The Screams That Can be Heard From Miles Away

Fandom, teenage girls screaming their lungs out, crying their hearts out, singing until no sound comes out. Some say a fandom is like an army, they will be at the battle field ready to protect their ideals and it doesn’t matter how long it will take, how many has to go down, they will tear apart anyone that dares to even be a slight threat to their devotion. Thousands of people waiting in line just for one small glimpse, one picture, one hug. Fandom, the urban dictionary defined the word as, “An innocent word used for describing a cult of sleep-deprived people who obsess over one or multiple comics, books, tv shows, movies, video games, etc.” (Fandom, Urbandictionary.com). But a fandom is more than that, based on the One Direction fandom, a Fandom is a family, a community with love, respect, and support.

In 2010, the Britain X Factor introduced the whole world to one of the greatest bands to blow up since the 90s, One Direction. Their beautiful voices, accents, great looks, and charm had everyone fall in love with them. Although they didn’t win first place in the competition show, Simon Cowell signed them to a label right away because he saw the potential they had as a boy band.

“You’re insecure

Don’t know what for
    You’re turning heads when you walk through the door”

In September 2011, the boyband blew up with their first single. With more than one billion views reaching number 1 on the UK charts, they become international (Cunningham, John M.). Their first album, Up All Night, sold more than 2 million albums. Their fan base began to grow and the Directioners emerged. Each of the five members had millions following them over twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc. Their fans crazy for them, in 2012, Mass., they had 5,000 fans mob the mall when they were giving out autographs, dozens of girls chasing after their cars in Nashville, and more than 10,000 fans in New York at a NBC’s Today show all going crazy (Mansfield, Brian., Academic OneFile).

One direction, Harry, Louis, Niall, Zayn, Liam, were most loved by their fans for their real personalities and how much of a goofball they were. In 2013, the band had their own movie, One Direction: This is Us, showing their life and everything that happens around them. The movie portrayed pop culture and the career of the boy band by filming a portion of their concerts in front of 65,000 people, live footage of their tours, and the boy band talking about everything that has changed (Gilbey, Ryan.). But the movie also showed the fans, the members normality as teenage boys like roaming hotels and getting pushed around in shopping carts. The relationship between the band members are genuine and they have a strong bond. They did not like each other because it was a job and they had to, but because it was a real friendship and they cared for each other. The fandom felt more attached because everything was real. Every small thing they did made another person fall in love with them, they become the world’s boyfriends. Fans started to paint and draw pictures for them, send fan mail to them, and most importantly start writing fanfiction. Hundreds of thousands of fanfictions were created, whether it’s a fantasy with one of the members and a fan, an alternative universe, or my favorite, the fanfics about the famous secret relationship between Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles, or better known as Larry Stylinson. There are about 6,030,000 results that just pops up on a google search on it and the fandom was living for it. The close “friendship” between the two members bought out future detectives in this world because of how much evidence and details they dug up from how many times they always sat together to the finger grazes. Fans following them to hotels, waiting out all night and day to take a picture, sending them milk when they would tweet about running out, the Directioners would even take a bullet for them, that’s how strong the fandom is.

The band sold 50 million records in total worldwide as of 2017. With new music coming out, the fandom only grew. Albums such as Take Me Home (2012) sold 2,043,000 albums, Midnight Memories (2013) sold 1,552,000, Four (2014) sold 1,064,000, and Made in the A.M. (2015) sold 853,000 albums (Trust, Gary., billboard.com). Even on March 25, 2015, when Zayn Malik decided to leave the band, it broke the hearts of many. Millions of their fans mourned the loss of Zayn and became depressed. Melanie Seemangal,18, is a superfan and has always been in the fandom from the beginning. She has every merch they came out with like calendars, bracelets, sweatshirts, etc. I witnessed the moment she received the drastic tweet while in school. I thought a family member died, as I walked up to her and she hugged me, breaking down. She said, “I felt my heart break into a million pieces that day. I had to go home right away as I felt like I was dying”, she felt her first heartbreak when her favorite was no longer there.  The fandom didn’t break from the tragedy, but all the stans came out. Stans are fans that are just obsessed with one celebrity in particular, so in this case Zayn. When Zayn left the band some of his stans left the fandom because they were only there for him and not the band as a whole. Fans didn’t want to accept it, it didn’t make sense to them even after all the interviews came out. In Zayn’s statement he said, “I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight”. Which is understandable but fans were still upset.

Before the hearts of those millions can be fixed, One Direction announced that they were going on a break the following year. When interviewing Melanie, she said she expected that to happen. After Zayn left, they didn’t get the chance to go back to the way it was, it was never the same after. The fandom tried to understand and support them but it was still devastating for them to watch their favorite thing in the world not be together anymore. Although the fandom is still very much alive even though it’s almost been three years since they were a band, the fandom did split in five different ways, along with each member who continued to their individual careers.

The group had a chance to do what they wanted and explore their own taste in music and their different talents. Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, and Harry Styles all released their solo music shortly after. Niall Horan focused on being a singer/songwriter and released singles such as “Slow Hands” and “This Town”. Louis Tomlinson focused on his love for EDM-pop, which was unexpected for the fans through his single “Just Hold On”. Liam Payne focused more on Hip-Hop with his single “Strip That Down”. And lastly, after featuring in the movie, Dunkirk, Harry Styles released solo music that is more Classic Rock with singles like “Sign of The Times” and “Sweet Creature”. Continuing their love for music did not end their careers in any way because fans accepted and loved the new music being made.  Even though they still want the band whole again, they still love each individual artist and the music they are producing as solos.

Although the Fandom is about being a family and love, some people believe that the fandom is very harsh and doesn’t want to get involved with it. They think fandoms are aggressive and rude from the way they act and behave. The Directioners obsession and love can sometimes portray them in negative light. In an article that came out in 2013, there was a war with the Directioners army and GQ magazine where twitter was their battle field (Stehlik, Lucy). Rude comments and death threats were being thrown by the “rabid fandom” and attacking anyone. Comments like, “GQ NEEDS TO SHUT THE FUCK UP BEFORE I BREAK MY GLASS NAIL FILE IN TWO AND STAB THEM IN THE EYES” for their simple response about Harry Style. However, sometimes when you love something or someone dearly, you will do anything to protect it. And the Directioners do just that. Twitter is the place for all the tea, all the drama, all the internet fights, and where all the haters live. The Directioners are a caring community that can make a large impact by spreading love and positivity. They sent love and respect for a fan that passed away from cancer named Caroline that trended worldwide. They spread awareness and encouraged their followers to contribute to Action 2015 and the fight to end world poverty, inequality and climate change. The Directioners even came together to create a fundraising called “1D Fans Gives” for charities from Doctors Without Borders to even The Katie Piper Foundation with over $100,000 raised (MTV UK).

A family does not mean you have to be blood related, it’s when you have a bond with someone. The One Direction fandom has something beautiful and powerful that is more than just young girls screaming for 5 hot guys to notice them, the love and dedication each of the fans has for their idols are surreal. The fandom may be crazy, but in the best way possible, they may be loud, but it’s so everyone knows how happy they are, and they might be obsessed, but it’s all from love and respect.

 

 

Work Cited

Movies, YouTube. “One Direction: This Is Us.” YouTube, YouTube, 8 Nov.   2013,    www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MdMU0I5iFo.

 

Frere-Jones, Sasha. “Boys and Girls Club.” The New Yorker, 3 Sept. 2012, p. 66. Academic            OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A301554483/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid         =0170a1f8. Accessed 27 Nov. 2018.

 

Cunningham, John M. “Log In.” Britannica Academic, academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/One-Direction/602795.

 

Gilbey, Ryan. “Pop will fake its facts.” New Statesman, 6 Sept. 2013, p. 48. Literature Resource          Center, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A344208136/LitRC?u=cuny_ccny&sid=LitRC&xid=       9f04e64a. Accessed 7 Dec. 2018.

 

Peckham, Aaron. “Fandom.” Urban Dictionary: Freshest Street Slang Defined, Andrews McMeel Pub., 2012, pp. 3–3.

 

Trust, Gary. “Ask Billboard: One Direction’s Career Sales“. https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7408939/ask-billboard-one-       directions-career-sales

 

Stehlik, Lucy. “Directioners Are Turning Fandom into a Full-on Trolling War.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 9 Aug. 2013,  www.theguardian.com/music/2013/aug/10/crazy-about-one-direction.

 

“This Is Why Directioners Are Totally Amazing.” MTV UK, 29 Sept. 2015, www.mtv.co.uk/one-    direction/news/this-is-why-directioners-are-totally-amazing.