It seems that, more often than not, Disney Channel stars have to make at least one attempt to make it big in the music business, showing their chops outside of the sitcoms that made them famous. However, some of the most recent stars to attempt this feat end up falling short of expectations. Two examoles of this would be Zendaya with her song “Replay” and R5 with their newest single, “Pass Me By.”

Zendaya – “Replay”

One of the stars of Shake it Up, Zendaya has released “Replay” as her first single to get airtime on stations other than Radio Disney. The song isn’t particularly awful, but it isn’t particularly great either. Even when autotuned, her vocals aren’t much to listen to, and certainly won’t be launching her into ADELE level stardom. At least the music video provides more entertainment than the song itself. Zendaya, along with some help from her back-up dancers, shows that her true talents lie in dance as she dances her way through a warehouse-esque building. Personally, I was impressed by her dancing, but having zero skills or knowledge of dance, I’m not particularly qualified to judge her ability.

On a scale of one to five, I’d have to give “Replay” a three. While the vocals were less than stellar, there was still some entertainment value to the video as I admired, and slightly envied, her ability to not look like a flailing giraffe on camera.

To watch the video for “Replay,” click here.

R5 – “Pass Me By”

Another Disney group, R5 is a band comprised of the five Lynch children with Ross Lynch, notable for his role in Austin and Ally, as the lead singer. It’s obvious that the band is attempting to shed the Disney image by throwing out a swear word in the chorus of their song, but the sappy, sunny, summertime setting of the video isn’t exactly doing them any favors in making them appear anything less than pre-teen friendly. Now, as someone who can tolerate certain levels of cheesiness from time to time, I wasn’t too put off until I heard the word “yolo” used seriously within the song. From that point on, it also appeared that the director for the video had run out of ideas, so scenes of various band members looking deeply into their crushes eyes or rope-swinging into a lake were reenacted for the remaining three minutes, making me wonder why I was even wasting my time watching it.

Ultimately, this song is earning a score of two due to the highly clichéd video and the unforgiveable use of “yolo” within the lyrics. The song was cute, however it’s not anything that I’d like to hear again.

To watch the video for “Pass Me By,” click here.