With One Direction’s hiatus becoming more real by the day, and fans of the band trying to learn how to cope – most are looking back at the first chapter of One Direction’s story and enjoying the five years they spent as a team with Harry, Louis, Niall, Liam and Zayn before his departure in 2015. Fans are looking back at the times One Direction healed parts of themselves that they didn’t know were broken, at the countless tour dates they attended, and at the ways they connected to the lads far deeper than just musically.
For most fans, there are five wonderful years to look back on with both joy and a little pain – just like all the best things in life. But what about the fans who started to love One Direction as their first chapter was drawing to a close? What about the fans who caught the last wind of this part of their journey and realized, as time with them as they are now was running out, that Louis, Harry, Liam, and Niall were so much more than the media made them out to be?
One of our writers is one of those fans, and she wanted to share her story with all of you – she wanted to tell you what it feels like to fall in love with a band who is falling into their hiatus.
This is her story.
If you ask anybody that knows me, they would tell you that I don’t like One Direction. I very openly avoided 1D and their music and I’m not a fan of boy bands. I hadn’t paid attention to them when they were on X Factor, and in 2011 when they came on the scene with their first album and every radio station was playing What Makes You Beautiful I said no before I even listened and changed the station.
In school, I had friends who loved 1D’s music and went to see them in concert, and I had no interest in them at all. I was so hung up on the rumours that this boy band were just a phase and that they weren’t very good at making music, purely based on the fact that a group of people online said it, so it must be true.
Last year I got a line of lyrics stuck in my head after hearing a song on the radio, and I was desperate to figure out what the song was. A quick Google of the words brought up that it was Steal My Girl by none other than One Direction and I didn’t really know how to feel about it. I was an adult now, so hating things without a reason seemed a bit silly and from there I thought about how I never even considered listening to 1D before making the decision that I did not like their music.
I heard the song Steal My Girl again on the radio and decided to actually listen to their new album FOUR rather than just hate their music for no apparent reason. I played their album over and over until I couldn’t play it any more and had to go back to my Beyoncé and Christina Aguilera power ballads. In a strange way, it was like I didn’t want to go back on what I said about my dislike for the boy band and I couldn’t admit that I liked them.
While scrolling through iTunes earlier today, looking for some new music to listen to I come across FOUR again and this sudden need to listen to it comes over me. The songs I had once listened to came back to me and I was singing them in my head while going about my day. I gave in and put iTunes on shuffle and sat working at my desk, iTunes shuffles through not only FOUR but through every song in their One Direction category and surprisingly enough, I was really enjoying myself. I sang along to every lyric that I knew. Honestly, I’ve been meaning to go to the bathroom for over an hour, but I don’t want to pause their songs midway and I don’t pause fast enough between the songs before it jumps to the next. I’m hooked. In the past 12 hours I’ve listened to all the 1D albums, remixes and covers that I could possibly find.
I already have a few favourite songs from each album. My favourites so far are: Little Things, Stockholm Syndrome, Perfect, Little White Lies and Same Mistakes.
I’ve listened to a few of their concert videos to see just how good they are live, and I’m in awe. The harmonies that these guys produce together, whether four of them or five, are incredible and have me wanting more. It’s not often you hear a group of people with such unique voices manage to work together and have their voices compliment one another so perfectly, and make five albums that are worth listening to. On top of that talent, having a track list on each album that has one song completely different to the next one is a bonus. I think my boy band intolerance comes from listening to albums where all the songs sound the same together, and One Direction really avoid that by expressing themselves uniquely even while singing together.
My avoidance of 1D was a case of the classic peer pressure, rumours and the fact it was seen as “uncool” to like One Direction at school which meant that I avoided Niall, Zayn, Harry, Louis and Liam like the plague and now I have very big regrets. One Direction being on Hiatus now means that I won’t get to enjoy the suspense of waiting for a new album to drop with the rest of the fandom, or going to see some very talented musicians in concert. These are the kind of things that you miss out on if you don’t give something a chance before you make the judgement you do!
My personal favourite album if I had to pick would be FOUR but I really enjoy them all. With fresh ears, I can definitely say that I’ve missed out and I’m sorry that I bought into thinking this was another boy band fad that would bore me. Despite what anybody thinks of them personally, they are all very musically talented. All of the One Direction members should be very proud of their achievements. From Up All Night in 2011 to Made in the A.M. in, 2015 I can really tell that the band’s talent has progressed. They have progressed vocally, lyrically and musically and will definitely find them on my playlist from now on.