‘The Idea Of You’: Is August Moon A Real Band?

Prime Video’s new movie The Idea of You is for those of us who either used to stan a boy band or still do.

The movie stars Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine as the mother of a former boyband fan and the lead member of said band, who fall in love after a meet-cute at Coachella. Galitzine sang and danced on stage as Hayes Campbell, a character that has been rumored to be loosely based on Harry Styles.

He was accompanied by Jaiden Anthony, Raymond Cham, Vik White, and Dakota Adan as the rest of the members of August Moon, but did the band at the center of The Idea of You already exist prior to the rom-com’s production?

Is The Idea of You‘s August Moon fictional or real?

Well, that depends on your definition of “real”… August Moon might have been created by The Idea of You book author Robinne Lee, and it may or may not have been based on fellow five-member pop boyband phenomenon One Direction, but with the making of the cinematic adaptation, the boys now have their music on platforms like YouTube and Spotify.

There’s an August Moon artist profile on Spotify with over 265 thousand monthly listeners and lyric videos on YouTube with more or less the same amount of views. The five actors all got in the studio to record and produce songs for the film’s soundtrack, which effectively makes them a real band.

They also have their own Instagram and TikTok pages (@augustmoon) where they break the fourth wall and make things even more confusing by stating that they’re “Proud to be a part of the release of The Idea of You Soundtrack,” which makes it sound like they were invited to participate as a previously established band. They weren’t, though.

It’s just a bit to promote the film and generate engagement, like when the characters of the Gossip Girl reboot created profiles on a bunch of social media platforms, including Letterboxd (I still follow Aki there, and look forward to his reviews, even though it’s probably an underpaid Max intern that was and still is writing them).

You’ve got hits like “Taste,” “Closer,” “Guard Down,” and the more intimistic “Dance Before We Walk,” which all feature your generic Jonas Brothers/One Direction groovy pop beats and melodies. Galatzine, who himself has written a few songs and published one called “Comfort” in 2022, went even further, recording a couple of non-August Moon songs for The Idea of You’s soundtrack, including one featuring British artist Anne-Marie which shares the film’s title.

The Idea of You is now streaming on Prime Video. You can read We Got This Covered’s review of the film here.