Music / The Vamps

Influenced by:

• AC/DC, All Time Low, Arctic Monkeys, Busted, Good Charlotte, McFly, One Direction, Damien Rice, Taylor Swift

The Vamps are a pop rock band formed in 2012 in England, whose rise to fame began with them posting cover songs to their YouTube channel. Often being compared to a Boy Band, they were signed to Mercury Records in November of 2012, supporting various British bands and American singers before releasing their first album, Meet The Vamps in 2014. They broke into the US charts when they released "Wild Heart" for their American debut on the Somebody To You EP. Since then, they have released 3 more albums, with the most recent being set to release on July 13, 2018.

Current band members include

• Bradley Will "Brad" Simpson: Lead vocals and guitar
• James Daniel McVey: Lead guitarist and backing vocals
• Connor Samuel John Ball: Bass guitar and backing vocals
• Tristan Oliver Vance Evans: Drums, backing vocals, producer (for cover songs)

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Discography

• Meet The Vamps (2014 European Debut)
• Somebody To You EP (2014 American Debut)
• Wake Up (2015)
• Night & Day (2017-2018)
  • Night Edition (2017)
  • Day Edition (2018)

Selected singles include

• Can We Dance
• Wild Heart
• Somebody To You (ft. Demi Lovato)
• Oh Cecilia (Breaking My Heart) (ft. Shawn Mendes)
• Last Night
• Wake Up
• I Found A Girl (ft. Omi)
• All Night (ft. Matoma)
• Middle of the Night (ft. Martin Jensen)
• Personal (ft. Maggie Lindemann)

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Can We Trope?

• The Alcoholic: Not the band members in particular, but some of the songs do mention them drinking a lot, for instance, "Can We Dance" ("One more drink then I should go") and "Last Night" (arguably a metaphor for hangovers).
• Audience Participation Song: If videos of their concerts are to be believed, "Can We Dance", "Hands", "Somebody To You", and "Wake Up" are this.
• Boy Band: Similar to the case for 5 Seconds of Summer, Their connections towards One Direction has people labelling them as this, even though they are not manufactured as typical boy bands are
• Curse Cut Short: "Can We Dance" plays with this in a way, seeing as it is their debut single.
  "I talk a lot of (shh) when I'm drinkin' baby,
  I'm known to go a little too fast"
  • They do it again in "Hair Too Long" from ''Night & Day"
    "I'm just sick of staying up losing sleep, who gives a fuh-?"
  • In general, they refrain from singing these on the albums, but will sing the actual words live, the only curse they have ever said that they didn't consciously censor appeared on "Last Night", where a repeated line in the chorus is "what the hell happened last night"
• Genre Shift: On the first album, its strictly pop rock, however, the scope depends on the song, with "Can We Dance" being dance/pop rock, "Wild Heart" being Mumford & Sons inspired folk pop, "Oh Cecelia (Breaking My Heart)" being a throwback to Simon & Garfunkel, and "Somebody To You" being straight pop-rock.
  • Their second album takes this somewhat further, still retaining the pop rock sound, but adding in more electronic-influenced sounds, as heard in "Wake Up" and "I Found a Girl"
  • Their most recent release actually shifts more to dance pop/house music than their previous work, with "Middle of the Night" and Mike Perry's "Hands" being the most notable songs that demonstrate the shift, however, the second part of the album returns to the second album's electronic influenced pop rock.
• Hangover Sensitivity: Mentioned in "Last Night"
  "Wake up in the morning
  With the sunlight in my eyes
  But my head don't feel so right
  What the hell happened last night."
• I Need a Freaking Drink: "Can We Dance"
  "(Oh, oh) One more drink and I should go"
• Love at First Sight: A lot of their songs use this message to some extent
  • "Can We Dance"
    "I know I don't know you
    But I'd like to skip the small talk and romance, girl
    That's all I have to say so, baby, can we dance?"
  • "Wild Heart"
    "I was walking away, but she's so beautiful it made me stay
    I don't know her name, but I'm hoping she might feel the same
    So here I go again, she got my heart again"
  • Played with in "I Found a Girl", however, subverted in that it turns into a song about rejection since the girl they found only dates other girls.
    "Cause I found a girl, who's in love with a girl
    "She said that she tried, but she's not into guys"
• Mr. Fanservice: Pretty much all of them, though lead singer Bradley certainly has more moments than the others.
• Precision F-Strike: They don't sing it themselves, but their feature in Mike Perry's "Hands" on the Night version of the Day & Night album, guest vocalist Sabrina Carpenter changed words and said "So leave your shit at the door", which was censored on the album, but uncensored on Mike Perry's single release of the song. The line was originally "So leave your shirt at the door", according to Bradley Simpson and James McVey
• Sampling: They interpolate samples from Simon & Garfunkel's "Cecilia" in "Oh Cecilia (Breaking My Heart)"
• Third Wheel: Implied in "Can We Dance"
  "I was nearly in, but then came the pushy friend
  Killed the vibe and took my perfect ten, away"
• Sexiness Score: The main character of "Can We Dance" is one a dance with "perfect ten" when his pushy friend gets in the way and chases her off.
• Shirtless Scene: All the boys are seen shirtless around the pool in the video for "Somebody To You" and they all bare some skin in "Cecilia" as well.
• Updated Re-release: The Day Version of Night & Day is this, featuring new songs and the entirety of the Night Version in the setlist.
• What Beautiful Eyes!: The girl in "I Found A Girl" has them, which is why the protagonist fell for her. Unfortunately for him, there's a crucial detail preventing them from ever having a relationship.
• With Friends Like These...: Mentioned in "Can We Dance"
  "Don't mind all my friends, I know they're all crazy,
  But they're the only friends that I have."

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