Which Direction?

One direction

It would appear that One Direction are in Australia. This is no secret, it has been headlining practically every news outlet for the past few days. But if you are unsure of who One Direction are, here is the lowdown: a group of five British males, aged from 18-20, manufactured as a singing group by reality program X Factor, all of them dress rather well for teenage boys, and they all have better hair than I do. In case my description was not quite vivid enough, here is a picture:

Now I am not going to practice musical snobbery and say that they are ‘too mainstream’ or ‘too manufactured’, because let’s face it, a large number of recording artists have had their images slightly tweaked by record companies. If the conspiracy theorists are to be believed , then ‘indie darling’ Lana Del Rey has had more than a helping hand in the image department, thus nullifying her apparent indie status (for more: http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/altreport/2011/09/lana-del-rey-exposed-b4-she-was-alt-she-was-failed-mnstrm-artist-without-fake-lips.html). But back to One Direction. I am not going to preach ignorant, or try and play the cool card and pretend I have never heard their music. I will even admit, as embarrassing as it is, that I have been caught humming along to their catchy hooks and inoffensive lyrics. But what exactly is their appeal? Their concert tour in Australia sold out in just three minutes, and One Direction figurines have apparently been flying off the shelves in Britain. Typing ‘One Direction’ into the ebay search bar results in a plethora of merchandise, from coffee mugs to personalised pillow cases. In my attempt to understand the phenomenon, I turned to a valuable source: the target audience. In conversation with my little sister and a friend of hers, I casually dropped One Direction into the mix. Their response was not as overwhelmingly positive as I had imagined, but then they did point out to me that ‘it’s a bit lame for grade 12’s to like them. If you asked some year 8’s they would probably scream’. So I did as anyone looking for answers does, and turned to the internet. Well. After trawling through countless fan sites I still struggled to come up with a definitive answer as to why One Direction, and subsequently boy bands in general, were so popular. Is it their slightly matching outfits? Is it their catchy melodies and inoffensive lyrics? Is it because they are just so cute? Who really knows, but I know in this case, their record labels are laughing all the way to the bank whilst screaming fans are all too eager to jump on the bandwagon. The bandwagon that is heading in only one direction.

(didn’t quite give the answers I was looking for, but interesting nonetheless: http://jezebel.com/5891583/start-shrieking-ladies-boy-bands-are-back)