Liam Payne’s voice is first heard in One Direction’s debut single: “What Makes You Beautiful” which begins with a bouncing guitar riff, a cheeky and borderline excessive cowbell, and then Payne.
“You’re insecure, don’t know what for / You’re turning heads when you walk through the door,” he sings, in a few words telling a cross-section of generations that he has your back, lady, and you should like yourself a little more.
Payne, who died Wednesday at the age of 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was also the last solo voice on the band’s final hit, “History,” which essentially opened and closed one of the most successful boy bands of all time.
While the exact circumstances of his death are unknown — Buenos Aires police said in a statement that Payne “had jumped from the balcony of his room,” but they did not provide details on how they determined that or whether it was intentional — in life, Payne was a key member of the internet’s first boy band, which cemented an indelible place in the hearts of millennial and Gen Z fans.
One Direction Were The Internet’s First Boy Band, And Liam Payne Its Grounding Force
Before forming One Direction, its members auditioned independently for “The X Factor” in the United Kingdom. The judges decided to divide five prospective but not yet exceptional guys into groups. Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and Payne placed third in the 2010 competition.
“They were kind of assigned to be together.” You don’t expect long-term results from the situation. “Honestly, you don’t expect a single good pop record to come out of that situation,” he says. Nonetheless, not only did it work, but One Direction effectively built “a new template for pop stardom, really.”
The show allowed Day 1 followers to track their career before their official 2011 release of “What Makes You Beautiful.” New fans might use emerging social media sites such as Twitter and Tumblr to build a community, draw notice to the group, and, in the early days, communicate directly with the members.
“I honestly made a Twitter so that I could keep up with One Direction, and that’s how I made so many different friends,” says Gabrielle Kopera, 28, a California-based fan who recalls the band holding livestreams and chats. “Sometimes they would respond, which was great fun. I feel like that fan interaction is no longer happening.
According to Maura Johnston, a freelance music writer and adjunct instructor at Boston College, the group’s personality and relationship with fans were strengthened by this sense of accessibility.
“The fact that they came up on this British TV show and they became this worldwide sensation, I don’t think that would have happened as vividly and as swiftly and as immersive without social media, without Twitter or without people being able to organize around the globe,” she explains.”
One Direction and its fans
Millennial and Generation Z audiences almost grew up with One Direction, but the band was truly everywhere. According to Johnston, this is due in part to the fact that he arrived in a completely different media environment than now.
“It was a lot more focused,” she adds about the early 2010s. “Algorithmic sorting of material hadn’t really taken off. So there was a broader, mass approach. They were one of the last gasps of that enormous phenomenon, and everybody of any age, fan or not, had to pay attention.”
However, cultivating a loyal fanbase requires more than omnipresence. And there were other reasons why fans were drawn to One Direction.
“They were five very different musical personalities, along with five very different personalities,” according to Sheffield.
They also defied standard boy band conventions by co-writing many of their tracks. “They didn’t do corny, choreographed steps on stage,” he explained.
After hearing about Payne’s death, Kopera says she “got so many messages from people I haven’t talked to in years reaching out because I think everyone kind of realized that it does feel like we just lost a family member.”
That emotion was echoed by the large crowds that gathered Wednesday outside Buenos Aires’ Casa Sur Hotel, feeding a growing makeshift monument of flowers, candles, and letters while police stood watch.
“I’ve always loved One Direction since I was little,” said Juana Relh, 18, outside Payne’s hotel. “To see that he died and that there will never be another reunion of the boys is unbelievable, it kills me.”
Liam Payne’s role in the band, and its legacy
Johnston describes Payne as a “brooding” older brother-type in One Direction. He also co-wrote numerous songs, particularly in their later period, including the Fleetwood Mac-inspired “What A Feeling” and “Fireproof.”
“He was this grounding force in the band,” Johnston recalls.
One Direction Were The Internet’s First Boy Band, And Liam Payne Its Grounding Force
“Looking at what happened to Liam, it just makes you feel even more terrible, that it just feels like he needed help,” Kopera explains.” “And it’s so scary to think about how the entertainment industry can just, like, eat up artists.”
After One Direction split in 2016, Payne’s solo career — a single R&B-pop album in 2019, “LP1,” and a few songs here and there — never took off as much as some of his colleagues. He was “the least successful,” according to Sheffield. “It’s safe to say that on the terms that he was going for, he didn’t really find what he wanted to do.”
“It’s hard, transitioning from being a boy bander to be a pop star,” Johnston confides.
At Payne’s solo shows, Sheffield adds, “He would play a small montage of One Direction performing, which is not something you do when you’re starting out as a solo artist. But fans accepted it in the way it was intended, which is a very kind statement in which he says, ‘Yep, you’re here because of this history that we share, and I’m here because of that same history.'”
Despite Payne’s troubles and the sadness of his death, Kopera believes “his legacy will always point back to One Direction.”
For fans, the same is true.
“When I look back at One Direction, I think, ‘That was my girlhood. “One Direction was my soundtrack to growing up, and I’m so grateful for it,” she says. “They really were just a group of normal boys.”
SOURCE | AP
