hypnotised by the love that damaged them, and is so caught up in their fascination with their lover that they are willing to give away their entire heart, even after it’s been shattered to pieces, a cycle that's unfortunately repeated in many abusive relationships.

Disconnected

In today's society, everyone is hyper focused on a tangled web of cellphones and social networks (hashtag I don't knows) that closely connects us by allowing almost immediate contact with faraway people, but in reality pushing us further apart from those surrounding us. In ‘Disconnected’, the singer wants to turn down the static sound drowning out meaningful events by at least temporarily turning off the radio and late night TV shows to just be in the moment with each other and notice beautiful things like the rare rains in summer. 

This is especially significant to 5SOS as a band since they highly value having phones away at concerts so a few thousand people can come together and enjoy every part of once in a lifetime moment without missing important parts due to outside distractions.

She Looks So Perfect

'She Looks So Perfect', 5SOS’ first international single with a major record label, addresses another important issue of today's society - body shaming. In the music video, there are people of all body types taking off their clothes and celebrating their bodies, directly challenging the stigma that people over a certain weight should not wear “revealing” clothes and that they “don’t deserve” a relationship with a person who is more traditionally attractive to modern society.

The singer writes that they've worked too damn hard for this relationship to give it up for an insignificant, uncalled for judgement from outside. An amazing song that brought many new people to our fan family!

Over And Out

Like a matured Independence Day, Over and Out from the She’s Kinda Hot EP shares the singer's escape from a damaging relationship where their lover treated them as easily replaceable and insignificant (a dime a dozen). They give their lover the okay to scream and throw fits as long as they can have their own life and mind back, since they haven't been able to live their own life since the start of the relationship. The singer is in a constant state of panic and insecurity because of their lover's unrelenting control and judgement of their life. This song is about taking your future in your own hands and the important aspect of declaring that other people should take you for how you are. We chose it because it’s empowering, has a strong message that we should all follow and the melody itself is very confident and assertive.

End Up Here

End Up Here tells the story of a player who had previously treated girls like they were insignificant and just another “conquest”, still a major problem in society today, and his notice of a girl who has a unique, beautiful mind who finally makes him realise his wrongs and feel some insecurity leading him to treat his future partners right. As a double meaning for the band themselves, it was the opening song at 5SOS’ first headlining world tour Rock Out With Your Socks Out as a thank you to us fans for helping them to end up where they’ve always dreams and also serves as a reference for their recent DVD name, How Did We End Up Here?, telling the journey of how 5SOS came from playing to 12 people at the Annandale Hotel to becoming one of the hottest bands on the music scene and inspiring millions of fans daily.

Permanent Vacation

Permanent Vacation addresses the pressure from society to take a stable, well paying job for the sake of success and advises its audience to not give up on what makes them happiest for the sake of becoming successful by society's standards. As the years pass, more and more people are pressured to get into well ranked universities and take jobs associated with a successful lifestyle (such as doctors and lawyers). 5SOS advises their audience to take a chance, as they did by dropping out and pursuing music, to follow your heart and do what makes you happiest to make the best future for yourself, proclaiming that everyone should do what makes themselves happy and go on their own permanent vacation.The song is a metaphor that you should be living your life to the fullest – no matter the social and emotional hardships.

It’s telling us that you can do fine even though you don’t do what is expected from you. It addresses the younger generations directly with the lyrics “we’re the voice of the new generation” and it illustrates how the younger generations should break out of the system that’s imposed on them and make their own happiness since there are alternative ways to success outside of 9-5 jobs - they’re so overrated.

Long Way Home

'Long Way Home' tells the story of a singer who metaphorically takes several detours on the way home to avoid having to leave their lover for the night or in the future, the entire relationship. They relive memories of walking home from school while playing guitar and of pure innocent happiness filled with fireflies and make believe. The pair took their time driving to the “middle of nowhere”, to remove themselves from the harsh realities in the world to dream for awhile. They “catch fire like kerosene”, which burns strongly for a long time, unlike a forced, insignificant relationship that is common today.

This is a relationship built on trust - both know the other won’t let them down and they are stopping at every red light since they genuinely want to take their time to develop a lasting relationship that isn’t rushed. We chose this song because currently many people feel pressured to rush through life and reach milestones in dating (first boyfriend / girlfriend, first kiss, etc) and it’s such an important message that taking your time to just get to know the other person while reflecting on the beauty of the often bypassed outside world brings the exceptional quality of a personal relationship. 

Close As Strangers

'Close As Strangers' opens with the recognition that in the six weeks the singer has been separated from their lover, presumably because of 5SOS’ sudden success in their opening days and leaving Australia to tour the United States, forcing them into a long distance relationship with incoming doubts. With every passing day they feel themselves drifting a little further away and what they have together is falling apart. Even their phone calls to each other are becoming worthless since the little time they spend together talking on a “broken line” is spent convincing themselves that they actually miss each other. 5SOS are living their dreams onstage in the fluorescent lights at the cost of the singer losing the memory of their lover in the thousands of faces they see while on tour, but there’s still an undertone of hope in their promise that they will always wait for each other.

Finally the song comes full circle since its opening when 5SOS was six weeks into their tour and is left on an open ended note six months later as neither the audience nor the singer know where the relationship is headed and the singer prepares to return home tomorrow and find out. Though it’s one of 5SOS’ more personal songs many people can empathise with it since almost every day we drift apart from friends who we used to spend all our time with. Suddenly not seeing each other anymore and having just a few texts and phone calls in between often fills us with uncertainty of whether the relationship will survive, illustrated in this song. It ends on a somewhat hopeful note that is reassuring to those with similar relationships and encourages them to find closure.

In conclusion you can say that we picked most of the songs because they’re very personal and tell stories that everyone can be a part of. 5SOS have said that they want to write real songs for real people, real issues, which makes their music even more appealing beyond the catchy melodies.

Follow @Tha5SOSFamily and @5SOSVoteStats on Twitter.