Rixton, a British boy band, is best known for its 2014 hit single “Me And My Broken Heart,” which rapidly ascended to #14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Throughout 2013, up until “Me And My Broken Heart” was released and gained popularity, the band played primarily at hole-in-the-wall venues to build a strong fanbase and become noticed by potential managers, producers, and record labels.

Rixton, like many bands in this era, capitalized on YouTube to make their work easily accessible to everyone. They recorded covers of songs by other popular artists and uploaded them in hopes of gaining popularity. These covers, specifically their version of Chris Brown’s “Don’t Wake Me Up” which quickly received over 250,000 views, got the foursome noticed by music manager Scooter Braun.

Braun is well known throughout the music industry for his involvement in the success of popular musicians such as Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, and Ariana Grande. Braun paired up with the band and helped them sign to Interscope Records. Rixton is currently working with producer Benny Blanco, who is also the producer of Katy Perry and Maroon 5, on their debut album.

Like many other boy bands, Rixton’s songs are catchy and very repetitive. These tunes are so repetitive that you are sure to know the lyrics by the end of the song, and you could sing along with the musician the first time you hear it. Obviously the songwriters got tired of thinking of new, creative lyrics, so they resorted to repeating the same washed-up ones multiple times. Although the naive youth of America seems to like singing along with a song the first time you hear it, worldly individuals understand that a song should have a chorus not be a chorus.

Like many other boy bands, Rixton relies on the good looks of their band members and an excessive amount of auto tuning. I will admit that Rixton does not have a terrible sound, but the difference between what they sound like live and in pre recorded videos is shocking. They truly sound like a different band during their live performances.

It is apparent that Rixton was heavily influenced by the far more popular band, Maroon 5; they sound disturbingly similar, and Rixton is clearly a copy of Maroon 5’s once original sound. I can not fully blame the band for these similarities, because their producer also worked with Maroon 5, and I am sure he persuaded Rixton to replicate Maroon 5’s sound.

Not only did Rixton duplicate another band’s sound, but their hit video “Makeout” is a spoof of other popular pop videos. It includes disturbing remakes of Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking Ball,” Katy Perry’s “Roar,” Justin Bieber’s “Beauty and the Beat,” Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines,” and Rihanna’s “Stay.” While watching “Makeout” I was disgusted and disturbed. The lyrics of the song were typical, repetitive, catchy, and unoriginal, but the video made me physically ill. The last thing I wanted to see was the image of the band’s lead singer Jake Roche’s bare bottom, which was traumatizing. “Makeout” is a mess of thrown together popular videos that were being made fun of by the band. I do not know who thought that was a good idea, but as a teenage girl, the demographic they are trying to appeal to, I thought it was terrible.

As expected, their newest song “Wait on Me” is just as bad, if not worse than their other songs. I believe this band has potential if they stopped relying on the overuse of auto tune and experimented with their sound. Overall Rixton is not the worst boy band out there, but really, how many boy bands do we need? I would rate them as a generous 5 out of 10. I hope to see Rixton trying something new in the future, but until then, I definitely will not wait on them.