One Direction was the Internet’s first boy band and Liam Payne’s grounding force

Liam Payne’s voice is first heard on the first single from the culture-changing boy band One Direction: “What Makes You Beautiful” is a bouncy guitar riff, a cheeky and borderline gravitas cowbell, and then Payne.

“You’re insecure, don’t know what for / Turning heads when you walk in the door,” he sings, assuring a cross-section of generations in a few words that he’s got your back, girl, and you should love yourself a little more.

Payne, who died Wednesday at the age of just 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, also sang the final solo on the band’s final single, “History,” effectively opening and closing the Big Boy’s exclusive run. Band of all time.

While the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear — Buenos Aires police said in a statement that Payne “jumped from the balcony of his house,” though they did not elaborate on how they established it or whether it was intentional — in life. , Paine was a key part of the Internet’s first boy band, securing an indelible place in the hearts of millennials and Z Z fans.

FILE – This is a Friday, Dec. 12, 2014 file photo of One Direction singer Liam Payne as he performs on stage with the group during the ’40 Principals Awards 2014′ ceremony at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid, Spain. | Photo credit: Abraham Caro Marine

Before One Direction became One Direction, its members auditioned for the UK The X Factor Separately, the judges decided to place five promising, but not yet great, boys in one group. Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Payne finished third together in the 2010 competition.

as The Rolling Stones As contributing editor Rob Sheffield noted, it was an “unprecedented” way for a boy band to get their start.

“They were kind of recruited to be together. And you wouldn’t expect longevity from that situation. To be honest, you don’t even expect a good pop record from that situation,” he says. And yet, not only did it not work, but One Direction essentially created “a new template for pop stardom, really.”

FILE – Louis Tomlinson, from left, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Liam Payne arrive for the world premiere of “One Direction: This Is Us” at the Empire Leicester Square in London, August 20, 2013. Photo credit: IAN West

The show allowed fans to follow their careers from day one before their official 2011 launch of “What Makes You Beautiful”. Nascent fans can use emerging social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr to find community, draw attention to groups, and talk directly with members.

“I honestly made a Twitter just so I could keep up with One Direction, and that’s how I made a lot of different friends,” said fan Gabriel Kopera, 28, of California, who remembers the band hosting livestreams and chats. “Sometimes they would say something and it was very funny. I think that fan interaction will never happen again.”

That sense of accessibility has strengthened the group’s personality and relationship with fans, said Maura Johnston, a freelance music writer and assistant instructor at Boston College.

FILE – One Direction’s Liam Payne performs during the Honda Civic Tour at Qualcomm Stadium on Thursday, July 9, 2015, in San Diego, Calif. | Photo credit: Rich Fury

“The fact that they’ve come on this British TV show and they’ve become this global phenomenon, I don’t think it would have been so intense and so fast and so immersive without social media, without Twitter or being able to rally around people. the world,” she says.

Millennial and Gen Z audiences grew up with virtually one direction, but the band was truly omnipresent. That, says Johnston, is at least partly responsible for coming into a very different media environment than today.

“It was much more focused,” he says of the early 2010s. “Algorithmic sorting of content hadn’t really caught on. So, there was this broad, mass approach. … They were one of the last gasps of that mass phenomenon that anyone of any age, even if they weren’t a fan, had to notice. .”

But building a loyal fanbase takes more than universality. And there were countless reasons why audiences were drawn to One Direction. “They were five completely different musical personalities with five different personalities as well,” says Sheffield.

They also broke the rules associated with traditional boy bands: “They co-wrote a lot of their songs. They didn’t do, you know, choreographed steps on stage,” he said.

After the news of Payne’s death, Kopera said, “She got a lot of messages from a lot of people that I haven’t talked to in years because I think everyone understands that it feels like we’ve lost a family member.” That sentiment was echoed by fans who gathered outside the Casa Sur hotel in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, feeding a growing makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and notes as police stood guard.

Fans mourn at a memorial for former One Direction singer Liam Payne after his death outside the Casa Sur Hotel on October 17, 2024 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. | Photo credit: Marcos Brindiki

“I’ve loved One Direction since I was little,” said 18-year-old Juana Rehle outside Penn’s hotel. “It’s unbelievable to see that she’s dead and the boys won’t have another reunion, it kills me.” Johnston says Payne was the “brooding” older brother-type in One Direction. He also co-wrote many songs, especially in their later career – such as the Fleetwood Mac-channeling “What a Feeling” and “Fireproof.”

“He was this grounding force in the band,” Johnston says.

In an Instagram tribute, Tomlinson called Payne “the most important part of One Direction”.

“I always remember him being the responsible and smart one on the team, and I think he wore his heart on his sleeve,” Kopera said.

Payne has recently been vocal about his struggles with alcoholism, posting a YouTube video in July 2023 in which he said he had been sober for six months after receiving treatment. Buenos Aires police said they found clonazepam – a central nervous system depressant – and other over-the-counter drugs in Penn’s hotel room, along with a bottle of whiskey in the courtyard where he was found.

“Seeing what happened to Liam, it makes you feel even more sad, it seems like he needed help,” Kopera said. “And it’s scary to think how the entertainment industry can eat artists right away.”

After One Direction broke up in 2016, Penn’s solo career — a solo R&B-pop album, “LP1,” in 2019 and a number of singles here and there — never took off the same way as some of his bandmates. He is “minimally successful,” says Sheffield. “It’s safe to say that for the terms he was going for, he didn’t really find what he wanted to do.”

“It’s hard, transitioning from a boy bander to a pop star,” Johnston says.

At Payne’s solo show, Sheffield explained, “He’ll show a short montage of One Direction performances, which is something you don’t do when you’re starting out as a solo artist. But the fans took it in the spirit with which it was offered, which is a very generous statement that he says, ‘Yes, you’re here because of the history we share, and I’m here because of that same history.’

Despite Penn’s struggles and the tragedy of his death, Kopera is confident “his legacy will always point in one direction.”

For fans, the same is true.

“When I look back at One Direction, I think that was my childhood. One Direction was the soundtrack to growing up, and I’m so grateful for that,” she says “They were just a bunch of really normal guys.”