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The return of McFly: will the cheeky pop-punkers finally get their due?

Despite being dismissed as teenage girl fodder, the millennial outfit were influential for a generation of bands

The year is 2005, combat trousers inexplicably have tassels and chart music is groaning under the weight of reality TV winners and Crazy Frog. Tweens across the country are crying in front of Newsround because Busted have split, and the last hope of respite from the onslaught of Fame Academies and Pop Idols lies solely at the oversized trainers of a new musical outfit: McFly.

For those who had outgrown S Club 7 or couldn’t relate to Blue, there was a creeping adolescent need for something that felt “real”. The scorn towards “key change, stool rise” boybands was beginning to set in, but fully fledged indie rock bands still felt a way off, impenetrable in their “serious” music press and 16+ gigs. Busted proteges McFly provided a credible halfway house: they wrote their own songs, they played their own instruments, they were funny and youthful and cool. Behind every perky All About You or Star Girl, there was a Too Close for Comfort or Not Alone, hinting at darker emotional places. To my young millennial ears, they were trailblazers, putting a hefty dose of personality back into pop.

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from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2TDHCzq

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