“The Runarounds”, Amazon Prime’s new hit TV show featuring five incredible band members, is revamping rock and roll and shaping the music industry for the future. The TV show featuring William Lipton as Charlie Cooper, Axel Ellis as Neil Crosby, Jesse Golliher as Wyatt Wysong, Zendé Murdock as Bez Willis and Jeremy Yun as Topher Park, showcases the heartache and struggle that come with chasing your dreams.
The band formed after the show’s creator, Jonas Pates, issued an open casting call in 2021.
Pates originally gained success after his first show, “Outer Banks”, became a hit all across the charts.
After narrowing down 5,000 submissions, Pates found the five band members who would become known as The Runarounds.
“It really helped that we shot the pilot for the show in 2022,” Ellis remarked. “So, we had a couple years after that before we went and shot the rest of the season. So, we kind of all really got to be friends.”
The rest of the season, filmed in 2024, grasped onto the band’s on-screen chemistry that made the entire show feel like you were watching a real group of teenagers chase their dreams from the second floor of a music shop.
It’s been really difficult to find shows and movies that are able to encapsulate the essence of being a teenager wanting to follow every single dream. “The Runarounds” does exactly that while being a funny, relatable break from the world. It’s everything that a good show needs: love, heartache, friendship, and some really good freaking music.
While the show has not yet been renewed for a second season, the response on social media has been overwhelmingly positive.
“It really captures just the passion and the imagination of being a teenager,” TikTok user Kivonshe shared.
For many viewers across the nation, the TV show has not only become an inspiration, but it has also produced a newfound love for rock as a music genre. With 15 original songs from the TV show and one cover of “Valerie” by Amy Winehouse, the band has approximately 31,400 monthly listeners on Spotify, just six days after the TV show aired.
The band is set to embark on their first tour, debuting in Charleston, South Carolina, on Sept. 12. Hitting a total of 19 different cities, the band has already sold out nine of their shows.
After the breakup of boy bands over generations, like One Direction, NSYNC and the Jonas Brothers, the music industry doesn’t seem to have one cohesive boy band breaking records anymore. With their relatable rock music, The Runarounds could be exactly what we and the music industry need.
