Posts tagged with harry styles
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One Direction: The Tumblr Interview
One band. Five boys. A recently completed US tour (plus a new one upcoming), and nearly half a million Tumblr blogs devoted to their every move. We ask the boys of British pop act One Direction — Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, and Liam Payne — about realness, fandom, and what it’s like to be the object of so much feminine attention. For more on 1D, see our special fandom report, along with our gifset, video, and guide to becoming a Directioner.
What’s it like having swarms of girls chasing you around the globe?
LIAM: It’s very flattering obviously as we can see how much they care for us. We just hope they’re crying tears of joy! None of us could obviously ever have imagined this just two years ago. I don’t think anyone could have seen this coming to be honest. I don’t think there is anything hard about having such a dedicated fan base. It is actually great to know that there are people out there that love what we do since we put so much hard work into it. The pressure to not disappoint them is obviously there!
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So You Want to Be a Directioner: A Tumblr Starter Guide
Called 1D for short, One Direction is the British boy band that’s taken America by storm. Discovered on the X Factor and manufactured by Simon Cowell, the four boys from small towns in Britain (and one from Ireland) have sold out two U.S. tours, topped 100 million views on YouTube, and debuted their first album, Up All Night, at number one on the Billboard chart. Not even the Beatles can claim that kind of instant acclaim. Here’s a primer on the fandom who call themselves “Directioners” — and what it takes to be one. (Plus, check out our feature: Inside the Gleefully Obsessed World of One Direction Fandom.)
Get to Know “The Boys”
One Direction is made up of five members. You must memorize the following about each:
Harry Styles, 18, is the youngest member of the group, from Holmes Chapel, England. Considered to the be the most flirtatious (and notorious for dating older women), his nickname is “The Pussy Magnet.” He has a curly brunette crop of hair and four nipples (really!).
Louis Tomlinson, 20, is the oldest member of the group, from Doncaster, England. Considered the sassiest, he has earned the nickname “Sassmaster from Doncaster.” Louis is the jokester, doesn’t take anything too seriously, and wears a lot of stripes and suspenders.
Zayn Malik, 19, is from Bradford, England. Zayn smokes, skateboards, has the most tattoos, and is considered to be the “mysterious one.” He has established the nickname “Bradford Bad Boy,” but also has a sensitive side.
Liam Payne, 18, is from Wolverhampton, England. He is considered to be the most serious member of the group and takes on a paternal role, warranting his nickname “Daddy Direction.” He is notorious for staying physically fit, doesn’t drink alcohol, and has only one kidney.
Niall Horan, 18, is the only member of the group not from England. Born and raised in Mullingar, Ireland, he is also the only blonde. He’s the free spirit of the group, swears a lot, and once called himself “a carefree mofo” to reassure fans that he is untroubled and easygoing.
Who the Boys Are Dating
Harry is currently single. In the past, he dated Caroline Flack, a British TV presenter 15 years his senior when he was only age 17. He is notorious for hooking up with older women, and a rumor recently started of an affair he might have had with a married woman.
Louis is in a relationship with Eleanor Calder, a college student in England who works at Hollister.
Zayn is dating Perrie Edwards, from the British girl band Little Mix, which competed on The X Factor the season following the boys.
Liam is dating Danielle Peazer, a background dancer.
Niall is single. He recently made friends with Demi Lovato, but she recently reported that they are not dating.
What’s a Directioner?
A Directioner is a true and loyal fan. They know everything there is to know about the boy band, and they may “ship” (i.e. imagine relationships among) various romantic or pansexual combinations of the boys (more on this in a second). Do not confuse directioner with directionator, as the latter is a pejorative slang for a fake fan.
What Makes You a Directionator?
Some insults Directioners fling at perceived Directionators: they only like the boys for their looks, they spell the boys’ names wrong, they don’t understand inside jokes, or they only know the lyrics to “What Makes You Beautiful” (the boy’s first single). If the boys ever did fail, say Directioners, the Directionators would be the first people to walk away.
How Does Tumblr Fit Into All This?
If One Direction is your religion, then Tumblr is where you go to worship. Tumblr has nearly half a million blogs devoted to One Direction, yielding hundreds of thousands of posts each day. Fans can worship the boys by reblogging pictures, creating animated GIFs, posting their favorite video diaries from the X Factor days, or compiling photosets. Tumblr is the place for Directioners to stockpile their obsession. (See: “Harry Styles Collarbone Appreciation”)
How to Talk Like a Directioner
Imagines: An imaginary situation involving one of the boys. For example: Imagine you wake up and Harry Styles has made you your favorite breakfast (squeal!). Imagines can be short sentences or lengthy pieces of fan fiction. Imagines are a way to visualize a fan’s fantasies.
Ships: A term popularized by writers of fan fiction, used to endorse a relationship between characters. In the case of One Direction, a ship is a fictional (or in some cases, perceived as real but publicly unacknowledged) relationship between group members. The “Larry” ship — a combination of the names Louis and Harry, who many fans believe are secretly in love — is the most popular amour in the 1D fandom. How to use “ships” in a sentence:
- I ship Larry (“I think that Louis and Harry are meant to be, forever”)
- I WILL GO DOWN WITH THIS SHIP! (“I will never lose faith in the relationship”)
- JUMP SHIP! (“I am leaving the ship and no longer believe in the relationship”)
Feels: A term used to describe overwhelming feelings associated with the band, i.e. “I have so many feels!”
OTP (One True Pairing): This refers to your favorite romantic combination in the fandom (see “Ships” above).
Smut: Sexually explicit fan fiction; elaborate tales of romance and sex, usually between a fan and one of the band members.
What About British Vocabulary?
A true Directioner may talk or write in a British accent, or incorporate British vocabulary into her speaking/writing, so that she sounds more like the boys. Some common Britishisms are:
- “X” - a signoff that replaces “xo” at the end of an email, letter, and so on (“Going to sleep xx”)
- Spelling words like “color” and “favorite” with an “ou.” Also, using Britishisms like “lads” instead of “boys.”
- Referring to the United States (or anywhere that is not Britain) as “Narnia,” because it is outside the UK, which is, naturally, the only appropriate place for a Directioner to live.
Directioner Disagreements
The sexuality of the boys: Constantly questioned by fans (especially that of Harry and Louis). During group interviews, Harry and Louis will often sit next to one another, place their hands on each others’ knees, and/or gaze into each others’ eyes in a way that fans gobble up. On stage, they will occasionally slap each other’s backsides. A YouTube video from early on in their career shows Harry telling an interviewer, when asked who his first real crush was, that it was Louis Tomlinson. There are also many archived tweets between the boys that fans consider expressive of their mutual affection.
Eleanor (Louis’ girlfriend): Eleanor is considered by many fans to be a “beard,” hired by “management” (see below) as a front for Louis’ homosexuality. The volume of Eleanor disdain has become so intense that recently, Eleanor herself Tweeted to a fan who’d said he/she hoped her “contract is expiring soon.” Eleanor replied: “Sorry to be blunt but I hope you can take a step back and realize that you are completely deluded.” Since then, fans have adopted “deluded” into their everyday speak.
Management: Anything that conflicts with canonical 1D lore, particular ships, or perceived conventional wisdom is often chalked up to a plot by the band’s nefarious “management.” Many fans believe the management team has the boys under contracts to appear heterosexual in public and put out a “clean” image. Whenever anything goes wrong with the boys, or anything happens that fans don’t agree on, “management” blamed. Of course, no one really knows who this ominous “management” really is, though Directioners are convinced it’s made up of a team of burly homophobic dudes.
The Fourth Wall: Like any devoted fandom, 1D fans are apprehensive about being exposed to and judged by unsympathetic outsiders who may view them as crazy or weird or foolish. They shipping culture of fanfiction involving the boys — especially the erotic fanfiction — adds an extra layer of nervousness. This is because Directioners may feel conflicted by their protective feelings toward the band, while at the same time legitimately participating in a ship that could make the boys uncomfortable if they read it. So, the fandom evolved the psychological defense they call the Fourth Wall — i.e., the principle that fanfiction needs to be kept under wraps in such a way that the boys never know about it. Mostly this meant keeping the ships on Tumblr, as the thinking went that neither the boys nor their management were really aware of Tumblr. Unfortunately for fans of the Fourth Wall, this has not been the case for quite some time now.
Is It Possible to Get Kicked Out of One Direction Fandom?
1D fandom is competitive and can be vicious as any clique. Most of the feuding revolves around who has had the opportunity to attend a concert, who has had their photo taken with the band, and who might be followed by the boys themselves on Twitter. Fans are quick to criticize other fans who they think are more fortunate than them. It’s also not uncommon for a fan to be bullied right off the internet for posting something that is deemed inauthentic (a photoshopped picture, for example) or for posting hurtful or negative things about the boys.
Are There Any Skills I Should Learn to Become a Good Directioner?
Photoshop analysis might be useful. Images often surface on Tumblr allegedly showing the boys kissing or getting handsy. Often, these images have been doctored — the silhouette of one of the boys cut out and placed in an existing photo, the boys’ bodies lined up so it appears they’re much closer than they actually are, etc. A large part of being a true Directioner revolves around what you will believe and/or how well you can analyze evidence to the community’s satisfaction.
The “Larry” Thing
The “Larry Stylinson” tag on Tumblr (see also just “Larry”) is a collection of posts pertaining to the Larry ship (the perceived romantic/sexual relationship between Louis and Harry). On a good day, the tag is filled with “Larry moments,” which include pictures of the two boys together, whispering into each other’s ears, followed by heartwarming captions, video montages of the times they have publicly flirted, and text posts of overwhelming feelings (“feels”) about the alleged couple. Many Larry shippers are anxiously awaiting the moment that Louis and Harry can “come out” and publicly reveal their relationship. Others take the perceived bromance with a grain of salt.
How Can I Become a Directioner?
If you’re on Tumblr, then you’re already in the right place. Start with the basic One Direction tag (you will never be able to read even a day’s worth of posts at one sitting). And make sure to read our in-depth survey of the fandom culture. Lastly, be sure to check back with Storyboard on Thursday and Friday of this week for a helpful infographic and, of course, our interview with the boys themselves.
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![Meet the Directioners: The Superfans of One Direction
This story was written and produced in partnership with MTV News.
There are a few pivotal dates imprinted in the minds of every One Direction superfan.
There’s November 13, 2010, when the British boy band performed Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” live on The X Factor (it would become their anthem). There’s the start of the band’s U.S. tour, in June, when Louis Tomlinson leapfrogged over frontman Harry Styles on stage, at a fan’s request. There’s the time Harry “saved” a fan from being crushed while in Mexico. And when the boys performed on Saturday Night Live.
But perhaps the most important date — July 1, 2012 — happened just last week, at a show that diehard fans simply call “the end.” This is how how “Directioners” have deemed the final performance of One Direction’s first U.S. tour, which culminated on a balmy Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s not actually the end, of course; the band is simply taking a six-month hiatus before the start of their 2013 tour. Still, it was inevitably a night that would go down in Directioner history.
First, there was a silly-string fight on stage. Then T-shirts were torn off. There was a rendition of Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe.” And, finally, as the five members of the band — Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Zayn Malik — prepared to say goodbye (tweeting thank-yous from their phones on stage), there were tears from the boys themselves. “I cried SO much,” says Angie Bandari, 17, who monitored the concert from a tear-stained keyboard in Glendale, California. “Harry and Zayn threw their jackets in the crowd … they danced choreography from Magic Mike and ran into the crowd! I was freaking out.”
For the thousands of fans who saw the sold-out show in person, you can imagine the teen brain implosion. And yet, for the hundreds of thousands more who watched the whole thing from home, it was enough to make the internet explode.
As the boys threw their jackets into the crowd, fans started messaging each other: “Guard them with your life!” When Harry pelvic-thrusted during his Magic Mike rendition, girls gushed that their “ovaries were exploding.” And then, when the concert ended, the excitement turned to panic:
“So many emotions,” fans cried from their Tumblr dashboards.
“EVERYTHING’S CAPS LOCK AND EVERYTHING HURTS,” one wrote.
“This is what death feels like,” another proclaimed.
Over the next 24 hours, a quarter of a million One Direction-related posts flooded Tumblr: animated GIFs of the boys’ performance, photos, poetry, letters, fans vowing to stay “up all night” for the end of the “Up All Night” tour.
But make no mistake — this was not a celebration. It was more like a raucous funeral.
One girl uploaded a video of herself watching clips from the concert — because she wanted to show how emotional she was. Others posted photos of their eyes puffy from weeping. One girl blogged an image of herself in the dark, eating Nutella with a spoon (Niall once held up a jar of it during a video interview). “This is what I’ll do now,” she proclaimed. “I’ll just sit here and wait.”
For a moment, there was hope: news that the boys might be headed to New York, and a flurry of messages to other fans. Should East Coast fans get train tickets?! Who will track them down?! But then, naturally, the letdown: It wasn’t true.
“The end,” it seemed, truly felt like the end of the world.
They’ve Got That One Thing
Sure, it sounds dramatic. But for months now, following every move of One Direction has consumed the lives of millions of Directioners — with Tumblr as their home and headquarters. Each day, the One Direction fan machine functions as a kind of digital clearing house, with moment-by-moment updates but also content of its own: fan fiction, art, poetry, and everything in between. Even the slightest rumor sparks a frenzy of questions and chaos, all playing out over a variety of tags that fans update at the speed of light. If you can’t keep up, fans will tell you, you might as well just give up.
Fans’ inspiration for all of this? Four boys from small towns in the UK (and one from Ireland), who were discovered on The X Factor, manufactured by Simon Cowell, and went on to top 100 million views on YouTube, sell out two U.S. tours, and debut their first album at number one on the Billboard chart (Up All Night was Britain’s fastest-selling album of 2011). Not even the Beatles can claim that kind of instant acclaim. Incidentally, Paul McCartney says the band is “terrific” (though he warns against the Beatles comparison), and a March cover story in Billboard proclaimed that One Direction is “spearheading what could very well be the next boyband boom.” Author and music critic Steven Horowitz declares, “Not since the days of Backstreet, ‘N Sync, or 98 Degrees has a boyband crashed pop culture with such fervor.”
The appeal of One Direction is not a new formula: boyish good looks, talent, charm, and simple, romantic pop lyrics that make teen girls swoon. “What girl doesn’t want to hear that she’s beautiful?” says Manika, an 18-year-old pop singer who opened for the boys on their recent tour. Hence their hit single,”What Makes You Beautiful.” With a median age of 19, the band is young enough to appeal to tweens — and do they ever — yet old enough to appeal to their mothers, too. One fan recently wrote about using her mother’s computer to save a shirtless photo of Harry, only to find that her mother had already saved the exact same photo (it was in a folder titled “for mom”). Plus, they’re British: For U.S. fans, it all adds to the exotic charm. “They do really catchy, really good, mindless pop music,” says Horowitz. “They came at the right time, and they struck all the right notes.”
One Direction owe much of their success to Cowell. And, with Cowell as Svengali, it’s no doubt these boys are meticulously produced, coifed, molded, schooled, clean-shaven, and styled like a set of adorably British Abercrombie dolls, down to every last strand of shaggy hair. But there’s a down-to-earth quality that inspires fans, again and again, to describe the band as “real” — the kind of boys they go to school with, not as untouchable as a Justin Beiber, nor as artificial as a Lady Gaga.
On stage and off, One Direction interacts with their fans. (When a girl threw her cell phone on stage at a recent show, the boys jokingly dialed the girl’s mom.) They are spontaneous and immature. (In Fort Lauderdale, a fan made a replica of a giant U-shaped magnet with cats sewn onto each end — you know, because Harry is a “pussy magnet” — and Harry wore it around his neck.) They also make mistakes: They swear at fans. There were rumored to be drunk at an awards shows. They grab each other inappropriately. And yet, for a generation of teens raised on the Disney Channel and Katy Perry, they are refreshingly normal.
“I love how they don’t have choreographed dance moves, and they just pick on each other and have fun,” said one teenage fan, who got to see the Florida show in person. “Like, Harry kept changing the words to the songs and I was dying of laughter. In ‘Gotta Be You’ he changed the words to ‘big brown poo.’ He’s so dumb, but so adorable.”
Perhaps most importantly, the boys document their private lives in the public sphere — tweeting to their fans, uploading photos, engaging in a way that, to boy bands of generations past, would have been inconceivable. A quarter million tweets go out to the band each day. “I would have loved to have the tools that these guys have,” says Jeff Timmons, one of the founding members of 98 Degrees. “They can get up close and personal with their fans.”
Ships and Feels, Directioners on the Real
A loyal fanbase is not unique to One Direction, of course — “Beliebers,” “Little Monsters,” even Rihanna fans surely insist they would prevail in a fan battle. No doubt the crying, the fainting, the stalking, the flash-mobbing, none of it is new. Nor are the bras thrown on stage, the shirts torn off, the phone numbers given out, the hospitalizations, or even the girls found hiding in a garbage bin. But close to 500,000 Tumblr blogs bearing this one band’s name? Six million related posts just since their tour was announced in late May? It’s the kind of fandom usually associated with Star Trek or Harry Potter, not bubblegum pop music. “There is a whole culture and vernacular with this particular boy band that is unlike any in the history of the boy-band fandom,” says Marcelle Karp, cofounder of Bust magazine and mother of 11-year-old Directioner Ruby.
You see, a Directioner does not just treat this fandom like a hobby — it is a religion, complete with its own language (“feels” is short for intense feelings for the band; “Narnia” is what fans call anything that is not Britain), responsibilities (a duty to update other fans at all times), and code of conduct that will shun the weak and reward the worthy. A real fan doesn’t like to share her fandom with the world, and so Tumblr has become a kind of naively secret journal, a place to document it all, in company with other people who understand. (Fans refer to it as “the fourth wall.”) The ultimate sin — and one that could get you bullied out of the fan base (or worse, labeled a “Directionator”) — would be to be perceived as not supporting the band.
A Directioner can identify the place and time that any photo of the band was taken. They know which interviews an animated GIF comes from, and they analyze these interviews with the diligence of Biblical scholars (or conspiracy theorists). Directioners speak in British accents and use British slang in their blog posts (“favorite” becomes “favourite”; the “boys” are “lads”). They create elaborate images of how they picture their backyard gardens — if they were to live with any of the boys — and detailed outfits for imaginary occasions. (“Disneyland with Harry” calls for pale coral lipstick and skinny jeans; a “movie date with Niall” requires a fishtail braid and Converse). They also “ship” different combinations of band members — that is, they celebrate fictional romances between them, which many believe are real (see “Larry Stylinson,” code for the perceived amour between Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles). The ships can lead to erotic fan fiction, a plethora of GIFs, and video mashups of every wink, glance, or touch the boys have ever shared.
If it sounds exhausting, that’s because it is. And in order to keep up with it all — in a space where news becomes “old news” in an instant — fans must go to extremes. Girls describe hacking school firewalls, missing tests, even avoiding summer camp, all for fear they might miss some minor tidbit of news. One fan described balancing her laptop on the edge of the bathtub, so she could refresh the page while she was taking a shower. When it was rumored that the boys would film an episode of Ellen, a fan posted: “MISSING THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BOYS BEING ON ELLEN TAUGHT ME SOMETHING: THAT IM NEVER LEAVING MY LAPTOP AND HAVING A LIFE EVER. AGAIN.” To be clear: it wasn’t the show this fan had missed, but the alleged announcement of the show (which may have not been an announcement at all).
“It can be hectic — I don’t even know how to say it,” says 13-year-old Madison Delgado, from Rancho Cucamonga, California., who celebrated her one-year One Direction anniversary last month. “Every day last summer, I’d stay in my room, and just go on Tumblr Tumblr Tumblr, all day. Every day, I was up till 5am. Sometimes it’s kind of like homework.”
And what if teen fans were unable to access their social media channels for a day?
“Suicide,” says Jenna, from a fan chatroom on Tinychat.
“I’D DIE,” proclaims her friend, Katie.
“I’D ROLL UP INTO A BALL, CRY MY EYES OUT AND DIE,” says Kaitlin.
‘This Fandom Can Survive Anything’
If that’s the reaction spawned from a day without Tumblr, you can imagine how the end of the band’s first tour (even for just a six-month break) could strike fans with the fear of God. In a matter of moments, the nonstop excitement, the daily “Where are the boys today?!” frenzy, the concert tweets, the videos — “everything that made Directioners’ days run,” as one fan aptly put it — were suddenly over. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time, since school was out for the summer.
“Tonight I will go over all of their auditions, video diaries, interviews, and watch A Year in the Making [a documentary about the band],” one fan wrote, the night after the final show. “I will reblog every photo of them. I will just sit here and let the precious memories flow through my Directioner head.”
And then, the dreaded question: “What are we supposed to do after that?”
“I have to admit I cried a little,” says Madison. “It’s been six months, almost a year, of them touring. There’s just so many things … the release of the DVD, them coming here, two tours, the release of the CD, and millions and millions of pictures. We’d gotten pretty used to it.”
Fans took to Tinychat to discuss their post-partum/post-concert depression, and how to make it to the other side.
“I just bought Dare to Dream, so I have that, and my friend has the tour DVD so we always have that to watch,” says Angie, 17. “And we’re constantly rearranging our posters, so for us, it won’t really feel like a long six months.”
In the end, perhaps it would give fans a moment to relax — no longer forced to obsess over every post, or stay up all night because they think one of the boys might do a Twitvid. Maybe a few would even venture (gasp!) into the out-of-doors.
“In a way, it’s sort of a relief,” says Joy Lapitan, 21, from Windomar, California. “I’m not too worried that something is going on that I’m missing out on, or wishing I was at a certain concert. It’s good to have a little break.”
And just in case you were wondering: Nobody has any doubts that the fandom will stick around.
“This fandom can survive anything, and I mean it,” says Emma Zaninovic, 17. “This is the craziest fandom I’ve ever been in. We’re going to suffer, but we’ll survive.”
— Jessica Bennett, formerly of Newsweek, is the executive editor of Tumblr.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m6x0jrzRz41rrpm57o1_1280.jpg)
Meet the Directioners: The Superfans of One Direction
This story was written and produced in partnership with MTV News.
There are a few pivotal dates imprinted in the minds of every One Direction superfan.
There’s November 13, 2010, when the British boy band performed Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” live on The X Factor (it would become their anthem). There’s the start of the band’s U.S. tour, in June, when Louis Tomlinson leapfrogged over frontman Harry Styles on stage, at a fan’s request. There’s the time Harry “saved” a fan from being crushed while in Mexico. And when the boys performed on Saturday Night Live.
But perhaps the most important date — July 1, 2012 — happened just last week, at a show that diehard fans simply call “the end.” This is how how “Directioners” have deemed the final performance of One Direction’s first U.S. tour, which culminated on a balmy Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s not actually the end, of course; the band is simply taking a six-month hiatus before the start of their 2013 tour. Still, it was inevitably a night that would go down in Directioner history.
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These girls have so many feels!
If you haven’t yet seen the video that kicks off Storyboard’s week of One Direction coverage, check it out now. And come back daily for more, if you can deal!
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Meet the Directioners: The Superfans of One Direction
This story was produced in partnership with MTV News.
There are a few pivotal dates imprinted in the minds of every One Direction superfan.
There’s November 13, 2010, when the British boy band performed Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” live onThe X Factor (it would become their anthem). There’s the start of the band’s U.S. tour, in June, when Louis Tomlinson leapfrogged over frontman Harry Styles on stage, at a fan’s request. There’s the time Harry “saved” a fan from being crushed while in Mexico. And when the boys performed on Saturday Night Live.
But perhaps the most important date — July 1, 2012 — happened just last week, at a show that diehard fans simply call “the end.” This is how how “Directioners” have deemed the final performance of One Direction’s first U.S. tour, which culminated on a balmy Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s not actually the end, of course; the band is simply taking a six-month hiatus before the start of their 2013 tour. Still, it was inevitably a night that would go down in Directioner history.
First, there was a silly-string fight on stage. Then T-shirts were torn off. There was a rendition of Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe.” And, finally, as the five members of the band — Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Zayn Malik — prepared to say goodbye (tweeting thank-yous from their phones on stage), there were tears from the boys themselves. “I cried SO much,” says Angie Bandari, 17, who monitored the concert from a tear-stained keyboard in Glendale, California. “Harry and Zayn threw their jackets in the crowd … they danced choreography from Magic Mike and ran into the crowd! I was freaking out.”
For the thousands of fans who saw the sold-out show in person, you can imagine the teen brain implosion. And yet, for the hundreds of thousands more who watched the whole thing from home, it was enough to make the internet explode.
As the boys threw their jackets into the crowd, fans started messaging each other: “Guard them with your life!” When Harry pelvic-thrusted during his Magic Mike rendition, girls gushed that their “ovaries were exploding.” And then, when the concert ended, the excitement turned to panic:
“So many emotions,” fans cried from their Tumblr dashboards.
“EVERYTHING’S CAPS LOCK AND EVERYTHING HURTS,” one wrote.
“This is what death feels like,” another proclaimed.
Over the next 24 hours, a quarter of a million One Direction-related posts flooded Tumblr: animated GIFs of the boys’ performance, photos, poetry, letters, fans vowing to stay “up all night” for the end of the “Up All Night” tour.
But make no mistake — this was not a celebration. It was more like a raucous funeral.
One girl uploaded a video of herself watching clips from the concert — because she wanted to show how emotional she was. Others posted photos of their eyes puffy from weeping. One girl blogged an image of herself in the dark, eating Nutella with a spoon (Niall once held up a jar of it during a video interview). “This is what I’ll do now,” she proclaimed. “I’ll just sit here and wait.”
For a moment, there was hope: news that the boys might be headed to New York, and a flurry of messages to other fans. Should East Coast fans get train tickets?! Who will track them down?! But then, naturally, the letdown: It wasn’t true.
“The end,” it seemed, truly felt like the end of the world.
They’ve Got That One Thing
Sure, it sounds dramatic. But for months now, following every move of One Direction has consumed the lives of millions of Directioners — with Tumblr as their home and headquarters. Each day, the One Direction fan machine functions as a kind of digital clearing house, with moment-by-moment updates but also content of its own: fan fiction, art, poetry, and everything in between. Even the slightest rumor sparks a frenzy of questions and chaos, all playing out over a variety of tags that fans update at the speed of light. If you can’t keep up, fans will tell you, you might as well just give up.
Fans’ inspiration for all of this? Four boys from small towns in the UK (and one from Ireland), who were discovered on The X Factor, manufactured by Simon Cowell, and went on to top 100 million views on YouTube, sell out two U.S. tours, and debut their first album at number one on the Billboard chart (Up All Night was Britain’s fastest-selling album of 2011). Not even the Beatles can claim that kind of instant acclaim. Incidentally, Paul McCartney says the band is “terrific” (though he warns against the Beatles comparison), and a March cover story in Billboard proclaimed that One Direction is “spearheading what could very well be the next boyband boom.” Author and music critic Steven Horowitz declares, “Not since the days of Backstreet, ‘N Sync, or 98 Degrees has a boyband crashed pop culture with such fervor.”
The appeal of One Direction is not a new formula: boyish good looks, talent, charm, and simple, romantic pop lyrics that make teen girls swoon. “What girl doesn’t want to hear that she’s beautiful?” says Manika, an 18-year-old pop singer who opened for the boys on their recent tour. Hence their hit single,”What Makes You Beautiful.” With a median age of 19, the band is young enough to appeal to tweens — and do they ever — yet old enough to appeal to their mothers, too. One fan recently wrote about using her mother’s computer to save a shirtless photo of Harry, only to find that her mother had already saved the exact same photo (it was in a folder titled “for mom”). Plus, they’re British: For U.S. fans, it all adds to the exotic charm. “They do really catchy, really good, mindless pop music,” says Horowitz. “They came at the right time, and they struck all the right notes.”
One Direction owe much of their success to Cowell. And, with Cowell as Svengali, it’s no doubt these boys are meticulously produced, coifed, molded, schooled, clean-shaven, and styled like a set of adorably British Abercrombie dolls, down to every last strand of shaggy hair. But there’s a down-to-earth quality that inspires fans, again and again, to describe the band as “real” — the kind of boys they go to school with, not as untouchable as a Justin Beiber, nor as artificial as a Lady Gaga.
On stage and off, One Direction interacts with their fans. (When a girl threw her cell phone on stage at a recent show, the boys jokingly dialed the girl’s mom.) They are spontaneous and immature. (In Fort Lauderdale, a fan made a replica of a giant U-shaped magnet with cats sewn onto each end — you know, because Harry is a “pussy magnet” — and Harry wore it around his neck.) They also make mistakes: They swear at fans. There were rumored to be drunk at an awards shows. They grab each other inappropriately. And yet, for a generation of teens raised on the Disney Channel and Katy Perry, they are refreshingly normal.
“I love how they don’t have choreographed dance moves, and they just pick on each other and have fun,” said one teenage fan, who got to see the Florida show in person. “Like, Harry kept changing the words to the songs and I was dying of laughter. In ‘Gotta Be You’ he changed the words to ‘big brown poo.’ He’s so dumb, but so adorable.”
Perhaps most importantly, the boys document their private lives in the public sphere — tweeting to their fans, uploading photos, engaging in a way that, to boy bands of generations past, would have been inconceivable. A quarter million tweets go out to the band each day. “I would have loved to have the tools that these guys have,” says Jeff Timmons, one of the founding members of 98 Degrees. “They can get up close and personal with their fans.”
Ships and Feels, Directioners on the Real
A loyal fanbase is not unique to One Direction, of course — “Beliebers,” “Little Monsters,” even Rihanna fans surely insist they would prevail in a fan battle. No doubt the crying, the fainting, the stalking, the flash-mobbing, none of it is new. Nor are the bras thrown on stage, the shirts torn off, the phone numbers given out, the hospitalizations, or even the girls found hiding in a garbage bin. But close to 500,000 Tumblr blogs bearing this one band’s name? Six million related posts just since their tour was announced in late May? It’s the kind of fandom usually associated with Star Trek or Harry Potter, not bubblegum pop music. “There is a whole culture and vernacular with this particular boy band that is unlike any in the history of the boy-band fandom,” says Marcelle Karp, cofounder of Bust magazine and mother of 11-year-old Directioner Ruby.
You see, a Directioner does not just treat this fandom like a hobby — it is a religion, complete with its own language (“feels” is short for intense feelings for the band; “Narnia” is what fans call anything that is not Britain), responsibilities (a duty to update other fans at all times), and code of conduct that will shun the weak and reward the worthy. A real fan doesn’t like to share her fandom with the world, and so Tumblr has become a kind of naively secret journal, a place to document it all, in company with other people who understand. (Fans refer to it as “the fourth wall.”) The ultimate sin — and one that could get you bullied out of the fan base (or worse, labeled a “Directionator”) — would be to be perceived as not supporting the band.
A Directioner can identify the place and time that any photo of the band was taken. They know which interviews an animated GIF comes from, and they analyze these interviews with the diligence of Biblical scholars (or conspiracy theorists). Directioners speak in British accents and use British slang in their blog posts (“favorite” becomes “favourite”; the “boys” are “lads”). They create elaborate images of how they picture their backyard gardens — if they were to live with any of the boys — and detailed outfits for imaginary occasions. (“Disneyland with Harry” calls for pale coral lipstick and skinny jeans; a “movie date with Niall” requires a fishtail braid and Converse). They also “ship” different combinations of band members — that is, they celebrate fictional romances between them, which many believe are real (see “Larry Stylinson,” code for the perceived amour between Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles). The ships can lead to erotic fan fiction, a plethora of GIFs, and video mashups of every wink, glance, or touch the boys have ever shared.
If it sounds exhausting, that’s because it is. And in order to keep up with it all — in a space where news becomes “old news” in an instant — fans must go to extremes. Girls describe hacking school firewalls, missing tests, even avoiding summer camp, all for fear they might miss some minor tidbit of news. One fan described balancing her laptop on the edge of the bathtub, so she could refresh the page while she was taking a shower. When it was rumored that the boys would film an episode of Ellen, a fan posted: “MISSING THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BOYS BEING ON ELLEN TAUGHT ME SOMETHING: THAT IM NEVER LEAVING MY LAPTOP AND HAVING A LIFE EVER. AGAIN.” To be clear: it wasn’t the show this fan had missed, but the alleged announcement of the show (which may have not been an announcement at all).
“It can be hectic — I don’t even know how to say it,” says 13-year-old Madison Delgado, from Rancho Cucamonga, California., who celebrated her one-year One Direction anniversary last month. “Every day last summer, I’d stay in my room, and just go on Tumblr Tumblr Tumblr, all day. Every day, I was up till 5am. Sometimes it’s kind of like homework.”
And what if teen fans were unable to access their social media channels for a day?
“Suicide,” says Jenna, from a fan chatroom on Tinychat.
“I’D DIE,” proclaims her friend, Katie.
“I’D ROLL UP INTO A BALL, CRY MY EYES OUT AND DIE,” says Kaitlin.
‘This Fandom Can Survive Anything’
If that’s the reaction spawned from a day without Tumblr, you can imagine how the end of the band’s first tour (even for just a six-month break) could strike fans with the fear of God. In a matter of moments, the nonstop excitement, the daily “Where are the boys today?!” frenzy, the concert tweets, the videos — “everything that made Directioners’ days run,” as one fan aptly put it — were suddenly over. And it couldn’t have come at a worse time, since school was out for the summer.
“Tonight I will go over all of their auditions, video diaries, interviews, and watch A Year in the Making [a documentary about the band],” one fan wrote, the night after the final show. “I will reblog every photo of them. I will just sit here and let the precious memories flow through my Directioner head.”
And then, the dreaded question: “What are we supposed to do after that?”
“I have to admit I cried a little,” says Madison. “It’s been six months, almost a year, of them touring. There’s just so many things … the release of the DVD, them coming here, two tours, the release of the CD, and millions and millions of pictures. We’d gotten pretty used to it.”
Fans took to Tinychat to discuss their post-partum/post-concert depression, and how to make it to the other side.
“I just bought Dare to Dream, so I have that, and my friend has the tour DVD so we always have that to watch,” says Angie, 17. “And we’re constantly rearranging our posters, so for us, it won’t really feel like a long six months.”
In the end, perhaps it would give fans a moment to relax — no longer forced to obsess over every post, or stay up all night because they think one of the boys might do a Twitvid. Maybe a few would even venture (gasp!) into the out-of-doors.
“In a way, it’s sort of a relief,” says Joy Lapitan, 21, from Windomar, California. “I’m not too worried that something is going on that I’m missing out on, or wishing I was at a certain concert. It’s good to have a little break.”
And just in case you were wondering: Nobody has any doubts that the fandom will stick around.
“This fandom can survive anything, and I mean it,” says Emma Zaninovic, 17. “This is the craziest fandom I’ve ever been in. We’re going to suffer, but we’ll survive.”
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