Rock Music has become an incredibly difficult realm to make something interesting. Hard Rock Music even more so. Maybe that’s a heavily subjective take but most of the defining characteristics of the genre require a great finesse not to fall into parody. Making something legitimately boring in rock music is more common than not.
With that in mind, “Wannabe” from The F-use is a rather refreshing example of what still works. The song has relentless energy, strained vocals, and lyrics lambasting the emptiness of poseurs (a topic that could backfire majestically regardless of genre if done poorly). The accompanying video amps up the energy but also cuts through any presumptions that the song is overly serious. Matthew Estevez, The F-use himself, goes through numerous ridiculous costume changes, hams it up delightfully for the camera and has a genuinely good time throughout. It’s incredibly easy to imagine seeing this live and everyone in the audience is both incredibly sweaty and beaming widely as they sing along.
Ironically, a lot of the tropes of rock music end up making the perpetrators look like wannabes, precisely what the F-use is musing on here. Estevez tells me that the song is actually a direct follow-up to the track “Chaser” released a few years; similar vibes, lyrical content and memorable hooks. Let’s hope there’s another entry in this series one day.. I look forward to the Vapid Trilogy.