The Wanted as a boy band making fun of boy bands: self-deprecating or obtuse?
The video for the group's first single of 2013, "Walks Like Rihanna," is most obviously a pretty straight rip-off (and on) of *NSYNC's "Bye, Bye Bye" video. Later, the guys play on the all-white outfits of the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way."
"We are really excited about this single," Tom Parker of the Wanted said in a statement. "We feel it's a little different from the usual Wanted sound, we've stripped it back to pure pop, it's just a feel-good, fun track. Fun is a good word to describe the video too. Let's just say it's got a lot of character."
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The video may be a parody, but the song is meant to be a legit single on the group's upcoming third studio album. And it will probably become a hit. How could it not with lyrics like, "You can feel that beat when she's in the room/You can feel your heart going 'boom-boom?'" If you like that, there is a lot more of that "boom-boom" later in the song too.
The lyrics and video are about a dream girl who can't sing or dance, but she walks like Rihanna — whatever that exactly means — so it's all cool.