Why I love 1Direction

It's likely that you missed the worldwide craze for one direction a few years ago. First, some background: in 2010, the five members of One Direction auditioned individually for the UK reality show X-Factor. Under the watchful eye of pop guru Simon Cowell, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Liam Payne were gathered into a band and almost immediately began building an immensely dedicated global army of followers.

The following year, their debut record Up All Night was released and would go on to sell 4.5m copies. Four more records followed before Malik called it quits in 2015. The remaining four members announced the band would go on indefinite hiatus following the release of their fifth record, Made in the AM. Since then, Styles and Horan have enjoyed success with their popular solo records and subsequent world tours, while Payne and Tomlinson have each racked up a string of collaborations with pop, hip-hop and EDM artists.

However, those are only facts. And being a fan of One Direction during their most active years was almost entirely based on emotions. It was intuitive and somewhat accidental; emotional, not intellectual.

Initially hesitant to what I assumed was a troupe of floppy-haired teens who looked as if they’d been designed in a lab by scientists to appeal to girls their age and younger, I soon become strangely fascinated by not only the band, but the peculiarities of each individual member, the specific dynamics that existed between them, and the millions of fans who felt the same way. 

I can't imagine how different my life would have been if I hadn't been introduced to One Direction. Allowing myself to adore a pop band so passionately and obsessively meant letting go of some hazy notion of coolness and validity. I learned who I was by surrendering to a melody and contributing to the wall of sound created by thousands of screaming females inside an arena, by opening myself up to delight without restriction or self-criticism. One Direction is a band, but they're also a personification of my deepest and darkest feelings. Oh, and the music is really good too