Sometimes, even if just for a few moments, a feel good song takes you from a place in your mind full of uncertainty or pain to a place of freedom and happiness and comfort. These songs are some of the most important ones to have in an artists catalog and the impact they have on their fans is enormous. A band notorious for many of the best upbeat and uplifting songs in the last five years is One Direction, and they knew how important it was for those songs to make a lasting impression.
On World Mental Health Day it’s important to acknowledge the fact that music has a healing property to it and often times, your favorite songs take you back to some of your happiest memories and there’s nothing better than that. Mental health problems are some of the most overlooked in the health field as a whole; you can’t see their effects outwardly and every person who suffers from depression, anxiety, OCD, or an eating disorder (just to name a few) has different symptoms and handles the illness in their own way. There isn’t now, nor will there ever be, a cure all for these ailments but in small ways – music can ease some of the hurt.
We listen to One Direction a lot, like, a lot – so we figured there was no band better to highlight today than them. Harry, Louis, Niall, and Liam are passionate about their fans and giving them a sense of home and of safety. Some fans say they never felt that they could be themselves until they became fans of the boys. Others literally credit One Direction for being the reason they’re alive, the reason they fought against their depression and their anxiety and felt powerful in that fight. There aren’t enough people in the world like those four incredible boys, we feel lucky to be fans of such bright lights.
So from songs like Through the Dark to Fireproof; here are the tunes we will have on repeat today, and we hope they make you just as happy.
5. What Makes You Beautiful
“Everyone else in the room can see it,
Everyone else but you,
Baby you light up my world like nobody else,
The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed,
But when you smile at the ground it ain’t hard to tell,
You don’t know,
Oh oh,
You don’t know you’re beautiful”
WMYB may be more fun than actually uplifting but no one can deny that once you hear this come on your playlists you start dancing and singing like you were on stage right alongside the boys and there’s really nothing more feel good than that.
4. Drag Me Down
“If I didn’t have you there would be nothing left
The shell of a man who could never be his best
If I didn’t have you, I’d never see the sun
You taught me how to be someone, yeah
All my life
You stood by me
When no one else was ever behind me
All these lights
They can’t blind me
With your love, nobody can drag me down”
Drag Me Down came out unannounced, with power, and within 24 hours an entire crowd was singing it back to an amazed Harry, Louis, Liam, and Niall on stage; this isn’t just a song for the fandom – it’s an anthem. This song makes it hard to feel anything but powerful.
3. Don’t Forget Where You Belong
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml6robC9y44
“I feel like I’m dreaming
Oh, so I know, I know, I know,
I know that I’m never leaving
No, I won’t go…
Don’t forget where you belong, home
Don’t forget where you belong, home
If you ever feel alone, don’t
You were never on your own
And the proof is in this song”
This song is one that signifies the bond between One Direction and their fans; most fans truly do consider the band, their love, their songs, and their concerts a sort of home. The boys have not just acknowledged that, but done what they can to show fans how much they appreciate it and also how important this incredible bond is to them as well.
2. Through The Dark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9KA5xGStJg
“You tell me that you’re hurt and you’re in pain
And I can see your head is held in shame,
But I just wanna see you smile again
See you smile again
But don’t burn out
Even if you scream and shout
It’ll come back to you
And I’ll be here for you
Oh I will carry you over
Fire and water for your love
And I will hold you closer
Hope your heart is strong enough
When the night is coming down on you
We will find a way through the dark”
This song is one of the most uplifting as far as lyrics go because it isn’t a promise of a beautiful future only filled with happiness and hope; it’s the acknowledgement that times will get dark but as long as you know that your heart is strong enough to make it through, light will find you again.
1. Fireproof
“Cause nobody knows you, baby, the way I do,
And nobody loves you, baby, the way I do,
It’s been so long, it’s been so long, maybe you are fireproof,
‘Cause nobody saves me, baby, the way you do
I think I’m gonna win this time,
Riding on the wind and I won’t give up,
I think I’m gonna win this time,
I roll and I roll, ’til I change my luck,
I roll and I roll, ’til I change my luck”
We think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t get a smile plastered across their face and the sudden urge to dance when this song comes on. Even on a bad day when you hear those first notes this song can absolutely change your mood; it’s upbeat, it’s uplifting, and it’s just refreshing. We’ll always be thankful for Fireproof.
Did we include your favorite One Direction tune? Any go to songs by the boys that make you incredibly happy? Tweet us at @CelebMix and @CelebMix1D and let us know!