During the summer of 2009, two seemingly unrelated and almost contradictory musical events occurred. The Black Eyed Peas wrote the song of the summer with the gratingly catchy and hyper-positive “I Gotta Feeling,” and the xx quietly released their self-titled debut. These events are not of a piece at first sight, but scrutinize just a little, and you see something that looks like forks in an inscrutable road.
Before the xx released their first record, there was nary a whisper of anything so soporific, so sweet and sour, and gothic in the wider musical atmosphere. Now, even loosely, their style has helped popularize a new pathway to hit potential. This is not to say that artists still don’t turn to blinding optimism (see: Pharrell’s “Happy,” JT’s cloying “Can’t Stop the Feeling”), but in the last few years, the stylings of Drake, the Weeknd, Justin Bieber, and more show that a mopey aesthetic is not just a bumper crop, even in mainstream pop.
The xx’s sound is coy and deceivingly simple: wrought from minimalist bass lines, husky vocal duets, and finely tuned drums. Their songs can be protean, sometimes feeling pleasantly childish (“VCR”), other times spare and grand (“Angels”). But their work has always been united by an intoxicating sadness and bolstered by a quiet confidence.
In theory, their template for a hit is easily replicable. One can hypothetically craft the same intimacy and opiated pleasure from molasses-slow bass lines and drum machine whacks and hushed voices. They’ve been badly sampled over the years (by Mike Posner and Mac Miller, to name a few), while their tropes and overall vibe register in everything from Kygo’s trop-house to the weepy synthpop of Wet. Of course, the xx aren’t alone in this infusion of sullen atmospheres into pop (see: James Blake), but the trio’s blueprint has certainly been borrowed from. Here are a few examples of songs and moments that perhaps echo the xx a little too much.
London Grammar — “Hey Now”
London Grammar emerged three years after the xx, and on paper they seem like a brand manager’s idea of making the xx aesthetic more palatable for a day spent shopping at the mall. The breakout single from this trio of Londoners reeks of manufactured gloom, targeted specifically at teenagers and malcontents. “Hey Now” injects a little bit more melodrama into the bass lines, while Hannah Reid’s singing voice is much more conventional and booming than either Madley Croft of Sims. Overall, London Grammar’s sugary mimicry of the xx’s dance of guitars and drum machines garnered them some measure of success (“Hey Now” charted favorably on the UK singles chart and and propelled their debut, If You Wait, to platinum status), but without a doubt they drank from the xx’s well to get there.
Bonobo — “Towers” ft. Szjerdene
Simon Green is a perfectly fine producer, who was active for nearly a decade before the xx got started. And like many producers, he has shifted with the trends, at first focusing on downtempo and trip hop before moving towards this vibe. In fact, his work probably got a little bit of a bump as teenagers scoured YouTube and Spotify to find chill-out music in the vein of their new favorite trio. His 2013 album The North Borders—as heard in coffee shops around the world—is made for this kind of musical discovery. It incorporates the xx’s analog instrumentation and languorous electronics in a way that makes it especially easy to find when generating a random playlist. “Towers,” a collaboration with the singer Szjerdene, is the most xx-esque of Northern Borders’ tracks, ratcheting up the levels of low to almost comical heights.
Lapalux — “Without You” ft. Kerry Leatham
When the British producer Lapalux came on to the scene in the 2010s, he was part of a whole surfeit of producers (XXYYXX and Shlohmo to name a few) who parlayed success by utilizing some of the sleepiness of the xx. “Without You” slyly ransacks some of the gravel and ambient texture of Jamie xx’s solo album with Gil-Scott Heron, as well as the syrupy vocal stylings of Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sims. It’s not a perfect impersonation, but it does find its roots in the xx’s approach of gloomily murmuring your way through spacious beats.
Wet — “Don’t Wanna Be Your Girl”
Like London Grammar, Wet is another synthpop group that bears a fabricated similarity to the xx. Another trio of sad white teenagers (this time American instead of British) who like R&B, tinkering with synthesizers, and luxuriating in their woes. Unlike the xx, or even London Grammar, Wet’s amalgamation of sounds and genres comes across as extraordinarily milquetoast. Their production is closer to the xx than anyone on this list: vaporous drums, sedated singing, barebones guitar, and echo all appear in “Don’t Wanna Be Your Girl,” but their impersonation comes off as far too studied and a little vacuous.
Kygo — “Intro”
An unintended effect of Jamie xx’s production over the years—both with the xx and on his own—is the way it empowered a kind of bland chillness in certain veins of dance music. Perhaps one of the worst after-effects was the rise of the drowsy stylings of trop-housers, who have somehow convinced all manner of festival-goers to slow way, way down. Kygo is the undisputed king of this set, and while he may not move in the same circles as the xx, he does lift from their template. It’s especially egregious in a song conveniently titled “Intro,” which does not necessarily credit the xx, but seems to essentially pantomime the xx song of the same name. The spacious bass line just sounds a little too similar.
Chet Faker — “Talk Is Cheap”
Chet Faker is another one of those artists who has been able to make the most of the growing number of listeners interested in this kind of electronic pop. Like the xx, he relies on a musical atmosphere best suited for the boudoir, but he is a tad bit more flowery. “Talk Is Cheap,” according to The Guardian, is one of the top 10 songs (alongside the xx’s “Intro”) found on a number of “sex” playlists on Spotify. Faker lands on this list because he’s able to inhabit the same intimate-sounding musical space produced by hesitant percussion and breathy singing, but he takes the xx’s too-close-for comfort technique a little more towards middle-of-the-road R&B.
The Chainsmokers — “Don’t Let Me Down” ft. Daya
The Chainsmokers are by some metrics the most popular artists in America. And they understand quite cynically that their music gets airplay and streaming numbers by incorporating the mirage of indie appeal into their frat-bro music. “Don’t Let Me Down” mixes together the pared-down and twinkling guitars of the xx (found in songs like “Angels”) to EDM drops, and the effect is rather visceral, yet innocuous enough for pop radio. What is even more suspicious about the Chainsmokers, in this song in particular, is how they capitalize on a veneer of sensitivity that is borrowed from the xx. In some sense, the song is about loss and the desire for intimacy, but the Chainsmokers’ skillful charade doesn’t deserve that much emotional credit.
“Master the Light” Hugo Boss Commercial
Hugo Boss released commercial in 2014 that would fade into obscurity on any normal day. Like most fashion ads, it was a curated collection of boring and luxurious images, galvanized by the presence of hot people. You would never know it’s Hugo Boss without the brand’s label emblazoned everywhere. And you wouldn't even remember it if the company was not accused of plagiarizing“Intro” by the xx’s label, Young Turks. Close your eyes and listen to the ad. Ignore the parlor trick of beauty, and pay attention to the music in the background. It sounds an awful lot like a ripoff. Hugo Boss’ video was eventually taken off YouTube due to a copyright claim, but the ad lives on in infamy as a brazen soundalike attempt. Can’t say it’s even surprising: advertisers routinelydothis.