Will History Remember One Direction Kindly?


Now that One Direction look likely to go the way of most boy bands — consigned into oblivion — it’s perhaps time to consider if history will remember the pop phenomenon that was Harry, Liam, Niall, Louis, and Zayn kindly, or will the 1D lads be merely viewed as the final chapter in Simon Cowell’s war on music.

Boy bands, even the most successful, have a limited shelf life. As a product, they go stale rather quickly and start to give off a rather odious aroma.

Of course, anyone in a boy band likes to point to The Beatles as the blueprint for the boy band model. Which is ridiculous, Paul, John, Ringo, and George were the equivalent of bottled lightning. Whereas boy bands can be compared to lukewarm and sugary tea. Or perhaps, if one is to be outrageously cruel, regurgitated vomit.

Take One Direction for instance. Simon Cowell has always kept his 1D stable on a short leash, and Admiral Cowell has always run a tight ship and taken no nonsense from his hearty crew of young shipmates.

Yet after their first flush of fame and crescendo of popularity had passed, faces appeared to drop in One Direction, as if asking, “Is this it? Is that what I’ve sold my soul for?”

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

Of course the corruption of any boy band usually begins to take place when one of members begins to carve after that most forbidden of fruits — musical credibility!

After the hangover caused by the heady brew of global fame, fortune, and mass adulation kicks in, a boy band member with a sensitive, slightly philosophical side might just well find themselves craving a musical career that actually means something.

How many times must the world stand idly by and watch in horror as a perfect boy band member wants to rock out a little in a frantic bid for credibility?

Take Zayn Malik for example, publicly chastised and shamed in the media alongside fellow 1D member Louis Tomlinson for pursuing that most rock n’ roll activity — taking drugs — he left One Direction soon after to pursue a solo career.

Part Malik! Part Machine! (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images for People.com)

The move suggested that the writing was already on the wall for One Direction as The Inquisitr reported in an earlier article.

“Although Zayn Malik leaving One Direction cannot really be compared as a musical apocalypse on par with Lennon bidding adieu to McCartney, Jim Morrison dying in a Paris bathtub, or Ian Curtis hanging himself, Malik’s shock departure does leave the other four members of One Direction’s future hanging precariously in the balance.

“Just like the Doors and Joy Division did in the wake of their respective front men’s untimely departure, One Direction will have to regroup and take it to yet another level if they’re to bounce back from the loss of one of the more talented members of this world-beating boy band.”

Sadly they couldn’t, and Zayn left a big “Z” shaped hole in his former band, and now it seems the One Direction dream has gone. Vanished, like fairy lights in the night.

Louis Tomlinson has become a dad, Liam Payne is pursuing a solo career, Harry Styles is living it large as thespian, and Niall has been spotted in a pub.

As one boy band, now largely forgotten, once crooned, “It’s the end of the road.” for One Direction.

You can’t keep flogging a dead horse, and even Simon Cowell must now count his blessings, move on, and find the next flock of lambs ripe for the slaughter.

Will history remember One Direction kindly? Well, not in the same way it does The Beatles. Anyone who’s not a 1D fan would be hard pressed to hum a melody from one of their songs, or name a single, let alone an album.

When the dust settles, and the solo careers come crawling to rather a limp halt, and the obligatory reunion tour has taken place, if history remembers 1D, perhaps it’ll be with a wry smile, or not at all.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for iHeartMedia)

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