Pop music sensations One Direction are not what you may think they are, in truth One Direction are probably about as far from what most people think they are as it is possible to be. One Direction fans are also portrayed in a certain light and that image too is a long way from the truth. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since One Direction appeared on Simon Cowell's X-Factor way back in 2010. Whilst One Direction and their fan base have changed immensely it is fair to say that the image often portrayed by the media has not.
For many people One Direction represent everything that is wrong with the Simon Cowell view of how music should be. Their formation as a band saw five teenagers who failed to make it through the "boot-campx stage of X-factor given a second chance if they agreed to come together to form a band. As a result One Direction was born.
In the beginning the music and mainstream press paid little attention to by One Direction other than to say they were X-factor contestants. The serious music press largely ignored them because they believed that One Direction would follow the pattern established by so many X-factor artists in the past. If they won the show One Direction would score a Christmas No 1 with someone else's song. They would then have a moderately successful debut album and then disappear back to from whence they came.