We all know 5 Seconds of Summer as that Sydney band who are here to save rock and roll, right? Well, their latest smash single has quite a few of their own fans taking to social media to ask the eternal question: “Is it just me?”

It appears quite a few of the Sydney pop rock outfit’s fans have noticed similarities between their new single, ‘She’s Kinda Hot’, and My Chemical Romance’s 2006 breakthrough hit, ‘Teenagers’, and no, it’s not just them.

Speaking recently to Billboard, 5 Seconds of Summer guitarist Michael Clifford has addressed the comparisons between the two tracks, explaining where the similarities are and suggesting that they’re essentially giving fans what they want.

“That’s just because of the 12-bar blues,” Clifford explains. “I think it might be in the same key as well. People were like, ‘You guys should sound more like My Chemical Romance.’ Then we do sound like My Chemical Romance and people are like, ‘Why the fuck do you sound like My Chemical Romance?’ Ugh!”

You can compare the two tracks side-by-side below. In addition to the 12-bar blues element, the two songs certainly seem to have the same ebb and flow progression, as well as almost identical rhythms and very similar choruses.

As some readers will recall, 5 Seconds of Summer made headlines back in December when they told Fairfax that, far from being a glorified boy band, they want to lead the charge in bringing rock and roll back to radio airwaves.

“That implies that we don’t play and we don’t write our songs,” said singer Luke Hemmings about the boy band label. “It makes us seem a bit fake. Starting in a garage and writing our own songs and playing them in pubs to 10 people; I don’t think [being called a boy band] does us justice as a band.”

According to a Fairfax bio on the controversial group, in December 2011, before they were attracting attention from major labels, the boys had their first ever show at Sydney’s famous Annandale.

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