Harry Styles Sets the Record Straight About His Sexuality

I am a Larry Shipper, a Larry believer if you will.

English people age like warm milk. He’s already started expiring

The queens at queerty are triggered

Yikes... he'd better hurry up and show the Full Monty before all interest is lost. Looks like we have yet another Jason Donovan on our hands. The worst agers in the world (though none can top how awful Jack Wild's looks went).

r3, They really are. I sometimes think these new aged gays, of all ages, want all good looking celeb guys to be gay. Its some of a subversive pathology. Most people are straight after all; the human race must go on. And for many of these stars its like dam if you do dam if you don't; if you completely embrace the gay community, you are pandering, especially for famous guys who aren't sexually rigid. And if you don't-- you are closeted or worst a homophobe. I'm so glad I am completely confident in my bisexuality.

[quote] [R3], They really are. I sometimes think these new aged gays, of all ages, want all good looking celeb guys to be gay.

And what about Harry?

Harry sang about messing around with boys and girls on his song Medicine. He's one of those super tactile types who gets wasted a lot, and I'm sure it's tipped over to sex with men sometimes.

He only ever seems to get into long term relationships with women, though. In that same Rolling Stone interview, he was revealed to be heartbroken over a break up with actress Camille Rowe.

I liked him better the first time. When he was Robbie Williams

There are some on here, like the Welp Troll, who genuinely think the following are ALL gay and bearding:

Taylor Swift

Harry Styles

Louis Tomlinson

Leo di Caprio

George Clooney

John Travolta

Shawn Mendes

Timothee Chalamet

Armie Hammer

Simon Cowell

Sam Heughan

Zayn Malik

Gigi Hadid

Watch the Welp Troll come in and agree that they are all gay.

[Quote] I’m not saying I understand how it feels. I’m just trying to say, ‘I see you.’”

Shades of Taron's "I thought I might be gay at 14." You're either family or you're not. Allyship is great but sexuality is not something to be co-opted for this wink wink nudge nudge bullshit that's eventually explained away. I guess David Bowie started it.

His team has a weird strategy. They are marketing him as a superstar AND a nostalgia act - both of which he isn't.

They should aim towards a niche market but I guess when you give someone 80 million as signing amount you gotta get it back.

His Paul McCartney obsession is getting tired.

Newsflash to all straight people, playing at being gay for attention when you are straight is not being an ally. It is being really annoying.

At least Taron always made it clear he was straight r10, he never tried to claim otherwise. Harry's "wink wink, I don't want to say, maybe I am bi....but jk I am not" is way more insulting.

What is the history of gaybaiting? What was the tipping point where it became a standard thing for a celebrity’s team to use it as a marketing strategy? Who are the top gaybaiters of all time and will questionable people like Shawn Mendez keep away from from it because it hits to close to home?

So I guess Taylor swift is straight since they "dated". Harry can't date for publicity, he is all hetero stud.

I would say the same for bisexuals who LARP at being gay. Like we're supposed to care that you're in a straight relationship and so desperate to mention your same sex attraction every 5 seconds.

R3 Not sure what you're complaining about I didn't see anything "triggered" there. Most of the comments appear reasonable.

That hairline is tragic.

Harry Styles and “straight” in the same sentence! Didn’t expect that.

R9 is the same delusional frau who keeps insisting that Shawn Mendes is a hetero stud on the Shawn and Camila threads and that their bearding arrangement is actually true love.

[QUOTE] So I guess Taylor swift is straight since they "dated". Harry can't date for publicity, he is all hetero stud.

Hi, Welp Troll! Taylor Swift is the biggest gay baiter around at the moment, with her thunder thighs and rainbow outfits. She said in her Vogue interview this month that she doesn't belong to the lgbt community and is merely an ally, but tinhats like you will carry on saying she's dating Karlie Kloss.

Styles is most likely 90% het, but makes a huge deal out of letting a few guys blow him when he was drunk or high and thinks this means he's a cool bi guy like Bowie.

Both Swift and Styles have so many songs about their love for the opposite sex.

[quote]Both Swift and Styles have so many songs about their love for the opposite sex.

So did Ty Herndon when he was in his prime. You're either a troll or pathetically naive.

R24, Ty Herndon, seriously? His 'prime' was the homophobic 90s. He came out in 2014. Very different these days, esp in Styles' native UK.

You really do think all those celebs at R9 are gay, don't you, Welpy? And you call anyone who disagrees a troll or PR shill.

You know what would ruin an artist's career in 2019? Being found guilty of telling lies on an industrial scale about relationships. Bearding, your favourite word.

[Quote] You know what would ruin an artist's career in 2019? Being found guilty of telling lies on an industrial scale about relationships

Care to cite an example?

R23 is gullible and suggestible as hell, and homophobic. She's the kind of gay hating frau who makes pronouncements like 'he pings to high heaven'. And EVERYONE she finds attractive is secretly gay, closeted, and bearding furiously. She loves nothing more than attacking women under the guise of beard bashing.

A nasty misogynist. Used to be a Larrie.

[QUOTE] Care to cite an example?

There isn't one, because nobody wants to risk their career doing something so fucking stupid. You are so dumb that you think Louis Tomlinson's kid is fake. T

I never understand when contributors to a gay forum swear up and down that someone is straight, especially when the person makes pronouncements about DL, implying that they're well acquainted with this site.

[Quote]but makes a huge deal out of letting a few guys blow him when he was drunk or high and thinks this means he's a cool bi guy like Bowie.

Harry Styles doesn't "make a big deal out of this". He has never claimed to have any sexual experience with men or to be bisexual. He just liked to be mysterious.

R29, what about the reputed dick sucking anthem Medicine? Or was he just singing about being high?

Here to take my medicine....probably codeine syrup, not semen, in the light of recent revelations.

[QUOTE] I never understand when contributors to a gay forum swear up and down that someone is straight, especially when the person makes pronouncements about DL, implying that they're well acquainted with this site.

More homophobia from you. A gay site isn't just a place for imbecile fraus to squawk 'he's gay and omg bearded up' about whoever they fancy most. What a reductive statement. Do you think het sites are full of women screaming that Adam Lambert and Matt Bomer are secretly straight?

Your line of argument is beyond bizarre.

R32, yet you have no comeback, Fuglicia.

Does one need a comeback to someone who might as well be talking in tongues for all the sense they're making...?

He's going to lose his hair and get fat

I never really believed Taylor Swift was gay. It wouldn't surprise me if the rumours were started by her own PR team to keep people interested in her. I think she had all those fake relationships to stay in the news and promote her projects, not because she needed a beard (that's not to say all her 'exes' are straight, some might well be closet cases).

But John Travolta? I mean come on, with all that's come out about him, no one can possibly believe he's straight!

Sick To Death Of Harry Styles.

What a shock,

I don't care if Harry is gay or not; he's sort of cute but lacks that je ne sais quoi. That being said, I always find it a bit 'suspicious' when a guy dates almost exclusively models. Of course famous/rich men have beautiful partners, that's just the way it is, but there are lots of stunning women in this world who are not models. Imo a man who really is into women would also fall in love with or hook up with a pretty actress, dancer, make-up artist, interviewer ... whatever .... every once in a while.

I think a guy who only dates models is either closeted OR has severe ego problems (always needs a woman who has the 'seal of quality' of being a model).

What do you feel about women who only date drummers?

[quote] I think a guy who only dates models is either closeted OR has severe ego problems (always needs a woman who has the 'seal of quality' of being a model).

Many many more people would date models and only models if they could pull it off.

Harry is, how one might say, "ass ugly". Totally beyond my ken to understand the appeal.

New ugly haircut.

He's no Bowie.

Is he even relevant anymore, does he make songs, i know none of them chart or are on airplay?

That hair screams “gay!”...his tats scream “Bi.”

'Is he even relevant anymore, does he make songs, i know none of them chart or are on airplay?'

Hi, Welp Troll! He has only released ten songs but his lead single went to 4 on Billboard and 1 in the UK and got plenty of radio play, even though it wasn't radio friendly. His debut album recently went platinum in the US. I guess you only listen to kids' shit like Ariana, don't you?

New Brit Pop haircut.

He sort of looks like young Jay Kay. Pity he doesn't have the same musicality.

He probably looked his best in Dunkirk. He was very clean shaven and had a quite severe haircut but his high hairline was disguised with mud and oil. His bone structure and eyes looked incredible in that film. His facial hair grows patchily and doesn't suit him, but because ugly beards and scruff are more popular than at any other time since the 1970s, he feels the need to grow it out. If we were back in the early 2000s his facial hair would never see the light of day and he'd be all the more attractive for that.

Wow. I feel really slighted by this. I genuinely thought he was bi and was happy to fly that flag. But he’a just another gay baiter. Fuck him. What a car wash cunt. x

Who knows which way Harry leans but he sure goes deep into the gay baiting.

Who knows which way? He said in the interview that he’s straight.

R39 Gay or straight, I don't believe the only model dating either.

I think Taylor Swift is just a crazy BPD straight chick.

Those tats are so fucking ugly.

What's not to like about this guy?

The greasy hair? The hideous tats? The prepubescent body on a grown man? The stanksleeve? The lack of any discernible talent?

He's still in great shape, unlike Niall Hogran.

If he's 100% straight, then I'm the half dozen Grammys Madonna will win for Madame X.

He doesn't even look comfortable around women.

He is really fucking ugly.

thank god.

He's as fug as the day is long. Who cares?

Come on, guys, he's fucking hot. And looks like a major star.

Any idea where i can get a hard copy of that RS cover (with the arms up)? Besides for 60 bucks on ebay? Does RS release hard copies to stores anymore?

I subscribe to Rolling Stone, as in "hard copy". the answers to such questions are so easily acquired, but yeah, you can buy a "hard" copy. although looking at it does not inspire hardness. but hey, vive la différence, I guess.

wow, just looked up buying a single issue of the Harry aint so hairy issue of Rolling Stone on amazon and it was going for 38.99 so I would definitely buy the single issue of just about any other single issue available on amazon.

This issue has sold out everywhere. Harry is still hugely popular.

Anyone who thinks he still has the 'body of a pre pubescent boy' with those arm muscles, broad back and shoulders must be a fucking 400 lb lardtard.

The crazed fanboi at R67 is truly delusional.

R68 There are many of them.

Liam was pretty honest.

Styles is finished with that embarrassing band and Liam and Niall and Louis need to accept they're never going to see another big 1d payday and move on.

Harry's debut single Sign of the Times is doing better on itunes than Louis Floplinson's two week old single Kill My Mind.

As far as I’m aware Niall hasn’t show interest in the bnd that held him back in years and years, especially as he realised he the was a better musician than everyone in that band and made better music. Niall will outsell the lot in the long run because he is the most authentic. As for Harry, his streaming numbers are shit considering all the hype he had, he has nowhere to go but down, even Liam outsold Harry haha.

R72, Niall is a fat joke whose two 2018 singles failed to chart in the US/UK. He kept all the 1d songwriters so he is the opposite of authentic. Just kept an Irish version of the old sound.

Between his last album and now, Horan has lost his movie star looks and millions of fans. They were already losing interest in 2018, when his US venues were only a third full, while Harry sold out arenas and had the 19th top grossing tour of the year.

Harry has made a lot of new fans. He doesn't need the 1d girlies but he's got them anyway. Niall is in for a nasty surprise when he releases Nice to Meet Ya. He'll be lucky if it charts in the Top 50 UK/US.

Niall's ‘failed’ radio singles were less of a failure than Kiwi and shit ghosts which tanked even harder than Louis singles, on the loose which Niall didn’t even promote did 5x better and let’s not start on their first two singles.

Niall having outsold Harry with not only slow hands but even this town. This town which Niall just released on a whim and was the first song he wrote outsold SOTT which Harry performed on the likes of SNL And all of the big shows. Niall’s debut out streamed Harry’s debut, and that harry’s only chance at beating him because of the hype he has from 1d, so you best believe that nice to meet ya which Will be 5x better than whatever copy cat mick jagger or David Bowie reject song Harry will put out.

Nice to meet ya is going to outsell Harry’s next lead single just like slow hands and this town did. Can’t wait for you to eat your own words, Harry will have a higher debut week and then free fall like sott did. By march 2020 let’s see who is getting more streams and who is higher on the billboard charts. Come back to me when Harry has two songs that have sold a million Copes in the US, soon to be three with nice to meet ya.

[QUOTE] Niall's ‘failed’ radio singles were less of a failure than Kiwi and shit ghosts which tanked even harder than Louis singles, on the loose which Niall didn’t even promote did 5x better and let’s not start on their first two singles.

Kiwi and Two Ghosts were released after the album was out and they still charted in the Hot 100, as did all the HS1 songs except FTDT. Niall's brand new singles Finally Flopped and What a Flop didn't chart anywhere. Nobody gives a fuck about that dumb ugly Irishman with his bloated crimson face.

Sott went #1 in the UK and #4 in the US. Fat Hands didn't even go top 5. Just a radio single which many thought was sung by a country artist.

It was so funny last year when alcoholic pig Niall booked himself into 20k amphitheatres across the US and was begging on Twitter every night for people to 'come om down'. His boxscores were abysmal. 7k in 20k places. Meanwhile, Harry sold out the 20k MSG and 02 Arena two nights running.

One of the five critics who bothered reviewing Flicker called it 'sonic Xanax' because it was soooo boring. Harry got 24 reviews, most very positive. His tour got dozens of rave reviews whereas Niall got hardly any. One critic said fat lumbering Niall 'moved like a much older man' when he tried to dance on stage.

Harry got the RRHoF, the Met Gala host job and Carpool Karaoke; basic illiterate Niall was shoved in a crawl space by Corden after he tried to get promo for What A Flop. When he tried modelling, his fug mug ended up on Vietnam Harpers Bazaar because no western magazine wanted to feature a bloated model.

I will be here to laugh as his new single NTMY fails to even crack the top 20 UK or US. Narcoleptic Niall was always just a backing singer with zero stage presence.

New boyfriend?

HS is pathetic if he's still in the closet in this day and age.

He's bi if he's anything or just an ally. Not the gold card gay a lot of people here seem to think.

The other thread got shut down, thank you troll. You got your wish.

It's odd that there's no anti-spam trigger on someone posting the same thing hundreds of times.

This one will be next

I hate when Tiger Beat pin-ups try to become Serious Artists (b-b-but I drink- and have tattoos!"). Just take your boy band money and go into real estate or something.

woof. he is UGLY.

R82 Or just stay in the damn boy band, Because you will NEVER be that famous again.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Here we go...

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

Larries will always be a discussion point on any 1d thread, but I've noticed before that someone here is very sensitive about it, and gets angry when Larries are criticised.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

New ugly haircut.

He probably looked his best in Dunkirk. He was very clean shaven and had a quite severe haircut but his high hairline was disguised with mud and oil. His bone structure and eyes looked incredible in that film. His facial hair grows patchily and doesn't suit him, but because ugly beards and scruff are more popular than at any other time since the 1970s, he feels the need to grow it out. If we were back in the early 2000s his facial hair would never see the light of day and he'd be all the more attractive for that.

He probably looked his best in Dunkirk. He was very clean shaven and had a quite severe haircut but his high hairline was disguised with mud and oil. His bone structure and eyes looked incredible in that film. His facial hair grows patchily and doesn't suit him, but because ugly beards and scruff are more popular than at any other time since the 1970s, he feels the need to grow it out. If we were back in the early 2000s his facial hair would never see the light of day and he'd be all the more attractive for that.

He probably looked his best in Dunkirk. He was very clean shaven and had a quite severe haircut but his high hairline was disguised with mud and oil. His bone structure and eyes looked incredible in that film. His facial hair grows patchily and doesn't suit him, but because ugly beards and scruff are more popular than at any other time since the 1970s, he feels the need to grow it out. If we were back in the early 2000s his facial hair would never see the light of day and he'd be all the more attractive for that.

Years ago everyone thought Rock Hudson, James Dean, Cary Grant and Marlon Brando we’re straight.

It’s a PR game and because of social media now the closet wall is getting deeper. They hook up with other closeted celebrities or hookers with a NDA.

Wow, a Larrie went nuts posting 100s of times. F and F, they will be banned soon enough.

lol the troll got all the other threads shut down, which was obviously the goal. Someone gets really triggered by Harry it seems. Sad.

Harry is just too powerful and upsets people, lol. But let's just put the repetitive poster or ignore and keep on discussing Harry. I can start new threads and will do so every time he fills another one up. Muriel will slam him/her with a permanent ban eventually.

Vogue España and Vogue Italia both have articles on the Gucci perfume with some nice interview bits from Harry.

Good to see Harry getting interviewed by prestigious magazines.

R146 I agree! Although I think Vogue Italia called him the "ex frontman of One Direction" and there's something about the net worth of UK reality stars in the September issue of UK Fabulous Magazine, which features all the (ex-)members of 1D due to their beginnings on X Factor and they call him "1D's frontman" too... so I expect some fans of the other guys will throw a hissy fit over it.

R147, yes they are jealous. If that poster who tries to wreck all the 1d threads comes back, put him on ignore and just carry on the convo. I'm not a subscriber but DL always lets me start threads.

The consensus from the Lilo/Z/Ni stans is that any plaudits H gets from other musicians/journos/actors/film directors is a result of Irving Azoff 'calling in favours'.

R147 I doubt they care...

R148 The mental image this creates... I just imagine Irving Azoff right now ticking magazines off his To Do list he must call before next week to remind them to always call Harry the "frontman" in every article they publish. Otherwise they'll get a pig's head in the mail lol.

For real though, I imagine a lot of people (including journalists) don't know much about One Direction. And if I take myself as an example, because I became a fan of Harry well after they were over, I knew next to nothing about them. I've never heard their music, I didn't know they came from X Factor or that Simon Cowell formed them or that they were on a "hiatus". I couldn't even name a single member - except Harry Styles (and Zayn Malik, because he left and I vaguely remember a fan meltdown on twitter during that time). So I guess based on the fact that random people remember his name the most from 1D, journalists are more likely to call him the "frontman" even though technically there wasn't a frontman.

R149 I hope you're right! Because I think it's a disservice to the other guys as well to dwell on whatever journalists may or may not write about 1D. They all have new music coming up and while genre-wise it's not necessarily my cup of tea it's very nice to see them all doing their own thing, having a different sound and making their own choices.

R149, some of them care a great deal. There are many Louis and Zayn stans who think Sony is sabotaging L and Z's careers to make sure all the focus is on Harry. The belief that all five boys are equally talented dies hard.

This thread is mental illness personified.

R152 Sadly, you're right.

Zayn tweeted "trampoline" today, which seems... erratic. But it seems to have something to do with Shaed's song Trampoline (which was released in 2018), where the writing credits have changed (?) to include Zayn. Nobody knows anything, but Zayn fans are hoping for a new song or collab. If Zayn really releases anything in the near future all former and "current" members of 1D will have released something within 3 months or so lol.

I didn't know Shaed before, but it's electropop (which is interesting considering that Zayn always seemed to be only into R&B) and quite good imho. Trampoline sounds interesting and I like their singer's voice.

R154, possibly Z will be a featured artist on a new version of Trampoline? Who knows?

R152, looking at your posting history, all you do is fat shame post partum Meghan Markle and make repetitive claims that Miley Cyrus has herpes. That seems a lot more bizarre than discussing 1d's careers.

R155 You were right!

Zayn's new collab is interesting because I think he has a great voice (even though I'm not into R&B) and I really like the Shaed song as well (the female singer's voice is lovely). But both voices together with all the effects it gets kind of too messy for me. It's still a good song, but I think actually prefer the "cleaner" Shaed version - maybe I just have to get used to it. It's a solid bit of music though, I'm curious how his fans will like it.

Meanwhile - after Liam kept making remarks during his promo interviews, that could be interpreted as somewhat snide towards Harry (basically saying that he, Louis and Niall absolutely love 1D, but not “other people", who "just want their space" lol) - Louis is out there throwing some shade in his latest Guardian profile:

[quote]If I went back to Doncaster and I was dripping in Gucci or whatever, I’d probably get whacked. I’m always very conscious of not acting too big for my boots. It’s the people around me who keep me sane and normal, because they give me insight into real life.” He lives with his girlfriend, Eleanor and his best friend, Oli. “Some celebrities, in pop in particular, only surround themselves with amazingness, and all they see is good, good, good, which is lovely, but you don’t understand the real world then. I have the luxury of my mates around me, just reminding me how fucking good I’ve got it, really.”

lol... oh Louis... I mean, I wonder just how much of this is intentional, but this whole quote is such a goldmine. First of all saying Gucci of all possible luxury brands, when Harry has been the face of Gucci for two tailoring and one perfume campaign and co-hosted the Met Gala through him basically being a Gucci brand ambassador, and then connecting it to being a pompous ass out of touch with the real world, because "some celebrities" are surrounded by sycophants... yeah. Sure, maybe it's just an unfortunate coincidence, but I mean, someone with 9 years of media training should realise how that sounds, right? On the other hand considering the fact that Louis said these exact words while wearing Prada and is usually running around in his luxury $ 1,000 tracksuits, Burberry, Givenchy and other brands, it makes me question his awareness again. I also love the fact that he's basically sitting there as the multi millionaire he is, talking about getting "insight" into "real life" through his working class (?) friends. Thanks to the Guardian for giving us this entertaining gem!

If Liam's & Louis's comments were intentional it makes one wonder... It seems the combination of being older and three years into the hiatus, which prompted some other stories to surface (like them getting drunk before going on stage and cancelling their Belfast gig due to Liam's mental breakdown) and the fact that they have a harder time selling their solo music these days makes them a lot more willing to dish some tea about the 1D time and dynamics. I never thought it would happen, because I never expected a real fall from grace, but maybe I underestimated good old petty jealousy and it makes me wonder if in a few years I might get my tell-all book after all.

[QUOTE] I also love the fact that he's basically sitting there as the multi millionaire he is, talking about getting "insight" into "real life" through his working class (?) friends.

He seems to think these old school friends keep him 'grounded', which is unlikely considering he bankrolls their trips to Coachella, Ibiza, and nights out clubbing in London. Louis himself sang 'night out and it's ten grand', because he treats his big entourage of very grateful mates. These people will let him be the alpha he so dearly wants to be, as sycophants tend to do. No chance of these lads criticising Louis and getting their golden ticket cancelled.

Agree that it was very ironic that Louis was sat there in a 2k Prada Harrington jacket like Mr Chavtastic, throwing shade at Harry for 'dripping in Gucci'. The interview was a repeat of the one in the Observer two years ago - I guess that paper, with its northern working class roots, adores an underdog. Harry is from the Manchester area too and went to an ordinary comprehensive school, but he hasn't given them an interview yet.

Louis with his legs apart power stance and grim face in every photoshoot is so funny, especially as he comes across as quite camp in other ways. I bet he wasn't pleased when Forbes called his voice 'theatrical'.

Louis said he is 'more than ready' for a 1d reunion, stubbornly ignoring all the signs that Harry definitely isn't, and probably never will be. Harry made £20m in his first two years as a soloist, more per year than he did in 1d. Niall has also done well (about £10m) but the other three have come nowhere close.

'Zayn's new collab is interesting because I think he has a great voice (even though I'm not into R&B) and I really like the Shaed song as well (the female singer's voice is lovely). But both voices together with all the effects it gets kind of too messy for me.'

I feel the same. It would have been a great song for Z to sing on his own, and the original with the Shaed singer is better too. Their voices are too similar and don't complement each other when entwined together.

Zayn has lost a lot of fans. An attempt last night to get Trampoline trending on Twitter failed, even in the UK. Even Zayn's official update account, INZAYN, stopped tweeting in May. Possible Zayn stopped paying their salary? They were a verified account, like HSHQ.

I think are very tired of Harry for various reasons. He was the one who broke up he group, he has been rather distant with the rest of the guys, he has held up a reunion, etc. And he's celebrity ass kisser.

" I might get my tell-all book after all."

Let's hope. My money is on Zayn or Louis.

I don't think you'll get a tell-all book from Louis or Liam until they accept 1d aren't reuniting and I honestly don't think either of them have fully accepted that yet. On the other hand they must realise that shading Harry at every opportunity during their promos isn't helping. The UK Official Chart was published today and Liam came in at 84 beating Louis who still hasn't managed to enter the top 100 at all. That was after a pretty heavy promo week from Liam. Zayn's Trampoline doesn't seem to be doing anything either. And then there were 2. Next up Niall.

Liam is all ready to step over that line. If they don't get back together, he might let it fly. If Harry doesn't ever reunite with them , they wont care what they say. And, Harry will not come out looking good.

R162 No one asked about how they are charting.

R159 The account was probably run by Zayn's management, which dropped him, so it's likely abandoned now. I haven't heard of him having new management so far.

R161 I don't know.. I don't think Zayn has any interest in spilling tea these days. He seems content to be out of the limelight and I'm sure if he would like to, he could find a good management and come back. He still has his good voice and very handsome face, he's also not bad at songwriting and has a big potential fan base all over the world (especially Asia). Louis on the other hand wants the success and limelight, but it's more difficult for him. I'm glad that he seems to have found his musical passion now, but 90s/2000s Britpop has of course less global appeal than for example Zayn's R&B and he doesn't have Zayn's good looks or high profile relationship. But while he's apparently good for the occasional dig, I'm not sure a tell-all book is his style, especially since he would have to write also about his personal struggles and family tragedies as well in a confessional-style book. And I can very well understand if he doesn't want to have that published.

So my money is really on Liam, who is both opening up about his personal struggles (alcoholism etc.) and general band stuff. He's also no stranger to "baring it all", at least when it comes to his body, so why not also his thoughts and stories.

R160 Yes, they are salty that Harry broke up 1D, but the way they go about it and the fact that they are so salty shows the same lack of foresight they've shown while in the band. Liam likes to refer to him and Louis as the "managers" of the band and I think they were important in that regard - Louis was apparently good when it came to representing his (their) interests with management and Liam took one for the team when it came to giving a good statement to the press (e.g. during weedgate). But it's clear that a manufactured boy band like 1D couldn't last forever, especially not on the staggering level of success 1D had. They had 5 amazing years, but the inevitable decline would have come. Their fans were growing up, Kpop was becoming huge etc. They also stopped being cute boys and became very grown millionaires with adult celebrity lives, so the divide between their reality and the tightly controlled image they projected became bigger and bigger. But even though they tried to adopt a more "adult" sound with their last 2-3 albums, they were still hardly taken seriously as musicians. The transition from "boy band" to "man band" wasn't happening.

They might have gotten a few more years out of the 1D gravy train, but they would have declined and any solo careers would have been much harder than while 1D was still the biggest boyband in the world. It seems that Harry realised that and put a halt to 1D at the right time.

It's also clear (also considering what Liam has recently said), that the whole band wasn't exactly in a great mental space. They were severely overworked and burned out, always on the road, always recording a new album, but also always with the fear that the next album/tour won't have the same success as the previous ones. Add to that difficult dynamics within the band (considering that they were 5 completely different, developing people, who were forced to live in each other's pocket) and a controlling management/label, who had to preserve the happy boyband image - it was basically a powder keg and it showed in 2014/2015. I think the drugs got a bit much in 2014, Zayn looked like a skelton and left, Louis was extremely thin as well, Liam had an alcohol problem and a nervous breakdown, so they had to cancel the Befast gig, Harry had increasing voice problems in 2014/2015. If Liam and Louis think they could have kept going like that, they are lying to themselves.

The break-up was inevitable from both an music industry and from a mental health point of view and Liam & Louis, who think of themselves as "managers" of 1D should have realised that imho. They've also all known for at least all of 2015 (and especially after Zayn left) what is happening and they had a chance to set the course. Harry always did, but interestingly enough Niall - who was underestimated by so many - did as well. He carefully cultivated and emphasised his brand, had a pretty clear vision what he wanted to do, found his feet pretty quickly with his music and concept and it shows. Liam and Louis ... for some reason they acted like they had no idea the "hiatus" was coming and seemed a bit lost. They also seemed like they had formed the least connections within the industry through all the years, even though being in 1D for five years gave them all the same chances. And again: unsuspecting Niall did form such connections (with Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Hailee Steinfeld etc. and apparently also behind the scenes with the 1D team and songwriters).

And now, three years after 1D is over it looks like Liam & Louis struggle, so they're salty, especially Louis. Which is pointless, because even if Harry would say yes to a reunion the new 1D wouldn't be the old 1D and all the fans crying for a reunion live in their 2013-2015 1D fantasy land. I can't even imagine them all going back to Syco, putting on their old image like a shirt that has become several sizes too small and pretending everything is fine. 1D is over and no amount of shade towards Harry will change that, quite the contrary. It only makes them look pathetic.

If they all don't get the success they want, they will probably tour as 1d at least once. No one expects them to have the same personalities they had when they were young. And, everyone knows that things aren't fine and that it wouldn't be a permanent thing.

"1D is over and no amount of shade towards Harry will change that, quite the contrary. It only makes them look pathetic." Not really.

From GQ :

Recently, Liam Payne got real with GQ about all of his many, many tattoos. While some of the designs were near meaningless, or even the product of a drunken night out, some of the tats have fans buzzing. Specifically, reformed Directioners are obsessing over a message above one of Payne's skull designs that reads, "We are the quiet ones."

The message on its own is ominous enough, but put it next to a skull and it has a whole different meaning. Payne revealed to GQ, however, that the tattoo is actually about being in One Direction. He describes being particularly "pissed" when he got it because of the "animosity" that existed between members of the band. He also explains that the "quiet ones" wording refers to the fact that he was never "allowed to say anything" because of the band's glossy image. His final verdict? It's one of his more "angsty" tattoos.

Thanks for that excellent, detailed post, R166.

Louis just released a behind the scenes video for his mv. He and Oli are kicking a ball around, both holding lit cigarettes. I'm stunned by the fact that Louis still thinks representing smoking as cool is something he wants to do in 2019. Such an unhealthy habit for a guy who's a role model to young fans, and he publicises it over and over again.

R168, I can't imagine Harry approved or wanted any part of the cigs/weed smoking going on on Bus 1 and backstage/in hotels. The other boys were laddy whereas Harry was a bit more intellectual, fond of art, books, fashion, culture. To this day he's the only one of the five seen at art galleries, museums, or with a book in his hand. I think Louis in particular would have roasted H for these tendencies.

To be clear, I know H likes his shrooms, but, with his voice issues and love of live shows, I doubt he smokes drugs. I can see him snorting a few lines, drinking liquor, but not the smoking, and I believe this caused a lot of conflict between him and Zouiam, all heavy smokers in 1d.

R167 Yes, I actually agree that they might do something 1D related in the future. Maybe a charity thing, maybe even a whole tour if their solo careers flop. But what I've been trying to say: it won't really be 1D anymore. And yes, I really think that a lot of fans kind of expect them to become their old personalities again for a reunion. Or at the very least have the old 1D band image. A lot of the appeal of 1D wasn't their music, but rather their charming personalities, the banter and the constant presence and accessibility and I can't really imagine that for them again. And fans that actually loved their music would probably be disappointed as well, because they've all found more or less their adult sounds now (in very different genres), will they go back to their lighthearted radio pop rock? It would anyone see it as something other than doing it for money, because they couldn't make it on their own?

Shading Harry makes them look bad, because it really serves no purpose imho. It makes any reunion (if that's what they want) only more unlikely and otherwise sounds rather bitter and jealous.

All boy bands grow up and their fans seem fine about it. Please don't think the 1D fans are ignorant.

Shading Harry doesn't make the others look bad. Harry's charade is wearing thin.

R171 I don't have that much of a problem with Louis' smoking. Personally I think smoking is disgusting, but it's his body and his choice. He's certainly not a perfect role model, but I don't like the notion of celebrities having to act as impeccable role models in general. If you start smoking because Louis does it, you're stupid anyway and thankfully most of his fans these days are either girls in their 20s or older fraus, who think he's a closeted victim and Harry stole his career lol.

But considering Harry's voice problems in the later 1D years and the fact that (especially in 2015) he had to do the most singing during live shows, I can imagine that the smoking was an issue and the reason why the travelled separately.

However I think the "big rift" that allegedly took place sometime after 2012 was due to other reasons. I really want that tell-all book (Liam, hurry up lol), but I agree that it probably comes down to very different personalities and interests. This is all pure speculation of course, but Louis is known for being laddy and sassy and all that and I think all the 1D boys looked a bit up to him in the beginning. He was confident, loud, the oldest and ready to take on the role of leader. But considering that Harry was sometimes described as the most sensitive of the boys, the one, who cried for that little child in Ghana, the youngest of the band, who grew up with mostly female role models and friends... I can see how Louis' tough love approach and laddy sense of humour might have clashed with Harry and caused some hurt feelings. On the other hand (or maybe as a result) Harry formed some fast friendship outside of 1D, for example with Nick Grimshaw and I can imagine that for Louis, who is so proud of his working class roots and Doncaster crew, hanging out with "celebrities" instead of the "lads" seemed disloyal - I remember he also did have some beef with Grimmy back in the day.

R173 Most boy bands don't exist anymore. A few of them reunited after years, but the vast majority of these reunited boy and girl bands just milk the nostalgia. I have friends, who have been to Backstreet Boys concerts twice in the last few years, but they 100 % go to these, because it reminds them of their childhood. They are not really interested in their music nowadays and they don't listen to it, they just want to sing along to Everybody. The Spice Girls didn't even bother to record any new music, they just do their nostalgia tours and sing their old hits.

"Harry's charade" lol - which charade?

"Most boy bands don't exist anymore" You're serious ? The Backstreet Boys, New Kids, 98 Degrees, Jonas Brothers are all doing very well right now. And I'm actually impressed.

Backstreet was even nominated for a Grammy, I think.

"However I think the "big rift" that allegedly took place sometime after 2012 was due to other reasons. I really want that tell-all book (Liam, hurry up lol)"

Damn right Liam !

As much as people hate the slimy Dan Wootton of the Sun he is the top showbiz journo in the UK and has a lot of connections( including being close to 1d's PR/managment and Cowell during the 1d days) and is used by celebs PR s to get stories in the the press. The attached article he wrote back in 2015 led to a twitter war with Ben Winston who tried to maintain that the boys were closer than ever. Wootton came back at Winston saying he would make a good PR for the boys and :

'Given that Ben and his crew have regualrly moaned about how badly other memebers of the band treat his favourite Harry Styles,its very disingenuous behaviour. But I guess he wants the millions he's made from his friendship to keep rolling in during their break.'

I thought at the time and still think that this is as close to the truth as to what was going on as we were likely to get. I think it was a major falling out and I think everything we saw at the time backs up the Louis/Liam/ Zayn on one side, Harry on the other and Niall in the middle scenario that is suggested. Louis did and still does strike me a bit as the class bully and I think whatever happened between him and Harry , Liam and Zayn gravitated to his side leaving Harry a bit isolated. I think that was very apparent in interviews and gigs although I question the dates a bit. I think it was later that the real falling out took place... 2013 rather than 2012.

R164 'No one asked about how they are charting.'

Well they may not have asked but I am saying it because its relevant to the discussion. Louis and Liam have had loads of promo coming off the back of being in the world's biggest boyband and they are both flopping big time.

Zayn's Trampoline has also flopped.

In 2014/early 15 the rift between Zayn/Louis and Harry was obvious. Harry was writing separately from Lilo and was seen boarding separate planes.

Dan Wootton said 'things came to blows' and I can envision Louie goading and teasing Harry in that annoying high pitched voice of his, like a Jack Russell snapping at a German Shepherd. Eventually, the big strong dog is going to pinion the little one. Scrawny Louis stood no chance in a physical fight against Harry.

Whatever happened, it was funny watching Louis' desperate attempts to recalibrate during the OTRA promo - laughing at H's jokes and sitting squashed up next to him instead of two places away. He must have known that a 1d reunion was even more unlikely if he and Harry were still feuding.

Liam has spilled plenty of beans that ring true - none were particularly close, they have not really remained in touch.

Harry is a PR creation, think he has peaked. His looks have fallen off so drastically, Brits do not age well at all.

My predictions:

Niall is the most likely to have a small, sustained career in music it seems.

Louis will likely continue to try to be mini Simon 2.0.

Liam has a desperate vibe, you could still pick him as the one school peers shunned.

Z has the money to play at musician indefinitely it seems. And to get lots of tats.

Harry has the money to be odd and eccentric and kind of on the periphery of celebrity. He will neer be taken seriously as a musician by peers.

If 1D ever reunites, outside of the UK I expect the reaction to be muted.

What is Zayn even doing these days? That ship sailed fast.

R178 Thanks for posting that. And I think you're right, the timeline in that article is a bit off. JMO but I've always thought the Louis and Harry rift affected all of them and when Harry hooked up with the Azoff's things went bad. Think about it, you're in a group that is doing so well and one member is already planning his solo career. Every move he makes is to pave the way for him leaving the band, that had really just started.

And Ben Winston, dont get me started. He's a leech and he shouldn't be one to talk, he used and then threw Harry under the bus when that disgusting TV show went bad.

[QUOTE] Harry is a PR creation, think he has peaked. His looks have fallen off so drastically, Brits do not age well at all. Ny predictions:Niall is the most likely to have a small, sustained career in music it seems.

You've been saying that Harry has lost his looks since 2015. He looks still looks great - well muscled, no weight gain, hair still thick and glossy. Niall, on the other hand, has put on about 30 lbs since 2015, and has a growing beer gut and a permanent double chin. Unlike Harry, his music isn't critically acclaimed and he didn't sell out his world tour. He had to beg for people to 'come on down' to his gigs and put his tickets on Groupon.

Niall played to about 33% capacity across the US, and shifted around 450k tickets compared to Harry's 900k. His lying management team Modest claim he sold 'over a million' on their website as the true figure embarrasses them. Pollstar, however, doesn't lie.

Harry's tour was the #23 top grosser of 2018, Niall's the # 72. Commercially, creatively and critically, Harry is leagues ahead of Niall. Given all this, I have no clue as to why you think Niall will have the most successful or sustainable career. Perhaps you could elaborate.

'Brits do not age well at all.' What an idiotic generalisation. You are still obsessed with Brits though, aren't you? All your other posts are in the British Royal Family threads, where you fat shame post partum Meghan Markle and make dire predictions of her 'burning the Windsors to the ground on her way out the door.' Similar to how you used to predict Syco and Modest would 'burn 1d to the ground' on their way out of the door. Yes, I was here when you were posting frantically about Larry, and know exactly why you turned against Harry.

He seems to be releasing music on his own, R182. I quite liked a lot of his first album. When he would not tour it all seemed to fall apart. Drugs and mental health issues and having so much money that they could be ignored seemed to derail his career. Think Miguel kind of got that niche/vibe.

[QUOTE] Harry is a PR creation.

He flies in the face of conventional PR wisdom. Where are his social media posts, so crucial to keeping a millennial/Gen Z fandom on board? Niall and Liam have the livestreams, Instagram Q and As, the games and countdowns and streaming requests, why doesn't Harry? His PR will no doubt advise it, but Harry refuses to do it. Harry does his own thing and Dawbell fall in line with that.

Trolldar reveals that R181 is the infamous DL Welp Troll who accuses those who disagree with her of being social media managers. She thinks a PR rep is the evil overlord, instead of an employee of the artist who can easily be fired.

R178 Yes, Dan Wootton is slimy git, but his position of power in the gossip world rests upon him having some real tea from time to time. Thanks for posting the thing about Ben Winston, I didn't know that!

I think it's interesting that the overall impression of Harry in those years was one of loneliness. Not only because he basically moved in with Ben and his wife in 2012/13, but also those reports of him exercising in the middle of the night while on tour to stave off the loneliness. Or the way he struck up a friendship with their tour photographer instead of hanging with the other boys. We know that Louis and Zayn were loving their Bus 1 tour life, so the fact that Harry apparently felt so separated is another proof of the rift.

I can imagine that there was some bullying going on. The This is Us director called Harry a lovely, but sensitive boy iirc. And I think that's the main reason why Harry befriended some older people during this time. Guys in their 30s and 40s with family and kids were likely a lot less judgemental if he wasn't "one of the lads" and doing typical teenage boy behaviour to prove his masculinity.

There's a fan video of the boys before their Jimmy Kimmel live set on Hollywood Blvd and the dynamics in this are pretty telling. There boys are getting ready for rehearsals and are talking among themselves, but they basically ignore Harry, who is greeting and joking with crew members and such instead - except Niall, they are friendly and seem to genuinely like each other even when no TV cameras are watching.

I think a lot of people would be quite happy to not hear more about Harry or his sexuality, tbh.

He has plenty of money. Real estate did not work out well for him, maybe he can get in on that tequila biz, or a vineyard.

R183 The rift very likely already occured before Harry met Jeff Azoff. And I mean, if there was a feud within the band between the most popular member and one of the publicly less known ones, what did they think? That Harry would forever stay in a band that is fighting behind the scenes, when he clearly has a chance to make it on his own? Dan Wootton wrote that there was a lot of jealousy going on, which I can believe. If you look into Google search trends at the very beginning of 1D, you'll see that people actually googled Liam way more than Harry during the early days of X Factor (Aug/Sep 2010). However things changed as soon as they had their first live show - as soon as 1D had to show stage presence in live performances it was Harry people looked up and it stayed that way. I can totally understand that this is a hard pill to swallow if you're a teenage boy in a band and the fans flock to one member especially and it seems not all of them dealt well with it.

I have no real opinion about Ben Winston (except that he's quite handsome), but it seems to me that most of the hate towards him comes from Larries.

Niall has the most desperate advert out on social media platforms, claiming that he sold out his world tour and had a US no. 1 with Slow Hands.

R180, even before Ben told his story about H living with him when Larries were convinced he was shacked up with Louis, Larries hated Ben for 'separating Larry in videos' and also including a feminine presence in videos. Even though the females in videos were kept to an absolute minimum because of how rabidly the 1d fans attacked any woman linked to the guys.

There is strong whiff of anitSemitism in the anti Harry brigade. Ben Winston, Simon Jones and all the Azoff family (even the younger brother, Cameron) are accused of industrial levels of corruption and blackmail.

R182 & R185 I agree, Zayn had lots of potential, but he has basically vanished these days and rumour has it he has annoyed a lot of industry folks with his last minute cancellations and not showing up for meetings and such. If you're a promoter and your artist cancels last minute, you're not amused. If it happens once, okay, that's bad luck. But it happened repeatedly with Zayn for no discernible reason (like.. he didn't get rushed to hospital with appendicitis), so I guess people aren't willing to risk it. It's also not a good look if someone like Tyler the Creator calls you out for simply not showing up for the studio appointment, when he wrote a song like See You Again for you. In fact not showing up without any notice also happened when Louis asked his band mates to support him during his X Factor performance after his mother died and it was the reason why their friendship didn't rekindle, even though Louis reached out as it was his mother's deathbed wish.

R181 I agree that Niall has the potential to have a nice, long smaller scale music career, if he finds the balance between longevity and staying relevant enough. He's on a big label, which is great for support, but there's of course also the possibilty that they try to oversell him, which would make the longevity thing harder. I'm really curious how his upcoming single will do. There seems to be some anticipation, but if we look at how Liam's & Louis' singles did despite good promo, it will be interesting how much the crumbling 1D fandom will support Niall or how many new fans he attracted outside this fandom.

Harry has still the most career potential of all the 1D guys. He's not really on the "periphery" of celebrity, if he so much as breathes, news outlets report it and he has many career options in music, film, TV, modelling etc. For his music credibility and his peers a lot will rely on his second album. I'm extremely curious what it will sound like tbh. So far Liam Gallagher seems to like it (and no, I don't think he just likes it because Harry bought him fish lol). But for his fans I think if the second album is not total garbage, I guess he'll be fine. It's hard to predict how the crumbling 1D fandom will impact him in terms of sales. He might not do as well as with his first album, but again - among all the 1D guys I think he attracted the most new fans and there's some positive anticipation out there. And due to his reputation as great live performer his tour will probably do well and that's where the money is.

Harry was papped at Miami International Airport yesterday (it seems he was at a Sony Music business event there - I guess preparations for his new album) and oh boy, he's looking fine as hell in his slightly too small shirt lol and laid back Miami look. Really fine. His hair is great as well at the moment, thankfully the god awful haircut from Italy resulted in this.

I would fuck Harry Styles just for the story, but I don't find him attractive.

Would Ed Sheeran do a joint tour with Niall? That’s one way for him to keep this thing going.

We can all choose to disagree when Harry's separation from the group began. Because none of us really know. But I think bringing in new management to plan your new career did most of it. Aside from the Louis Harry personal thing, and maybe that had something to do with that also.

As for the Jimmy Kimmel appearance on Hollywood Blvd. Harry seemed to be avoiding all of them but Niall.

Leaving Miami

Liam said in another interview that him and Louis hated each other early on but have since resolved their issues. Liam also said that each of them were basically given a character or role within the band although I think he said he didn't really know what character or role Zayn's was supposed to be. Liam's character or role within the group was supposed to be the Lumberjack hence him wearing boots a lot and shirts tied around his waist. He also said that Louis thought that since he was the oldest member that he should be the frontman of the group but that role was being pressed on Harry. Liam also said that Louis was a bit of a diva about his clothes during 1D especially about stripes which he saw as his thing and about his suspenders.

R199 It's interesting how we all views those things said differently.

He looks like the buttbaby of Steve Buscemi and Leonardo DiCrapio.

R197 Yeah, we all won't know for sure until an insider spills it all. I quite like 1D as a band (though not really most of their music), whatever their image was and whatever they presented to the public, it was entertaining and nice. However I'm also really grateful that 1D broke up, because otherwise there wouldn't be solo music and I would never have noticed Harry Styles. Therefore, thanks to Jeff Azoff or Louis or Harry or the Larries or the rules of the short-lived music industry or whoever ended 1D lol.

But I guess some of the old 1D fans haven't forgiven Harry for wanting a solo career, even though Zayn clearly wanted the same and left even mid-tour, leaving the rest of them hanging. I've heard he got a lot of shit for that back in the day, but nowadays most people seem to be understanding that 1D just wasn't for him. So it's funny that after nearly four years there's still so much resentment towards Harry (and the Azoffs, even though their role is unclear) for the "hiatus", even though for all we know he stuck it out until the end of their contract and they could all end it together. And from what we hear of the pressure and the mental health and addiction problems within the band it was very necessary too.

I just thought about what would have happened if the roles would have been reversed, if Zayn would have stayed in the band and Harry would have left during the South Asian leg of their tour in March 2015. I guess it would have been chaos and 1D would have been done, maybe not even finished the tour.

R201 lol kind of... although he mostly looks like River Phoenix.

There were powerpoints that came out in the SONY hack that back up what he said about characters/roles/costumes for each member.

I've always said that the PR aspect of all this fascinates me. The band, the solo stuff all of it.

Also, is everything so secrets that no one ever seems to have the same timeline on anything ?

R203 The powerpoints were very likely the product of some uninformed intern, because while I fully believe that they had certain images for all band members, the actual powerpoint slides were extremely badly done and very inconsistent with their actual "roles". I found an interview with their stylist Caroline Watson, who explained why every band member was wearing what in the beginning, which was way more informative. They basically went with a soft Spice Girls approach to give each band member a certain identity and fashion to match, because they realised that people might not remember individual names, but for example "that guy from 1D, who always wears braces". That's why only Louis could wear stripes, not because he was such a diva, but because it was a fixed part of his image to make him recognisable.

Although these roles were mostly a thing of their early years. As they grew older and people got to know them better Caroline adapted their style, made it more "rock band" and such. You can still somewhat see their roles, although the boys had more say in it and while they all looked better than during their preppy phase, I think the actual roles changed for Harry or Louis more than for Liam, Niall and Zayn.

R203 Liam is the one who claimed that Louis was a "diva" about his clothes.

Meant r205 not r203

'Would Ed Sheeran do a joint tour with Niall?'

Niall isn't a big enough act to open for Ed and Niall would also never consider himself as anything but a headline act, anyway.

I knew the Larries, here and elsewhere, would latch onto Liam calling Louis a diva. They were also impressed when GQ said he was 'warm and theatrical.' Any 'evidence' that Louis could be gay is still gobbled up, it seems. I hope he marries Eleanor soon and has children.

Still think it's hilarious that Louis met with 75 producers. How much must that have cost Syco in studio time? Most of them probably didn't tolerate his bossiness.

I noticed all the posts missing. The troll is back in action again . Someone kick the idiot out.

R211 = Welp Troll

Has already been banned three times, but comes back on different IPs.

Maybe Louis was a bit of a diva about his clothes, but in the end Liam also says a lot. Like that he's 6 ft 1 tall. Or that he should have gotten a tattoo of his X Factor number (plot twist: he already has one). I quite like his interviews because he's funny and prone to spilling some tea. And he's apparently willing to get rid of his clothes for photo shoots, which is always nice lol. But there are quite a few "oh Liam" moments in both his interviews and general choices.

R209 The most baffling thing about their perception of the Louis fashion diva thing is that apparently they still think he's such an avid fashion admirer and that Harry stole that from him (like everything else: his career, his chances, his love, his ass...), when Louis never seemed actively interested in fashion even when his gf run that fashion blog and I mean... these days he's nearly exclusively wearing tracksuits. Tracksuits!

And yeah, I hope they are still going strong, can't wait for their wedding. I hope he doesn't wait until 2021 (which would be their 10 year anniversary, I think).

Oh dear, Larries are planning a rainbow project for Louis' Manchester gig...

I just took one for the team. (Remember, I'm a closet boy band/pop music geek.) I watched several videos of interviews with 1D through the end of 2013. They are fine, all interacting with each other. They admit they don't spend all their time together when they are off work, but watching them, they seem very friendly through 2013, not just acting. So, JMO but Wooten's timeline on that article was complete crap.

I will watch a few of the 2014 interviews, but I wont even touch 2015. Those are bad and we know that things weren't good.

R215 I think part of the reason why there's so much confusion and theories about timelines is because they were all extremely good at putting on their show face and behaving like best friends. I guess it was one of the first things that got drilled into them, just how important this image is (I remember one judge from X Factor always emphasising how well they "gelled as band" and also the "five best friends" tagline they had from the beginning). Just look how sometimes Zayn and Harry interacted in interviews and on stage and afterwards Zayn said he never really talked to him while in the band.

In 2015 they all seemed burned out and over it, phoning it in - some of the interviews, the friendly interactions, even the stage performances at times (and they were usually a key part of 1D).

R216 I think things went south,,,,way south when Harry announced at the end of 2014 that he wanted the pretend hiatus ( break up) and then Zayn leaving in March of 2015. I think that caused huge anger issues for all of them. Something more went on with all of that and we might never know what it was.

R217 I'm sure both the "hiatus" discussion in late 2014 and Zayn leaving caused issues, however they were already flying in separate private jets before that. And it was rumoured that the weed smoking & coke talking video going public caused problems within the band as well (because it's one thing to do/talk drugs and another to be stupid enough to film everything) and that was already in May 2014.

Another interesting question btw: who leaked that video and why?

I think it was also said that during 1D that Niall wasn't allowed to change his hair color or go back to his natural hair color.

Oh good to know. Now I can finally get some rest tonight.

R218 No doubt all that caused problems but I think the 2 plane thing is blown out of proportion. I don't think I would want to fly with 3 heavy smokers either. So, Niall and Harry flew separate. I think that got sensationalized. Anything for a headline.

"Another interesting question btw: who leaked that video and why?"

Any idea ?

R221 I don't think it was sensationalized. I honestly believe Harry couldn't stand to be with at least 2 of them by then. Harry was also staying in seperate hotels from the other boys by this point and was being 'chaperoned' by their photographer Cal Aurand ( Harry is now godfather to his son). It felt at the time to me as though he had no-one else to hang around with when they were touring so Cal became his touring buddy whether formally or informally.

R217 I think there were lots of different tensions at dfferent times eg Harry saying that he wanted the break, the weed video etc. but to me , having watched all this from the beginning the 2 big changes were 1. Harry and Niall going from the closest bosom buddies to seemingly hating the sight of each other and 2. Harry becoming publicly far less 'open', 'secretive' , 'quieter' whatever you want to call it. I still can't pinpoint exactly when Harry and Louis fell out but it must have been sometime during 2013 and certainly by October Nick Grimshaw was having open spats with Louis and Zayn on twitter ( Harry and Nick were inseperable at that time). And to me Harry's public perona chnged shortly after that when he took out the pap injunction in the UK preventing certain paps from waiting outside his house or following him. Clearly Harry announcing that he wanted the break would've been another big tension but I think the initial big issue which was seemingly never resolved was at some time in 2013.

R223 Sorry obviously I meant to say Harry and Louis not Harry and Niall.

R221 Maybe the whole rift thing got blown out of proportion my the headline hungry tabloids and coincided with other things. I've just watched some 2014/2015 footage and for example during shows there didn't seem to be any real beef between Liam and Harry. They seem to be quite different people in general and I can imagine they didn't have much in common besides work, but there's always this divide between the happy dudes on stage (and red carpets and whatnot) and Liam himself referring to the "animosity" in the bands that prompted his angsty tattoo. It's either quite complicated or they're all really good actors.

However I think it's likely that there was at least some a problem between Harry and Louis that predates any hiatus discussion, and it was at least exacerbated by Larries. It's the one thing several band members have stated, even though they were always so cautious about not offending any fans and portraying that happy band image - that Larries made things difficult for Harry & Louis and caused a climate that was very negative for their friendship. While Louis himself was always very cautious with "you're naturally a bit closer to some and less to others" and said that Larries "took the vibe off" and made things "a little bit unapproachable on both sides", I'm doubt that less vibe and a bit of distance are the only things that result in completely ignoring each other at all times, no matter if it's an interview, on stage, on a red carpet or behind the scenes.

I also can't find it right now, but I remember one interview where Louis was hinting that the famous "mutual respect" he and Harry had was something that took a bit of "maturity". I always found that wording interesting, because he also talked about the animosity between him and Zayn after 1D and when he failed to show up for X Factor and Louis said they might bury the hatchet one day, but there's still some maturity needed or something to that effect.

Back in 2017 when Louis talked about Harry to the Sun he was quite complimentary, but his wording was always a bit stilted, distant and rather professional ("respect" "inspiring as businessman, as a musician" "very, very hard worker" "massive potential"), especially compared to how he talks about Niall and Liam. He also said "He doesn’t really lose, Harry", which I always found a curious statement, especially combined with the recent Guardian interview, where Louis said about comparing himself to others, he felt "if they’re getting this then I deserve that". And while he claims that he got over that after some time, he still went from "inspiring" in 2017 to "dripping in Gucci" in 2019 lol.

My assumption is that there's some truth to the "rivalry and hatred" part of Dan Wootton's 1D piece and that it predates the hiatus talk, was a thing after it was clear they'll break up and is still something that makes Louis sound bitter in interviews nowadays.

R218 'Another interesting question btw: who leaked that video and why?'

It was taken on Louis' phone and someone got hold of it and sold it for money was always my take. It was just too damaging to the 1d brand for it to have been a PR job ( I think some people suggested at the time that they might have used it to move towards a more mature audience or something like that). Someone with a grudge might have been trying to saboutage the band but how would they get hold of Louis phone? I think it was probaly someone in Louis' circle of 'friends' who was looking to make a quick buck.

Corporate money making is not a time for self expression, I suppose and Simon Cowell is a scary mofo. His creepy new face reflects it!

Lol Niall is definetely big enough to open for Ed Sheeran don’t be stupid, a lot lesser known acts have opened for him who can’t even sell out a theatre tour. He is too big to open for Ed Sheeran actually, would make way more money doing his own tour even if it’s only theatres and some arenas in certain countries. It would be good if he did his own tour while opening for Taylor Swift who he is good friends with like Camila and charli did in 2018

Niall is BFFs with Sam Smith ... He should tour with them.

R229 That's actually a good idea, I can see that. Much more than Taylor Swift tbh. And Ed Sheeran is taking a break to be with his wife or something like that, so he's definitely not touring in 2020, when Niall will likely tour his new album. So any tour could only happen for Niall's third album and who knows what happens until then...

R226 Yes, I agree, I don't believe at all that it was an "inside job". There are so many better ways to create a more adult image than weedgate, especially considering that you'd always try to attract a more mature audience without alienating all the parents that buy the majority of your album and tour tickets at that moment. And I mean, it wasn't only weed, the whole cocaine talk and racial slurs - definitely not a PR move. Interestingly enough most tabloids only talked about the weed and not the cocaine, I guess their management & PR did some major damage control.

I think there was a rumour that someone from the crew leaked the video because they got fed up with Louis' and Zayn's behaviour on tour. But that's probably as good a guess as any and the question still remains why anyone from the crew or circle of friends should have access to Louis' phone - unless he sent that video out to people because he thought it's funny, which would be even more stupid.

Niall's 2018 releases failed to chart, so a lot hangs on his next single Nice to Meet Ya, out on Friday. His team are trumpeting his numbers on an advert on Twt, Facebook and IG. 'Soldout world tour' - I guess they mean the smaller 2017 tour, as the 2018 one was far from soldout. I doubt he has '4 billion streams either.'

A lot of former Niall fans have defected to the much hotter (and more successful) Shawn Mendes.

Harry looking good in London yesterday.

R230, Louis toured with a group of friends from his school days who could easily have got hold of the video. Or maybe it was a disgruntled crew member/roadie who had been fired or poorly treated by short tempered Louis or sullen Zayn. The Sun probably paid six figures for that video.

It's not true that Harry hasn't been gaybaiting. He literally wrote a song where he hinted at being bi.

Arista's west coast radio publicist angered Louis' fans by posting this.

[QUOTE] It's not true that Harry hasn't been gaybaiting. He literally wrote a song where he hinted at being bi.

Why is this gay baiting? He refused to label his sexuality, so could very easily be bi.

Harry looks like an Old Hollywood movie star here. I wish we had the colour version of this.

R235 when has he ever been a priority? Most people- I guess outside the UK - probably have no idea he’s even doing anything after 1d.

There is no question that something happened with the Louis and Harry friendship but just when that happened is confusing. I'm sure it affected all of them. But they all seem to hold it together until 2015 and then things went bad.

‘Nialls 2018 released failed to chart’. on the loose flopped just like kiwi and whatever other radio single Harry put out flopped. How can you compare a radio single to a lead single for a sophomore album. The only type of artists who can have a hits with radio singles are the likes of Ed sheeran and Taylor swift and even they struggle because the song came out with the album and there’s no anticipation for them. Niall is clearly in with the radio though because even on the loose which flopped on the charts as it should have being a 4th single got top 20 on pop radio and slow hands made it to #1 on pop radio. If nice to meet ya is anything like slow hands I suspect it will be a slow burning hit

[QUOTE] How can you compare a radio single to a lead single for a sophomore album.

I'm not talking about the Flicker singles. Finally Free and What A Time were brand new singles and neither charted anywhere. If Niall's fans think he's going from that to getting a top twenty US/UK hit in 2019, they are sadly mistaken.

Exactly, R234.

Our resident troll is merely trying to hype up H whilst straightening him up a bit before the new record.

Tbh, I am not sure how many people care about what sexuality he is anymore? The pun in the title is just lame. Much like his 1st record. We will see if the 2nd draws in any new adult fans.

.......

Good that he sets the record straight, now if he can stop gaybaiting it would be even better

I think NTMY is going to do fairly well, better than KMM and SIU, but it's a tough time for singles out there, with a ton of competition. I think it's much harder for Niall and the others in 2019 than in 2017, so it might not be top 20 in the US/UK. I fully expect it to chart high in Ireland though, because they love their Irish lad.

R242 I doubt anyone is trying to straighten him up for the new record lol. Most of Harry's fans and the general public seem to think he's bi anyway or at least open to experiences. Who knows who he's actually sexually attracted to and how far he went. Sure, there's Medicine, but it's a song not exactly a statement (and most of the songs is about a drug high anyway, which in connection to "the boys and the girls are in, I mess around with them, and I'm okay with it" can basically mean anything from coming out as bisexual to having a trippy orgy while high on coke).

In the end I agree that most people really don't care about his sexuality anymore. I certainly don't and many other fans never even really mention it. The only ones who seem pressed about it, are the ones who try to make him some kind of bisexual icon to fit their agenda (which I find annoying, because using pop stars for an agenda is always annoying - there are plenty of real activists out there) or the Larries, who are convinced he is in true gay love with his husband Louis.

And of course the ones, who want to see gaybaiting everywhere.

Finally free was a song for some animated movie that had no radio deal or promo lined up for it. It’s also meant to sound like a playful jolly child song which would never be a hit anyway. nice to meet ya is clearly going to have all of that as capitol are promoting it like they promoted Halsey and And Katy Perry’s singles. what a time wasn’t even a single and it wasn’t even his song, it was a Julia Michaels song featuring him on an EP.

As for how well nice to meet ya is going to do it really depends on how good or not so good the song is. Capital promote really well unlike Louis label who can’t even get him into the jingle ball shows or a us tv performance.

I think it is clear that Louis is likely to have a UK centric career as a mini Cowell primarily.

R244, Harry cannot stop gay baiting as he needs to expand not contract his audience. The kids who shriek and swoon when he gay baits are likely to move on as they age anyway. Kids do not like to identify with music they listened to when young. He has to extract all $ possible before that happens, lol.

He may, in fact, up his gaybaiting - maybe he will do a nude shoot like Liam did. If he has had lipo on his chronic love handles, I might even be willing to take a look.

From the beginning it was obvious that Louis doesn't have the charisma or the voice to carry a solo career unless he is able to produce some big hits, and that was clearly not the case

They all have the $ to never work again.

Louis seems to have tracked into music tv as kind of a Cowell apprentice. Niall seems to have a niche as a small, steady music career. Harry seems to court celebrity and dabbles here and there, as does Zain. Still not sure what will become of Liam?

Curiously it was Niall the one who was able to have more songs played on the radio in the USA

Why are threads like this for m/m slashfic fraus permitted to persist? You creepy voyeur cows are worse than the pumpkin spice moms who fart this place up.

R246 Capitol works hard for Niall, that's true, but Niall also has much more appeal for the general public than Louis. He was sometimes a bit shy during 1D times, but since then he's more confident and uses that Irish accent & charm. He did quite well on talk shows like The Late Late Show (where all the 1D guys get a chance to shine due to their connection to James Corden & Ben Winston) and I think he won quite a few people over, because he comes across as nice and likeable. He was also fairly good at making connections behind the scenes, being pals with musicians like Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, Lewis Capaldi. Even Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato. And then there was also the high-profile relationship with Hailee Steinfeld.

Louis on the other hand has unfortunately lost a bit of charm since 1D days. He was quite funny in 1D interviews and self-confident, but on his own he seemed way more nervous and less funny. What was part of his youthful energy came across as a bit jittery in his solo interviews and for example he refused to engage in a bit of lighthearted fun with James Corden on the LLS, when it came to playing the cat - to this day I will never understand why he didn't play along, bc Louis the cat was hilarious and very charming in 2015 and it's totally harmless. It's not like he was asked to undress himself or do anything unflattering.

Then there's the lack of industry connections - I might be wrong about that, because who knows what happens behind the scenes and I'm also not that familiar with all the movers and shakers in pop, but it doesn't seem to me like has formed many friendships or business connections with other singers and musicians during his 1D time. He did have his two collabs with Steve Aoki and Bebe Rexha after 1D, but I think the problem was already that he didn't have such a high profile during 1D days. Didn't Chris Martin from Coldplay forget to mention him, when he named every 1D member? That's... not good. If people don't know you, they don't see you as major artist and your label won't promote you as much.

But yeah, I think Louis shouldn't have stayed with Syco, mostly because I feel for a good solo career a clean cut and new beginning is so much better.

R251 No one here is into frau m/m slashfic, in fact people are dragging those nutters everywhere in the thread. It's mostly a discussion about the current position of the former One Direction members within nowadays' music industry. And a bit of a side discussion what went on behind the scenes regarding rivalry and drugs back in the day. You're barking up the wrong tree.

'Curiously it was Niall the one who was able to have more songs played on the radio in the USA'

The only one that got real traction was Slow Hands, which is a rollicking country song, so no wonder that was popular in the flyover states. On The Loose had a similar vibe, and This Town was Ed Sheeran lite.

Harry's strange 70s songs weren't crafted for the radio.

'Louis seems to have tracked into music tv as kind of a Cowell apprentice. Niall seems to have a niche as a small, steady music career. Harry seems to court celebrity and dabbles here and there, as does Zain. '

Louis isn't on the XF this year and probably won't be again. He really isn't a credible musician anywhere these days and the judges tend to be that, or music managers like Louis Walsh. I hardly think Harry's career so far can be described as 'dabbling'. The numbers are way too big for that. The one 'courting celebrity' is Liam Payne, who has attended dozens of red carpet events this year (Harry attended three) and is in the tabloids every day. He is very public with his relationships, including this dubious new one with a teenager.

I heard Zain on the radio a lot when his first album came out. 2 of the singles Liam did seemed to get decent airplay, used to hear the Zedd one and Strip That Down out car windows when in traffic. I only heard Sign of the Times once, in a grocery store, late at night. It has not aged well. Hope Niall and Harry have some good tunes in the pipeline. Zain and Louis seem to have their niche career stuff, kinda. Hope Liam finds some traction somehow.

R256, you seem like an old fashioned type of gal. A lot of young people don't even listen to the radio. Harry's ten songs have been streamed 1.4 billion times. His tour was 27th top grossing in the world. Niall's was the 77th. Harry has made 20m as a soloist in two years. He is doing really, really well.

Louis' Kill My Mind is easily his best song. It's a shame he didn't bring it out first and just stay in the indie lane. I like it better than all the other 1d solo songs except for some of Harry's.

This song just gets better every time you listen to it. It's no wonder that he attracted so many new, young adult fans who would never have been fans of a boyband.

Guys, the 1d threads usually get paywalled round about now, so if it happens, here's another one we can use.

In the last 6 months I hear Niall on easy listening stations and the grocery store. I've also heard Zayn's Pillow Talk on the radio once.

"Has already been banned three times, but comes back on different IPs."

No, that's you

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

He always seems to be wearing costumes, R263, although, better than the Gucci slipcover suits, yes.

R256 I don't listen to any radio, so I can't say anything about airplay, but I can imagine that Harry's music isn't very fitting for typical radio stations. However as R257 said, radio is only one of several markets nowadays and not all-powerful as it once was. For example there are many songs and artists that got a real boost by having their music in TV or Netflix series and such, because that's what a lot of young people watch these days. And of course there's also social media - for example you can recommend something from spotify in your instagram story, which is basically the word of mouth of the internet.

R257 I agree that KMM is Louis' best song and it would have been a lot bette for him if it would have come out right after 1D, but I guess he needed time to find his lane. During the promo interviews now he basically said that coming out of 1D his expectations were that he should have a #1 hit (like with 1D) and he tried to make music that was supposed to achieve that goal instead of music that fits him. I guess that's a tempting notion and not everyone has the balls to make the music they want instead. So it's good for him that he's found his genre, even though it's a bit later.

R263 Got him featured in Vogue too. Nice.

Harry at the Antony Gormley exhibition today in London.

That's Xander Ritz with Harry at the gallery. I like his gold brocade suit.

The Harry detractors here are funny. They cycle through the same stale complaints - no radio play, grandad/sofa clothes, no social media posts, Azoffs bought his career, Niall has more chance of longevity.

The Welp Troll at R264 has been on these threads since 2012, first as a Larrie, and, since 2015, to bitch about Harry and Meghan Markle.

He really has lost his looks, unless at just the right angle. Shame.

I put R269 on ignore and every single negative, repetitive comment about Harry in the last 100 posts disappeared!

R269: In my opinion he was never that attractive (and the long hair phase was terrible). He is very charismatic and charming, but in my opinion he is not really that handsome

R267 I think it's actually Xander's brother in law, he married Xander's sister a few years ago and apparently she was also at the art gallery yesterday. So maybe they were on a holiday in London or visited Harry.

I think the same stale old complaints are so funny, because they actually highlight how trivial they are. If the most controversial thing a celebrity does is wearing clothes you find ugly and not posting enough on twitter, it's says more about the people complaining than the celebrity. The Azoff thing is more problematic, because more often than not it's based on antisemitic conspiracy theories. And plain old ignorance about how the music industry works.

For example I've recently read people claim that Louis doesn't get invited to iHeart Radio's Jingle Ball because Irving Azoff was on the iHeart Radio media board until 2017. I mean... lol, I don't even know where to begin? If Irving is such an all-powerful person that he can basically control all of iHeart radio and their many activities even though he stepped down from their board over 2 years ago, then the whole "no radio play for Harry" argument wouldn't be a thing, right? And then it's crazy to think that he concerns himself with preventing Louis from playing at Jingle Ball lol. Can you imagine? Irving sitting in his office and plotting how destroy Louis' career - and Louis' career only, because obviously Niall is invited to Jingle Ball and if anything he's way more of a "competition" for Harry.

R271 Different strokes, which is totally fine (and probably one of the reasons why 1D worked so well - there was one for everyone). It's funny, I dimly remember seeing some photos of Harry back in the day (2013? 2014?), when I knew nothing about him except that he's the heartthrob of 1D and I didn't really notice him as anything special. And now here I am lol.

I guess when it comes to conventially attractive looks alone Zayn was always the objectively prettiest of the 1D boys.

R259 This is my favourite version of Two Ghosts, it's even better than on the album - the note change at 1:34 when he sings "we don't say what we really mean", it's so good! And of course the whole setting with the lovely rooftop view, the atmospheric light and all, very nice.

Niall today looking rough.

The Disney prince look did not do it for you, huh, R271?

Perhaps he will just be a wealthy dilettante...

Thanks for that link, R274. He made every single performance of all his song slightly different. Such a phenomenal live performer. No wonder his 2018 tour was the 27th top grosser in the world. Niall was the 77th despite playing similar sized venues across the UK.

The other three haven't yet managed to headline or even open shows.

' I guess when it comes to conventially attractive looks alone Zayn was always the objectively prettiest of the 1D boys'

He has a pretty face but he doesn't seem very masculine to me. Spindly legs and arms, no muscle tone, quite narrow shoulders and nasty scalp and neck tattoos. Harry looks like a man, broad and toned with muscular legs and arms.

'Perhaps he will just be a wealthy dilettante...'

Are you referring to London party host Liam Payne, with his 19 year old model girfriend? The guy has posed on at least 30 red carpets this year. Still no tour or album, and last week's single tanked.

That was Niall 4 months ago or something ?? Weird to put that there lmao

No, it's a recent picture of Niall. He looks overweight all the damn time.

Ah, the troll has returned.

"I guess when it comes to conventionally attractive looks alone Zayn was always the objectively prettiest of the 1D boys."

And, sadly he's ruined it also.

"repetitive comment about Harry in the last 100 posts disappeared!"

No, thats you again.

Niall looks totally fine. Sure, he isn't toned and doesn't train like Harry or Liam, but he isn't anywhere near overweight. And tbh if he turned into a muscular fitness geek suddenly, I'm not sure if it would fit his laid-back Irish guy image. He seems like the friendly, funny guy you'd like to have a jam session and a pint with, not like a gym rat. But I guess he does have some kind of fitness routine, because touring seems incredibly exhausting and physically taxing to me, so it's probably better to have some physical stamina.

R278 Yes, he doesn't have a very manly body, however a lot of that is probably also due to him being rail thin most of the time. He will never be extremely buff, but if he were a normal, healthy weight and worked on some muscle gain, he would look a whole lot better. However I guess him being so thin (even now, although he's at least not frighteningly scraggy anymore) is part and parcel of his issues. His face is very objectively pretty though, great bone structure, doe eyes, nice lips and all that.

In the end finding someone attractive comes down to tastes of course, that's why back in the day Cowell cast five similar boys in age and height, who were still quite different in looks and vibes. I sometimes still marvel at how well they were chosen in that regard.

For me Harry was always a standout, but not even that much regarding looks (although he was a pretty kid, who has grown up into handsome man), but for me and I guess plenty of others he just has that little something. A certain spark, charisma, the voice and the smile, I don't know, he just grabs your attention. But I already knew his music before I watched his interviews or saw his photo shoots, so maybe I'm biased.

The 1d boys weren't weapons grade hotties when they were picked at the XF. Zayn certainly wasn't, yet all five blossomed into very good looking men by about 2012.

It's interesting that all five look set to release within a month of each other. Only waiting for Harry's announcement now.

He looks just fine.

OK, so I'm new here, and can't start a thread, so can someone start one about highsexuals...straight guys who go gay or bi when they get stoned? lI'm gay, and have had some great experiences with normally straight guys who get all hot-and-bothered after they're high.

R288, I started one for you. Search 'highsexuals'.

2014 Harry was glorious.

R288 'Highsexual' just sounds like another way of saying repressed homosexuality/bisexuality to me.

Have to say, Zain can still look pretty good. The tats are over the top tho.

Would be nice if he would do some singing...

R291 I'm not the person, who posted this and I don't want to stray too much off-topic, but personally I find it hard to say because I've encountered people that were down to fuck everyone and everything when on drugs - men, women, inanimate objects etc. I guess for some it's repressed bisexuality, but I doubt it's respressed object sexuality. It probably depends first and firemost if they are turned on by men or women when sober. If they never feel a sexual attraction towards one gender when sober, then I'm pretty sure it's just the effect of drugs, not any repressed sexuality.

R290 For me 2014 is the time when Harry started to come into his own, the boy turned into a man and in that year - he turned from just pretty into sexy as well.

Harry's Sweet Creature re-entered the US iTunes charts and is currently #21. His album re-entered the top 100 US iTunes charts as well (#99).

Apparently someone on The Voice sang the song and people went and checked out the original song. I love that, because it shows that people really like that song itself (not Harry's pretty face or because he was once in 1D) - they heard it on TV, actively searched for it afterwards and bought it on iTunes.

R275 That’s new? He looks bloated!

Again the same Niall blog on Tumblr. 😂

Niall did an interview for The Telegraph and he also talks about 1D and the "hiatus":

[quote]“It was incredible. But we got tired. Not tired of it, just tired out. Five albums, five tours, in five years. We were all knackered. I can never really remember any major bust-ups, just brotherly family nagging, s—-y arguments like that. But we were gonna end up killing each other. We all sat down one day, had a chat and it was like, we need to take a break. Step back, chill out and try something new.”

It's not entirely surprising, everyone knows about the insane schedule, but it's interesting that he confirms as well that things weren't all sugar and rainbows behind the scenes and there were fights. But it's also interesting that he says "I can never really remember any major bust-ups, just brotherly family nagging", because that either means the Dan Wootton piece about the major rift between Harry and Louis was mostly made-up OR Niall just chooses not to remember lol. The third option is that he's actually truthful and there was never a big falling out between Harry and Louis, they just slowly got along less and less and annoyed each other. It's not even contradictory to calling it "brotherly", because there are plenty of families out there that don't get along very well (sometimes to the point of the Gallaghers).

It's also interesting that he seems to think the "hiatus" was quite necessary and he didn't make it look like Harry broke up the band for fame and all the other poor, crying members of 1D had to go along with it, even though they would have loved to continue forever.

Niall gets along with everyone.

That’s because he isn’t bitter about them breaking up, he wanted to continue but he accepted that it wasn’t going to happen and just focused on improving himself as a musician and establishing a sound that fits him. The other two are just bitter that Harry did what was necessary for himself and in hindsight for the lot of them.

R297 Niall would never say anything contentious. Liam recently spoke about Niall being the biggest 1d fan and being on the fence in every argument in the band. He is definitely choosing not to remember the fallouts. I watched them from XFactor days and there was clearly a massive fallout between Harry and Louis. And everything to do with Zayn was more thean 'brotherly nagging'! Niall just never says anything to rock the boat, abit like Harry.

With Niall releasing his new song tomorrow it's actually very interesting to see how they perform against each other. Louis fans were really happy with his promo until some girlfriend mentions in a couple of articles and when they realised KMM wasn't getting played on radio. Then they started claiming his promo team was rubbish and wished he had Liam's promo team because his promo was so much better. Then when Liam's song did nothing the complaint was that his promo was rubbish after all because it only lasted a week and he didn't have any tv appearances. Niall's promo is now being praised because his team have secured him lots of promo in the US which Louis and Liam didn't get. So lets see how he does. I'm just wondering how much longer it will take Louis' and Liam's fans to realise that they have got more promo than 90% of the current songs in the chart and that if they still haen't been successful it's because their music is just not good enough ( which it isn't) and the general public are just not interested in them ( which they're not).

I think Niall will sky rocket to near the top on iTunes with below average YouTube views and an average first day on Spotify. From then the song will either become a hit or fall and not become much depending on how good it is and the extent of his promo in the long run

R299 I agree. He always seemed to have a pretty good mentality everything considered. I think he and Harry adapted best (although differently) to the sudden fame and 1D mania and seemed to have a better grip on all the craziness (and whatever sex, drugs and rock n' roll lives they've lead). Maybe that's why it seems their friendship held up fairly well through all the years. I don't know how things are nowadays, but I suspect they are on friendly terms, at least they hung out together at Ed Sheeran's birthday bash (as Sam Smith basically let slip).

R300 I'm so divided over this because on the one hand I enjoy a good mess and I want all the scandalous gossip lol (still hoping for that tell-all book), on the other hand I really admire it when people stay loyal and steadfastly refuse to wash dirty laundry in public.

R301 Oh yes, fans and their complaints about promo... I won't even start on their lack of understanding of the music industry and strange focus on certain parts (radio or whatever else). I think especially Liam hustled hard for SIU and I respect that. He gave so many interviews that I've lost track and he's done a lot of promo on social media, even put up that facebook (?) game. And Louis did a bit less radio interviews, but still a bunch, that big Guardian profile and quite a few interviews for international print magazines (I think something in France and Sweden?). To say "there wasn't any promo" kind of negates both their efforts imho, why would fans do that...

I'm extremely curious about Niall's song now. I think it will be quite catchy and well made, but really hard to say if that's enough for it to be a success. Also depends on what we term a "success". I don't expect it to be a #1, especially not with all the other artists realeasing their music tomorrow. But I think it will fare better than KMM and SIU and will have more longevity. Maybe it's like you said, R302, can't wait to find out.

I meant of course Ed's wedding bash, not birthday.

' that either means the Dan Wootton piece about the major rift between Harry and Louis was mostly made-up OR Niall just chooses not to remember lol. '

After this he contradicts himself and says 'we were about ready to kill each other.'

I think Niall always tries to be diplomatic, but that phrase says a lot about the real situation.

Yes, you're right, it's a bit contradictory - "ready to kill each other" truly sounds more like the Gallagher variety of a brotherly spat. It's not the only contradiction in that interview, he also says he doesn't miss the 1D mania, but performing with Taylor made him realise he does. But I mean, I get that - he doesn't miss the intense scrutiny and not being able to go anywhere, but on the other hand 1D's huge success was something else - the huge stadiums, the police escorts, the paps at the airports, 10,000 fans cheering for them in front of their hotel.. I get that this is a rush and makes you feel like a rock star.

Maybe this dichotomy of the good and the bad of 1D leads to him saying in Glass Magazine that he's not exactly in a rush to reunite 1D:

[quote]"Once I’m making music for a long time at a high level, I don’t mind. When everyone is ready to do 1D again, I’ll be here. But at the moment I’m enjoying relative success on my own, and it’s been so fun trying something new."

And now he's not only back to his "I'll do it immediately", but also gives more of a concrete time frame for the hiatus, which I find extremely interesting, considering that even Louis and Liam, who have said specific times in the past (like the famous 18 months), don't do that anymore:

[quote]“There was no timeline on the gap. I would have preferred if someone said five years, and it probably will end up something like that. I’m enjoying what I’m doing, but if one of the lads were to pick up the phone and say it’s time, I’d do it.”

The official hiatus started in 2016, so five years would be sometime in 2021, right? That's quite soon and I don't believe that for a minute (unless it's something tiny for some charity concert). I guess we can all agree that most of this reunion talk depends on Harry and he has no reason to reunite. We'll see how the second album fares, but so far he has all the positives of being on his own (full control over his career and artistic choices) and still made about 20 million since the hiatus. I feel there are only two options that would make a 1D reunion happen: either they all flop so hard that they basically have no other choice but to reunite or at least Harry (and maybe someone of the others) becomes such a success and established artist, that doing something with his old pals of 1D wouldn't be seen as a failure of his solo career, but rather something he does for fun and for old times' sake. It would be what Niall said in Glass magazine "making music for a long time at a high level", but that wouldn't be in 2021, it's too soon for that.

From Niall's interview:

"But we were gonna gonna end up killing each other. We all sat down on day, had a chat and it was like, 'We need to take a break, chill out and try something new'."

Three years on, he's ready to get the band back together.

He added: "I'm enjoying what I'm doing, but if one of the lads were to pick up the phone and say,'It’s time, I’d do it'."

Harry sat them down and wanted the break. It's nice of Niall not to point fingers.

I noticed the five years thing too. A lot of fans count the hiatus as starting from October 2015, which would mean they were coming back in just a year's time! If Harry had said this there would be mass elation and celebration.

Niall is the only one making good money as a soloist, apart from Harry. He's made about 10m; Harry 20m. So he doesn't need a 1d reunion. Maybe he really does miss the big arena/stadium crowds.

R308 But didn't they still have 1D performances in December 2015? The hiatus can only have started after that.

Harry wouldn't have said this, because he never mentioned any time frame, not even back in 2015 when they were asked about it in interviews. And I still doubt a reunion will happen at all, but if it does, I'm pretty sure not before both Harry has released a third album. It is said that his 80 million record deal with Columbia/Sony is a three album deal and I guess they (and Harry too) want three consecutive albums, not the the third one in ten years, after he's gone back to 1D.

In general I think both Harry and Niall will be fine on their own, although for both the second album and how it's received will mean a lot. I think Niall will be a bit rockier on the second album. Flicker was a "transition" album imho - of all the 1D member's his music sounded most like it could have been on a 1D album (Liam was right about that). Not necessarily Slow Hands, but for example On The Loose sounds a lot like What A Feeling and Seeing Blind, Flicker, Mirrors and The Tide would have fit quite well on Made in the AM too. So I guess the album was meant to be a bit of a bridge between 1D and his solo work? The Telegraph wrote "Horan’s debut album, Flicker, drew on his obsession with classic Seventies singer-songwriting" although I didn't hear that much 70s on it tbh. It was pretty much a folk pop album to me and as such not particularly "vintage" sounding, rather like Mumford & Sons and bands like that. But of course everyone knows that Niall is a superfan of the Eagles, so I expect more actual 70s influence on the second album.

Niall definitely tried to make the 6th 1d album, in some ways. He worked and still works with four of the 1d songwriters: John Ryan, Jamie Scott, Julian Bunetta and Ruth Anne Cunningham. Flicker had some combo of those four on nearly all the tracks, with Julian B writing and producing Slow Hands (and this new one that's due out in an hour, Nice to Meet Ya.

I think Julian B is an excellent songwriter, but I don't enjoy Niall's solo vocals. The broad Irish accent isn't appealing, and he slurs all the notes together, as if he's drunk at last orders.

Based on what I read I don’t think this one is gonna sound like a1d song

R310 I actually like Niall's solo vocals much better than his 1D voice, which was always a bit too ... bright (?) for me. I think his solo voice got a bit lower and smoother, but his music/genre just doesn't do it for me. Slow Hands is a nice little song though.

R311 Yeah, I fully expect it to be an introduction to his new era past the "transition" phase and way more influenced by 70s rock and such. Didn't they say it sounds "psychedelic"? I'm really curious, especially since apparently psychedelic is a thing for Harry's new album too (unless his stupid ass just did shrooms to play weird slant chords on his shiny new dulcimer and not to make nice psychedelic rock).

Well, we'll find out what NTMY is like in just four minutes' time. The video is out then too. Niall said in Metro that it's about chasing a woman round various bars on a boozy night out.

1 minute... this is exciting :)

Does anyone know how many were watching the KMM premiere? Because right now it's about 24.000 for NTMY

Well kudos to the poster who said that Niall's new song would have a "rockier" sound to it.

R316 To be fare, Niall said it himself.

Niall seems to be doing an Alex Turner impression on this latest song! I guess he said he was influenced by the AMs.

Not gonna lie, that’s a great song.

I think NTMY is actually right on brand for Niall, it's a fun song, good tune/melody, catchy... but I don't know if I got that wrong with the "psychedelic" quote, but ... not really lol. It sounds a lot more like Arctic Monkeys (e.g. Why'd you only call me when you're high) and some slightly Britpop-y guitars to me? It's funny that Niall said Harry's music is the closest to him, when I actually think NTMY is probably the song Louis really really wished he had written (although it's better suited for Niall's voice).

R318 lol we posted the same thing at the same time!!

Niall also put easter eggs for a few titles of his other new songs.

"Small Talk"

"Heartbreak Weather"

"No Judgement"

Oh, the video btw... omg, it's such a douche bag video lol, I had to laugh several times. I mean... the scantily clad supermodel leaving his flat in the morning with a radiant smile because he dicked her down, the manly strut in the streets of London, that affirms his role as hot guy™, the random French "j'adore la mer" (to woo the girls?), getting sharply dressed at his expensive tailor to later stroll with his pack of other sharply dressed (but not quite as sharply dressed as the leader of them) bachelors strolling into a dimly lit bar to hey... just be totally irresistible to the aforementioned supermodel with the risky cleavage. Was it the pheromones? The BDE? Was there a pickup artist routine involved? And why didn't she write down her phone number in LIPSTICK as it should be to fully exploit every single damn cliché?

Oh Niall....

R321, great minds!

His voice sounds very different from how it usually does, and I don't like the humming much. Not swirly or psychedelic at all.

I prefer KMM!

Stop being bitter guys. This song is objectively 10x better than anything Louis has put out let alone that kill my mind which is the worse of the lot

R325, why is he imitating Alex Turner's voice? I keep expecting him to start singing 'do I wanna know?'

It's catchy.

R322 Niall's marketing is on fire for this era - I thought the fan photos with the cover and the "make your own song to the lyrics" thing were already pretty good ideas for fan engagement (needs basically zero budget and gets a lot of involvement, because the fans would love to be seen/heard by Niall), but the easter eggs! He is turning into Taylor Swift!

R325 Yeah, what I said - I think Louis would have loved to have written this song. I wouldn't say it's 10x better, but I think it has a much wider appeal than KMM (and the video is better shot too, even though the story is rather cringey to me). But I also agree that it sounds a lot like Arctic Monkeys.

It should do well.

Zayn's new collab is out as well:

the random French "j'adore la mer"

I cant help it, that was sexy.

Bieber and Travis Scott have new songs out today. Travis' is about Kylie Jenner. I can't see Niall beating either of those to the top of the itunes.

R330, the girl has a lovely voice, but Zayn only sings one verse! He is wasted on projects like that.

R315 No idea but Niall seems to have geared this whole new song launch to the US market because it was 5 in the morning UK time when that vid launched! I think he's in the US atm as well and seems to be doing lots of US radio promo first before presumably returning to the UK for radio promo later i guess.

Youtube views count towards both the US and UK chart nowadays so Niall's 'easter egg hunt' is a clever idea to get people to repeat watch it.

Just had a quick look at views for Louis' and Liam's videos on youtube. Louis' premiered on 13th September and has approx. 3.3 million views which in all honesty is dreadful. Liam's premiered on 18th September , so just a few days later and has approx. 5.9 million views. Niall should do a lot better than that although personally having listened to it a few times now I don't like it as much as I thought I would. I think the music is big /interesting/catchy etc but the lyrics don't live up to the music if you get what I mean. Also not sure how I feel about the Alex Tuner impression at the beginning of the song. Musically though for me its a million times better than Louis' or Liam's efforts.

Camilla Cabello has a song coming out also and one of those members of BTS I think put out a solo song/music video about a week ago and now supposedly has over 50+ million views.

He is already top 10 on iTunes UK, to put this in perspective, I think Liam peaked at 80 after like 10 hours, seems he is beating out Justin Bieber, Camila and travis Scott on iTunes so far

Niall is doing really well so far! He's on #2 of the US iTunes charts and I think he will get at least 1 million youtube views in the first 24 hours. That's really good!

It's interesting, because apparently the 1D fandom isn't as dead as we thought? Or Niall has managed to venture out of his old fandom and appeal to a wider audience? I guess it's a combination of both. The 1D fans are still here, but I think the constant infighting among the fans has created sections and I maybe most flocked to Niall and Harry. And these two have also managed to be more known to the general public. I recently mentioned that Niall might have been underestimated while in 1D, but even back then he wasn't a bad networker. Now it shows, because he had quite a few A listers promote his new song - for example Selena Gomez linked NTMY in her instagram story and she has over 150 million followers. That's a ton of free promo with a pop loving target audience.

I haven't noticed that for Louis. Sure, there are no A lister ex-girlfriends, because he has been with Eleanor (which is great), but even apart from that, he seems so firmly rooted in Doncaster and his old group of friends, that you hardly see him hanging out with other famous people. In his Guardian interview he mentioned how important it is to him to stay grounded and not "dripping in Gucci" (lol) and somehow I can imagine that he always wanted to be the "anti popstar" so much, that he avoided mingling with people in the music industry.

Oh I just wanted to add about Liam/Louis: They aren't doing well in comparison to their 2016/2017 stuff and Niall now (and Harry probably). But I'm not sure if people don't dramatise their "flop" status. For example someone like Lana Del Rey has 7.5 million views on a video that came out a whole months ago. Or her 4 year old (!) video for Honeymoon has only 11 million views. I'm not sure about her chart numbers, but I think before her newest album they weren't amazing either. And still she was doing fine all those years, making her music, having dedicated fans and not getting dropped from her label.

So things might not be so dire for Liam and Louis, just because they're not #1 hit makers.

R333, agree that 3.3m views isn't great for LT. TOU didn't get many views either. So many of L's fandom are only interested in him bc they want to rescue him from his closet, but they are dropping like flies as he continues to mention his girlfriend and son in interviews.

I listened to the Zayn/Sabrina Claudio collab a few times now and ... surprisingly I really like it. It's funny, because I always say I don't like R&B and I'm kind of more into rock, but so far I like the Zayn collab actually more than Niall's new song. "Vas happenin?" as old Zayn would have said. It's something I will put in my playlist instead of just listenting to it to see what the 1D boys are doing these days. But R333 is right, Sabrina has a great voice. The song sounds to me a bit like what I guess could happen if Lana Del Rey wrote a modern day TLC's Waterfalls. I like the slow pace and layered vocals, it's both sensual and somewhat melancholic. My kind of music (unsurprisingly I'm a huge Lana Del Rey fan). I already liked Shaed's Trampoline, so I have to say Zayn's collab choices are really good lately.

If I'd rank the new 1D singles according to my personal taste (atm - sometimes songs grow on me or start to get on my nerves after some time) it would be Zayn, Niall, Louis, Liam.

Niall's over 1. 1 million already.

R339 Lana del Rey is a respected artist though who has had critcially acclaimed songs/albums. Neither Liam or Louis are anywher near her league. Neither of them are treated as serious musicians at all and thats the problem. So far as the general public are concerned Louis simply has no talent and Liam has become a bit of a joke and I'm afraid I can't see them turning that around. Niall has been added to the Radio 1 playlist straight away in the UK and is apparently being played on the hour in the US. Despite all their radio promo neither Lous or Liam have been playlisted in either the UK or US. I'd be very surprised if Liam ever puts an album out let alone goes on tour and the only reason Louis MIGHT get an album out is because Cowell has always had his back. But how many people are in all seriousness are going to pay to watch Louis Tomlison perform on a tour?

I like his new song. Spotify is really promoting Niall.

So, why has Harry decided to have James Brown hairdo ?

James Brown?? Either you mean a different James Brown (? is there another one?) or I don't see it...

But apparently he has decided to wear a nice suit without flared pants (thankfully!!) for a change and I really like those shoes. He looks really good!!

'But how many people are in all seriousness are going to pay to watch Louis Tomlison perform on a tour?'

Only a dwindling number of conspiracy theorists. He's booked slots at several low key festivals, but I doubt he'll do a tour now. Syco can't keep throwing money at him. It must have cost them a fortune to have him in session with 75 producers. Harry managed the wonderful HS1 with the first set of producers he worked with.

I think Stack it Up was UMG's last dance with Liam. He doesn't even have his dancers on pay roll anymore. The Jingle Balls don't want him because he last had any kind of chart success in the US in 2017, despite releasing many singles since then.

Yeah Louis and Liam have no chance. Liam had his chance but with the shit he has put out nobody will ever take him seriously again. Zayn will get hits here and there but only on collaborations with bigger artists. Niall and Harry lead the pack for solo success for the next five years in my opinion.

I love seeing Harry in a sharp fitted suit! Reminds me of Dunkirk promo. Maybe if his contract with Gucci is up, we'll see an end to the voluminous cream trousers which make him look short waisted.

Harry's boots, tonight.

Harry looks so different, has he had surgery on his face? Is it Botox?

R349 The suit is actually Gucci! And he wore it also at the Dunkirk premiere. But I think Harry actually likes flared pants, so I guess unfortunately we'll see them again.

R351 Botox is against wrinkles, not to look different. He just has a different haircut, some facial hair and he looks less boyish in general - he's over 25 now. Most of the photos floating around are from promo for his first album and he was only 23 back then. A lot of guys get more manly in their mid 20s.

Still can't believe I can't find a single hard copy of Harry's RS cover. Anyone who can help/advise? Is he really that popular or is Rolling Stone just printing that many less copies?

R351 is the poster they call the Welp Troll over on the British Royal Family threads. Put him on ignore and check Trolldar and you'll find he comes onto DL solely to drag Harry Styles and bash Meghan Markle. No posts anywhere else. Just negativity.

On this thread, he has said repeatedly that Harry has lost his looks, that he uses Botox, that he will 'just be a wealthy dilettante' or a 'tequila ambassador'. This poster also claimed Harry was short of money because he took a loss when he sold his LA house (as if that would dent his $75m fortune) and they've suggested he's only attracted to much older men like Rande Gerber or that director he hung out with in Japan.

Hilariously, he also thinks Prince Harry and Meghan are in a lavender marriage!

The majority of people have the infamous Welp Troll blocked. Others just see this terminal clown as comedy gold. Argue with him and he'll call you a Russian bot. He has a whole thread about himself.

R353 I assume RS usually prints less copies of their magazines these days, because most people read the articles online. However Harry's fans apparently really want the hard copy for the photos and to add the magazine to their collection, so RS might have severely underestimated the demand. His cover was the most liked cover on their social media by FAR. If that is even a slight reflection of the demand, I see why they have supply issues. A popular online seller for magazines is waiting for restock for weeks now.

R355, that edition is selling for big sums on Amazon and Ebay.

A possible nose job came up in Google, but there is something different around his eyes/brows. Did he have a life of his hairline?

Niall has an earring. I need to think about this.

Just one, R358? Hmm. Naill has great hair.

Is that his band in the video?

Niall is the only one who is believable having a posse of same aged peer friends. Z is a druggie, Liam has always struggled socially, Louis is mired in tragedy and Harry is eccentric and socializes with people old enough to be his parents much of the time, with a preference for 3rd wheeling. Niall is a lot more relateable and seems well liked in the industry too. Glad he took some downtime to go backpacking before all of this geared up.

R359 I fell down the rabbit hole today watching Niall's interview about the new song. He is really a decent guy.

We never learn, we've been here before

Why are we always stuck and running from

The Welp Troll

The Welp Troll

Loved this performance of Sign of the Trolls.

' Harry is eccentric and socializes with people old enough to be his parents much of the time,'

Welpy, you do realise this is a very very strange way of judging a singer, don't you? No mention of his incredible, distinctive voice and that depth and rasp that none of the others come near? He was surrounded by people his own age at the Met Gala after party and he still has school friends he sees in Holmes Chapel.

But even if he didn't, you now prefer Niall's Alex Turner cosplay songs because he has 'friends his own age'? Get out of here.

'A possible nose job came up in Google, but there is something different around his eyes/brows. Did he have a life of his hairline?'

Why are you pretending you haven't been here since 2012, Larrying your way through the years? He has had that M shaped hairline since 2013, as well you know. Sorry he spoilt your Larry dream, but trolling here and on the Markle threads every few hours can't be good for your health.

You KNOW H has always had the exact same quite elegant, longish nose with flared nostrils. A nose job or any surgery would be a terrible idea for one of the most beautiful men in the world.

Go back to the Markle threads and carry on with your ugly bitching about how fat she is, you're not wanted here.

Do you have a link, R360?

Do you have a link, R360?

R360, why are you pretending you don't already know every fact there is to know about Niall? There is no rabbit hole with him ffs, even for someone who doesn't know about 1d, let alone anyone on this thread.

I might have watched a few more, I can't remember. (4)

Thanks!

I guess Harry doesn't really discriminate when it comes to the age of his friends, he has friends of all ages, but it seems to me that most of his closest friends are in their early to mid 30s (which is hardly parent age) - Jeff and Glenne, Xander, Kid Harpoon, Mitch, Grimmy, Lou T, Ben Winston etc.

And of course the plastic surgery thing is ludicrous, but I guess even a troll knows that. He has absolutely no reason to mess with his face lol.

Niall's song made it to 1.5 million views in 24 hours.

Interesting benchmark - that's about three times as many views as the Liam/Louis singles iirc.

Travis Scott's new single Highest in the Room was released at 12am EST too, and made it up to 7m in the same time period. Biebs is at 3.3m after only 11 hours.

When Slow Hands debuted, it went to the top of the itunes in about 20 different countries. NTMY only topped 4 itunes charts and is only #4 in the UK. Niall has been on IG lives all day, begging fans to stream/buy more. He seems a bit anxious.

Travis Scott's new single Highest in the Room was released at 12am EST too, and made it up to 7m in the same time period. Biebs is at 3.3m after only 11 hours.

When Slow Hands debuted, it went to the top of the itunes in about 20 different countries. NTMY only topped 4 itunes charts and is only #4 in the UK. Niall has been on IG lives all day, begging fans to stream/buy more. He seems a bit anxious.

It's not that surprising, Niall was the only one who had several songs doing well on radio (Slow hands could have been a top ten billboard hot 100 hit if his team was smart enough to release a video when the song was peaking).

The rest really struggled on radio. Zayn, had several hits, but only one by himself and he seems unable to have two consecutive songs doing something on airplay.

Harry never really tried to have radio hits with his first album.

Liam had one big hit to start, but it was the typical song that everybody forgets five minutes after dissapearing from radio.

And Louis, well Louis was very lucky to be on One Direction because he has zero chances to make it as a solo artist

How you gonna compare Travis Scott a streaming monsters number to nialls? Havana had less Spotify streams than nice to meet ya and look what happened to that song. niall’s song isn’t dependent on insane first day views, it’s about if it can have longevity and pick up over time

Yes, I think Niall will do fine, no matter what numbers other artists, who released yesterday have. And I mean, are we really complaining about iTunes #2 and #4? Those are amazing chart numbers most artists would kill for. We can't compare the guys' solo efforts to 1D fame, not even Harry might have a #1 hit anymore.

Speaking of... apparently he sent stan twitter into chaos by tweeting "Do" today - it doesn't make much sense so far, but maybe it's part of announcing a single. Or he just honoured "Do Something Nice Day", which would be today lol. Anyway, the tweet got about 315k likes so far (after 4 hours) and got "Do what" trending in the US and worldwide, which is quite crazy. People are really looking forward to new music, it seems!

Who exactly sees Travis and Niall as having comparable careers?

R378, if that was Harry you'd be comparing him to everyone, including Travis.

Harry's DO tweet has over 333k likes, twice as many as Niall's single announcement. I don't like NTMY. It's too short, it's a fuckboy anthem, and he sounds like Alex Turner on it. The opposite of authentic.

R378 Exactly. One will be remembered in 10 years and one certainly will not.

Harry won’t be remembered because he will never have a smash hit and once his fans move on it’s over.

There’s been countless of objective non-1d fans saying it’s the best thing from any 1d member so your Bias Ass licking perspective means fuck all. retweets don’t mean anything, streams and downloads do, which Niall has more of than Harry. Go stream his boring ass album And hope he comes with something exciting this time otherwise good luck with another underwhelming era

R381 And you think Travis Scott will be remembered ? ha

Travis has been around for a while now, R383. He sells out large arenas and headlines festivals. It may not be your taste in music but I would not count him out.

Like Haro, he is mananged by the Azoffs, no? Irv, trying to stay relevant with the kids since Jeff is such a wet noodle. Such tired, circle jerk promo. Like Harry and FM, rinse, repeat.

R382 Oh come on... Niall's song is fun, it has a catchy melody and I think it will be a success. I already liked Slow Hands and I like NTMY as well (although personally I still prefer Slow Hands). But I haven't seen objective sources say or write that it's the best thing from a 1D member so far. Do you mean this year so far? Or in general? Can you link it?

All bias aside Sign of the Times was one hell of a song and rightly so a huge critical and commercial success. In fact it's so good, that I'm not sure Harry can top that with his second album - it's a problem if you have such a song on your very first solo album, which was in general a very solid and critically well received album.

Niall is a lovely guy and he's doing very well. I'm sure he will have a good long career. But to say he's more successful than Harry or to claim he's the only relevant member of 1D, that's just extremely silly and patently false.

R384 wait... so you agree that Travis Scott will be remembered (I can't say anything about it, I don't even know him as I have zero interest in hip hop), but at the same time say that the Azoffs are incompetent managers. How does that go together?

R381 Harry already had a hit that was also ranked among the 100 Greatest Songs of the Century. Nobody here can know what the future will bring, but so far I don't see any indication that he won't have a good, long career. I mean, only recently his Sweet Creature was back in the top 20 US iTunes charts over 2 years after it was released (and it wasn't even a single back then). He is consistently brought up not only when it comes to music, but also fashion, acting etc., his name is fairly well known in the general public, not only among 1D stans, and I've heard quite a few times of people, who discovered him only this year - long after 1D. It seems things are going fairly well, so why shouldn't he have a career? This makes no sense.

Btw a smash hit is one thing (there are plenty of artists out there that had one smash hit and were never heard of again) a long career another. Sometimes both happens, sometimes not.

"Travis has been around for a while now, [R383]. He sells out large arenas and headlines festivals. "

So have Niall, Harry, Liam, Louis and Zayn.

R387 Together absolutely, but it remains to be seen if they can sell out large arenas as solo artists. Niall didn't sell out the larger venues on his tour, Liam and Louis haven't toured yet (although they have both headlined the Madrid festival, which is good). Nobody knows if Zayn will ever tour and if he's even interested in it these days.

My point was, they will be remembered.

I suspect that Travis will have a bigger musical career than Liam or Louis, neither of whom have a solo album out yet.

We do not know if Z will ever perform live again.

I do not believe Niall has headlined festivals on his own. His solo career is going fine, we will see how his second album and tour go.

Does Harry get booked at festivals? I do not recall seeing him on any lineups? Is that not below his David Cassidy too cool for school grown up boybander vibe?

Are any people on this thread interested in and capable of discussion that is not an endless tit for tat comparison of careers that no longer have much in common with one another?

Unless endless bickering with the HS troll is what does it for you, such that you refuse to block it? Time moves on. 1D is starting to have been a very long time ago.

Niall is doing fine. Capitol has a good plan for him and he has a winning way with people when doing promo.

R390 You are comparing the guys in your post (and make snide comments about Harry, as always) and then go on and say we shouldn't compare. Sure, Jan.

Yes, it's been a long time since 1D, but they will always be connected to each other, because it's their shared origin story, no matter where their career will take them. The fact that Lous, Liam and Niall have all been asked about 1D and the other guys in basically every interview they've given during their promo, makes that clear.

"Travis has been around for a while now, [[R383]]. He sells out large arenas and headlines festivals. "

So have Niall, Harry, Liam, Louis and Zayn.'

As One Direction, but only Harry has sold out arenas as a solo artist. Niall tried and failed to sell out 20k amphitheatres in the USA last year and the other three haven't toured at all.

I think headlining a big festival like Reading/Leeds or Glastonbury is definitely on Harry's wish list, but he knows he needs to establish himself more before that happens. I don't think he'd accept anything less than a headline slot.

Travis is 28 years old and has a thriving international career. He recently headlined Coachella, didn't he? His solo career is bigger than any of the 1d boys, and definitely much bigger than Niall's. He has no problem selling out arenas. Irving Azoff is an excellent manager, but the anti Harry troll here doesn't like him because she blames him for splitting up 1d and ending her Larry dream.

All this talk about longevity. Reminder: it's coming up to 10 years in the biz for all the 1D guys. The next 5 years will prove who's sticking around but let's ask who's touring, who's making albums, and who's working steadily? There's your answer.

Zayn posted a selfie on his instagram for the first time in months. The photo screams junkie. His scalp looks green. Just horrible, and quite worrying.

R396 It's not a great photo, he looks grim and I like him much better with hair. Still very handsome and I truly hope for him he's doing fine and gets his shit together someday. He and Harry were always the best singers of 1D and also the most interesting and best looking ones, even though they are kind of polar opposites in their personality.

Travis Scott's first album release under Irving Azoff was far and away his most successful. It sold more than any of the 1d boys and is now certified double platinum in the US.

From Wiki:

Astroworld was supported by four singles, "Butterfly Effect", "Sicko Mode", "Yosemite", and "Wake Up". The album received critical acclaim and performed well commercially, debuting atop the US Billboard 200 with 537,000 album-equivalent units, of which 270,000 were pure sales. It was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Astroworld was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2019 Grammy Awards, with "Sicko Mode" receiving nominations for Best Rap Performance and Best Rap Song.

I don’t care who was the best in 1d, Niall has stepped up and made a mark now, what happened between 20111-2015 isn’t relevant anymore. Harry > Niall >>>> Zayn >>>>>>>>>> the rest. Btw being booked for some irrelevant festival in Madrid doesn’t mean much. Oh and travis scott has a bigger career than everyone in1d including Harry so I don’t even know why this is even a conversation.

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"1D is starting to have been a very long time ago."

Yes, three years is an eternity.

The troll brings up Travis Scott and we have to talk about it? Let it go.

known fact he was fukin that one fellow member in his group...kool...hey, he love havin them thirsty tittys bein sucked ooff, and he don't care who do it....u go baby,,,enjoy ur teats

Harry's DO tweet now has over 500k likes. Fans of the other four are comparing and getting salty, but all H's tweets from 2019 are on 500-600k. He is simply more popular and his personality and mature retro sound intrigue people outside the 1d bubble.

Harry's DO tweet now has over 500k likes. Fans of the other four are comparing and getting salty, but all H's tweets from 2019 are on 500-600k. He is simply more popular and his personality and mature retro sound intrigue people outside the 1d bubble.

People don’t realise the amount of new fans Harry’s secured in these past 2 years. His twitter engagements, media frenzy - all of this is not normal. Fans think it is, but it’s not. HS2 is literally and figuratively going to blow our minds and charts.

People don’t realise the amount of new fans Harry’s secured in these past 2 years. His twitter engagements, media frenzy - all of this is not normal. Fans think it is, but it’s not. HS2 is literally and figuratively going to blow our minds and charts.

Niall didn't post these desperate pleas for streams/purchases and chart success for the Flicker singles. He yells 'come on team' at the end.

R383: Oh, yes, Travis will be remembered...for being an homophobe because his music won't pass the test of time for sure, apart of the fact that he is only successful in the USA

R401: He will hate that video, he is totally alergic to anything gay

R401 is some kind of weird ghetto Larrie.

I remember the Welp Troll had a saying: 'grandmothers at Target know them as the gay one and the other gay one.'

Harry has always had insane engagements on twitter and he had even more before when 1d was a thing. But on Instagram he wouldn’t touch even someone like camila’s or Shawn Mendes or any of the Kardashians engagements. Instagram are where the real numbers are at.

Harry big advantage is that he had the real musician treatment during his last tour. At least here in Spain he had praise reviews- Nobody is going to compare him with an only for teen audiences singer like Shawn Mendes no matter how many followers he has

R414, true - he had phenomenal reviews from music journos all over the world for his live shows. Only one or two duds. Niall's tour was barely reviewed, even in London

R412 lol I doubt grandmothers at Target know or care about anyone of 1D.

R413 The Kardashians are waaay more famous than Harry or any other 1D (ex) member. Even people, who have hardly any interest in pop culture and celebrities have heard of Kim Kardashian at some point. I don't think we can really compare the instagram numbers, especially since they are basically all influencers (in addition to some other jobs) and therefore instagram is their home turf, whereas musicians just use instagram as promo, but not to actively build a brand there. A musician's brand is ideally built through their music and performances, only that ensures longevity. Shawmila are huge at the moment, but it remains to be seen if they can keep that level of fan engagement - especially if they split one day.

Instagram numbers for the 1D guys (including Zayn) are interesting: All in all Zayn seems to have the most likes, Harry hasn't posted anything for over a year, so hard to say where he stands now, but his tour photos got mostly 1.5 to 2 million likes. Louis has about +/- 1 million likes on his posts (for some reason the older stuff has more likes?) and Niall often between 700k and 1 million. Liam slightly less than that as far as I have seen. This is interesting because fan engagement on social media or at least on instagram doesn't really seem to reflect reality. Niall is definitely more successful and better known to the general public than Louis for example. And Liam's SIU also did better than KMM.

I guess social media is more something for their core fan base, but to be successful in the charts, you need a lot more people than this core fan base to buy your single. It's also interesting that Louis could get 1 million likes for an instagram photo, but not 1 million youtube views in the first 24 hours of releasing his KMM music video. So maybe some of these instagram fans are rather into him as a person (or the idea he represents to them - like Larry stuff) than his actual music.

This could affect Harry as well (especially since he he is the other half of Larry), we'll have to see how it turns out when his new single comes out.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Such a beautiful, expressive, fine boned face.

Niall is prettier R418

Interesting news R417, but a bit hollow without some kind of receipt. As a top EDM DJ, Zedd lives in the center of bro culture and has had high profile gfs, so it’s just not very likely.

Nialls music video has already surpassed kill my mind in views which came out like a month ago.

I think Liam would do just about anything to keep his name out there and famous.

This version of Harry Styles was so hot.

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Nothing pretty about this greedy guy with his double chin. It's no wonder his one night stans run away from his the morning after.

The Niall is fat troll always makes me laugh.

Liam has said he isn't gay and so has Zedd. If Liam was shagging anyone on the set of any of his videos, it was Sophia Smith lookalike, 19 year old Lennon Stella who he collabed with on Polaroid. Liam hooked up with Naomi Campbell and Rita Ora, and is now in a relationship with 19 year old model Maya Henry.

This is so funny. Harry is more popular and powerful than the other four put together.

'I suspect that Travis will have a bigger musical career than Liam or Louis, neither of whom have a solo album out yet.'

Will have? His last album Astroworld is already double platinum in the US and debuted at one on Billboard.The last time Liam or Louis charted in the US was 2017, and even then it wasn't very high. All their efforts since then have missed the top 100. Scott is touring arenas worldwide while Liam and Louis' labels don't seem to think it's worth them touring at all.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Harry Styles WAS One Direction. Even NIall's new song isn't charting well.

It just came out and hasn’t left top 10 on iTunes and would have easily been 1st if Justin Bieber hadn’t dropped a song and it’s top 40 on pop radio after 2 days of updates.

If you’re basing who’s charting well on who ‘one direction was’ then Niall and Zayn were one direction since they have both sold more records than Harry and have bigger hits which is a fact.

R432, Pop Radio is all paid for by the label, so it's a meaningless metric. He took a huge 4000k drop on Worldwide Itunes yesterday, bigger than anyone else on the chart. He'll be lucky to go Top 40 US/UK.

Harry has sold more copies of HS1 than Niall and Zayn sold of their debuts. And of course Zayn is ahead on streaming, he has over 40 songs compared to Harry's ten.

R433 Don't upset the troll, he will start whipping old, pretend facts and call you names.

R416 I saw a good example of this on twitter.... a week ago Louis' youtube channel released a behind the scenes vid of the making of Kill My Mind which currently has 71.000 views. Also a week ago a vid was put up on youtube by Freddieismyqueen who is apparently the most well known 'Larry shipper' entitled 'Louis said Larrie Rights' and that has 176,500 views ( btw Freddieismyqueen on youtube has 453,000 subscribers!!). There is no doubt in my mind anymore that sadly for Louis his very vocal fanbase has almost no interest in his music and is just there for the conspiracy theories. I mean social media following numbers are pretty irrelevant for all the boys since most of those would have followed during 1d days and have probably now moved on but likes are presumably still relevant and as you say he gets around 1 million likes on his pics yet didn't chart in any country with Kill My Mind? I mean its almost impossible to say how many copies of the song were sold and we don't know how far outside the top 100 he was in the UK but its safe to say he probably sold no more than a couple of thousand copies a week for the first couple of weeks in the UK and that is undoubtedly his biggest market.

Now Liam has crashed out of the top 100 in the uk after only the 2nd week and it didn't chart anywhere else save for Belguim I think. So that songs dead in the water even though he too has nearly 18 million followers on insta and probably averages 600k likes on all his pics. Since Liam literally just posts very posey/modelly/ thirst shots of himself though I assume people are just liking the shots of him 1st and foremost and again it doesn't bare much relation to his music output.

What we can pretty safle say is that none of the boys benefit from the 1d hype/fanbase any longer....its all about the quality of the music they put out and to what extent they have been able to bring in a new fanbase from the geneal public. Louis and Liam are struggling in both those areas imo. It will be interesting to see where Niall sits in all this after the 1st week because it doesn't feel as though the song is doing as well as I thought it was going to despite getting alot of positive feedback. But we'll see.

Niall had a huge drop of over 4k points on the WW itunes chart yesterday, and has also fallen to #10 in the US and #13 in the UK. He'll be lucky to chart in the top 50 UK/US despite heavy radio, social media and print promo.

Still can't grasp how anyone can find Niall more attractive than Harry.

R438 Yes he is falling on itunes everywhere but his biggest problem is his Spotify numbers.They are dreadfull and he has fallen to around the 200 mark in both the UK and US. He wasn't in the top 20 when the UK chart 1st look was revealed yesterday so I doubt he will make it by the end of the week. However he has done very little promo in the UK . He really needs a live performance on prime time tv or one of the 2 biggest chat shows Graham Norton or Jonathan Ross to get it out there. He is definitely more popular than Liam or Luois in the UK so he might be offered a slot.

I wonder why his Spotify numbers are so poor? Maybe because fans bought the song and aren't bothered with streaming. Niall went on IG and exhorted his fans to keep buying/streaming to 'get this record to the top of the charts', which isn't going to happen.

Lost his looks, and lost his fans.

Lol I can post 100 pictures of Harry looking worse, stop being shallow. The song is great but it’s probably not single worthy. It’s smashing on radio and it’s doing good on iTunes (the free fall is expected). Spotify is a big issue though, he needs a big Tv performance and added to today’s top hits on the playlists. Harry need to come with a fucking hit song that is have repeat value because he’s going to debut high but he will free fall if his lead single is anything like sign of the times. Times have moved on and when 1d were at their peak streaming was a non factor, and even in 2017 they could get away with just having average on Streams but it’s the majority of consumption nowadays.

I agree, let's not focus all the time on looks, it gets a bit repetitive. Everyone looks bad in some pictures and good in others. And beauty lies in the eye of the beholder anyway. None of the 1D boys is objectively ugly (or fat) and there's more to finding someone attractive than just looks.

Having said that, I'm not mad if people post hot photos of Harry lol.

R437 I fully agree with everything, good post! Interesting times, it's seems that they have reached a pivot point.

R440 I think this is something that affects both Niall and Harry because their music is more "traditional" in genre and target audience. Not "urban" music as Louis would call it. Niall really tried with NTMY regarding song length and getting to the point soon (as he explained in a recent interview about his songwriting process), he basically followed all the rules for getting a streaming hit that Mark Ronson recently talked about with The Guardian (I've linked the relevant part below). But I suspect that people, who are more into "traditional" rock influenced music are kind of old fashioned and really rather buy the song instead of streaming it all the time. I guess that's also why vinyl still sells in that genre, like for example Harry's pink 2 Year anniversary LP.

Personally I'd count myself as part of this old fashioned crowd. I find streaming apps rather irritating, but I've just orded two vinyl albums. I guess that makes me 60+ mentally, but yeah..

R442 He'll be totally fine if his lead single is anything like Sign of the Times. People still love that song, it was in several top 10 charts only this year (2 years after it was released), e.g. in Greece and Austria and the music video has nearly 555 million views on youtube. SOTT also has nearly 535 million streams on Spotify alone (which isn't bad at all) and sold over 6 million copies worldwide. It was hardly a flop.

In fact I think SOTT will be hard to top both in quality and numbers, therefore I think if his lead single is close to it, it's a success.

People always say stuff like "streaming is the future", but imho that's only a half truth. Yes, streaming has increased a lot and the big streaming services have a huge influence on the music industry. But there was an article in Rolling Stone this year about that (can't find it right now), but it boiled down to focusing too much on streaming numbers doesn't reflect the entire fan base of an artist. For example some people have great streaming numbers, because they are in a lot of playlists and have a lot of songs, but most of their listeners just put on those playlists or songs as background music. They aren't the core fan base. Other artists might have average streaming numbers, but a solid, loyal core fan base, that really cares about the music and the artist. They might not stream as much, because they bought the album or single and they are the ones that will buy tickets for the tour and special editions and all that.

I think this might explain why Liam has (had? not sure how SIU is doing in that regard) such good streaming numbers, but his EP didn't sell well - his songs are in many playlists and great for easy listening, but it seems his core fan base isn't that huge. That's in part speculation though, because we don't know how a tour of his would sell. I guess we'll see when his album & tour are coming next year.

Uproxx listed Harry's album among the 100 best albums of the 2010s

[quote]One Direction provided Harry Styles about as much success as anybody could reasonably handle, and yet, when he decided to venture off on his own, he abandoned a lot of the things that made One Direction what it was. Instead, his solo debut leans way more into classic rock territory than radio pop, and it turns out that Styles is masterful at both.–Derrick Rossignol

I guess that's another factor for longevity: critical acclaim. Because the aforementioned Lana Del Rey doesn't have huge chart & streaming numbers either, but I'd say a solid career. And while she was treated quite badly by music critics and the general public at the very beginning of her career, I think most of her albums since Ultraviolence were also critically acclaimed as R343 pointed out.

Here are some interesting numbers about genres and how well they stream and/or sell (also vinyl), that interestingly confirm what I've written in R443. Maybe things will change for rock and streaming, but so far I don't really see it.

[quote]Now if you go to BuzzAngle’s 2018 report of consumption: bit.ly/2WrIKKd you’ll find that Rock is the #1 in album sales. Rock has 26.5% of that market. Pop has 26.3% and Hip-Hop/Rap only has 5.2%.

[quote]Rock also dominates digital album sales, with 25.7% to Pop’s 24.9% and Hip-Hop/Rap’s 7.6%. Pop wins the Physical album sales and CD sales, but by a tenth of a percentage over Rock in physical, and 3% in CD sales. Hip-Hop/Rap has over 20% less market share than Pop and Rock in these two categories.

[quote]Rock wins vinyl. Begging the question of whether Rock fans are old farts. They’ve got the disposable income and remember when. 41.7% of vinyl sales is Rock, 25.6% of vinyl is Pop, and Hip-Hop/Rap only has 6.6%.

[quote]However, Rock doesn’t do too well in Song Sales, with 15.1% of the market, whereas Pop dominates with 25.6% and Hip-Hop/Rap has 14.7%. It seems that Rock fans want to buy whole albums, Pop and Hip-Hop/Rap fans just want the hit. Then again, are Rock fans just old farts stuck in their old ways?

[quote]Because when it comes to total streams… Hip-Hop/Rap dominates, with 25.4%, Pop has 18.5% and Rock only has 11.4%.

People say that only urban artists stream well, but the two artists who stream best in the UK are Ed Sheeran and Coldlplay. The latter are rock pop and neither one is urban.

What are the chances of Zayn landing in the 27 Club next year?

He has many risk factors:

Severe career disappointment - the title of his album, Icarus Falls, could not have been more prophetic

Break up of a three year relationship he really valued and wanted to continue

Social isolation - no manager and only seems to socialise with his assistant, who is his cousin. Surrounded by Yes men.

Known drug abuser

Endless funds to supply his habit (worth $40m)

Low fat ratio/body weight. Very skinny men/women are far more likely to overdose

Hubris - he probably thinks he can get away with huge doses of opiates/benzos when he actually can't

This is a disappointing performance of Nice to Meet You from NIall. He's just standing there strumming a guitar instead of making any attempt to rock out.

R447 One fact doesn't exclude the other - in general urban artists stream a whole lot better, but of the <12 % of streamed rock music, the biggest chunk might be Coldplay and a big chunk of the <19% pop acts might be Ed Sheeran. It only means that there's even less interest by streamers in the rock or rock pop genre apart from the extremely big acts. However the percentages may vary a lot from country to country. Maybe rock is way more popular on streaming platforms in the UK than for example in Brazil.

R448 That would be such a tragedy. But who knows, those drug rumours have been going around since 2014 and Zayn is still here, taking photos and all. Maybe he mostly just smokes a ton of weed, which can do a number on your drive and energy, but is hardly deadly. I really hope he's comparatively well, just uninterested in a career at this point.

Also can you imagine how fucking awful every interview of a former 1D member would be if something were to happen to Zayn. Journalists would be so eager to get a soundbite and a bit of tragedy out of their interviews, it would definitely come up. Even if the question gets blacklisted.

R449 There's only so much you can do while playing guitar. Even a gifted performer like Harry can't do much more while playing.

Beautiful Harry gif

R451, he has two guitar players in his band. His fans were expecting him to abandon the guitar and rock out a bit. The guy has only just turned 26 and lumbers around as if he were twice that age. Seeing it makes me so glad I'm a Harry fan, not a Niall one. He was far more energetic in 1d. He needs to lose some weight, and the mom jeans.

The frontman of a successful band often chooses to relinquish the guitar, even if they are an excellent player. Christ Martin, for instance. He is a brilliant guitar player but most of the time he doesn't pick it up and dances instead. That's what I hope Harry will do for his second era.

Baby Harry. Liam used to have huge dark eyes. I wonder what happened?

Zayn must know that his best days are behind him.

R444: Sign of the times was considered a bad lead single back in the day. It peaked high due the expectations but it dropped like a stone in most charts because it was not what was trendy back then. Curiously the song is still played right now (while some big hits dissapear from the collective memory the second they drop the charts) and it's his signature song.

It happens sometimes, Sam Smith Like i can was a big flop in the USA, due to bad timming and his illness prevented to promote the song, but it still gets airplay and it's a talent show classic right now.

If Harry is smart he will have two or three radio friendly songs in his album (and he'll do whatever he wants with the rest). A couple of hits will keep him in the spotlight

I think he will have a huge but eccentric lead single which will chart well. Columbia and Irving's connections are such that they can pay the best to write and produce something special, and Harry's vocals will do the rest.

Coldplay are releasing in November, and he won't want to be up against them.

Stop judging Nialls performance as something serious. It was a little acoustic set that wasn’t meant to even be seen to the masses. Judge his first tv performance of the song. He sang slow hands with a guitar when he sang it acoustically but one n tv performances he didn’t have a guitar.

Harry sold more albums, the others guys sold more singles. And the other songs are played more than Sign of The Times.

R460: Not really. Louis never had a single that was successful, Liam had a big hit with the first single that was forgotten the minute it was out of the charts.

Zayn and Niall were more radio friendly which means more longevity of their songs

I think Niall's performance was very adequate for an intimate, acoustic set and the fans seemed to love it. It would have been boring on a stadium stage, but he won't sell out stadiums anytime soon, so nothing to worry about.

R454 I think it can be extremely intimidating to be alone on a stage as a singer and playing guitar is a good way to do at least something, especially during the slower songs. Harry has proven that he is an amazing performer, but it's a difference if you're playing stadium rock pop with wireless mics or performing the slower songs of his first album on a smaller stage with a wired mic. The latter has a much better sound, but it limits your action. His solo songs are also more difficult than most of the 1D stuff and he also improved his technique, which might make it harder to jump around at the same time. Also no quaddy voddy lol.

I'm quite sure Harry will keep playing guitar during his second tour, I think it's something he really likes doing and it shows the general public (who might not know much about him) that he can indeed play an instrument. But yes, I'd love it if we would get more performances like his amazing Medicine in St. Paul.

R455 omg, they were sooo young. Honestly, Harry doesn't look a day over 12 to me lol. And Liam doesn't look like 17 either.

[QUOTE] Also no quaddy voddy lol.

Maybe a few lines of cokey wokey, though?

They must have had high alcohol tolerances to be able to knock back a quadruple vodka and still look okay. I guess they did tend to fall over a lot.

Niall in a past interview admitted that he knew he wasn't ever going to be as big as 1D was.

Niall in a past interview admitted that he knew he wasn't ever going to be as big as 1D was.

Niall and Liam have both said all along they they love to perform. And they will do it until no one wants to watch anymore. They have a great attitude. I think Harry would rather pretend he's a serious musician.

R465 None of them will ever be as big as 1D, at least Niall admits it.

R463 They were probably a bit buzzed, but a "quaddy voddy" is about the equivalent of three small glasses of wine or three cans of beer. A normal grown man, who is not unused to drinking alcohol, can drink that without being so completely drunk that he falls over.

How would coke make someone jump around less on stage as I've just described? Quite the contrary, I guess singers who do coke before stage are likely way more uninhibited than after some vodka - at the cost of their voice, because it's irritating the vocal chords and can cause swelling, which would make them sound worse. Neither is true for Harry, who appeared to be very professional during his solo tour. I've seen quite a few live videos and he always seemed to be himself, normally talking with the audience, performance on point, never missing any lines or whole shows or anything like that. For dragging Harry you should come up with something more solid, but nice try.

R465 & R466 & R467 All of them have said this at some point. I don't know about Liam, because I don't follow him that closely, but in the end it's the obvious thing. One Direction was absolutely huge and anyone should realise that they'll very likely won't be as big as solo artists. Harry has said it repeatedly and from the very start of his solo career - in Behind the Album he said: "[One Direction] was so great, if I never get to do that on that level again, that's okay" and he stated several times how important it was for him to make the music he personally loves, because that way he can stand behind his music apart from whether it's a success or not. It's clear from the genre and sound of his first album and the fact that Sign of the Times was his single (a nearly 6 min long ballad, that wasn't exactly radio friendly in format or sound), that this is the truth. He certainly didn't try to create a continuation of the 1D sound or image or to start a new career in a radio friendly hit genre.

In his Guardian interview Louis said that he tried to do that, before he had his "epiphany" that he wants to be true to himself: "I think, in hindsight, that was me trying to find my place in the industry and making music I thought I had to make to get on radio. [...] I kind of had a bit of a word with myself and worked out what I want – to be happy and proud of what I’m doing. I love those early singles, but I never really felt proud of them, because it didn’t feel too true to me.”

All of the boys have also said how much they love to perform and that it's their highlight. I'm sure all of them will continue to do so as long as they have an audience or as Harry said at his last concert in LA: "I promise, anytime you want me back, I promise, I will come."

R466 I don't get how all of this, this "great attitude" is opposed to being a "serious musician", quite the contrary. A serious musician is someone, who loves the music they play and loves performing it. All of that applies to Harry - it's pretty obvious that he's a music geek, who will probably talk for hours about his favourite bands and pop acts if you don't stop him, his solo music reflects that love and level of geekery and he's obviously someone, who loves performing his music on stage.

Imho bad attitude would be someone who makes music they don't like, just for a chart hit and money or if they promote themselves by obviously flaunting a relationship on social media and for the paparazzi (like for example Shawmila or Justin Bieber and his wife). Bad attitude would also be if someone is in general unprofessional like missing appointments or performances, being unable to work with professionals (both in regards to the creative process and behaviour), being a dick in general and especially to fans (like for example the Dobre brothers, whose awful meet & greet video went viral recently).

Louis and Niall will be playing the same festival in Mexico in November. Add Liam in there and it might be fun

It seems the era of Harry's second album is starting...

[QUOTE] He certainly didn't try to create a continuation of the 1D sound or image or to start a new career in a radio friendly hit genre.

Unlike Niall.

A billboard for Harry's new single went up ahead of schedule in a Sydney suburb. It's called Do You Know Who You Are? I doubt very much he intended to announce first in Sydney so I think the advertisers put the billboard up there by mistake, too early.

[QUOTE] Imho bad attitude would be someone who makes music they don't like, just for a chart hit and money or if they promote themselves by obviously flaunting a relationship on social media and for the paparazzi (like for example Shawmila or Justin Bieber and his wife).

You just described Liam Payne! He just posted a close up topless pic of his chest as he lay in bed with his new 19 year old girlfriend.

[QUOTE] Bad attitude would also be cancelling appearances and performances

Like Zayn does.

Desperate for promo. He looks like a sleazy porn actor.

Cheesey.

R473 I didn't think of Liam, because with people like Justin & Hailey or Shawmila both are quite famous celebrities and Liam's gf is unknown. But yeah, I guess they are somewhat conscious in their PDA. But it might be more to raise her profile as model/influencer instead of his. He gets his name in the papers with the pap pics too, but I'm not sure if the effect is that great - I've read the comment section of his latest pap pics in the Daily Mail and of course the DM comment section is a dumpster fire of tight assed DM readers hating on everyone, but a lot of people wrote he should take care of his son instead of gallivating around with a 19 year old. Not sure how this is all received in his target audience/fan base, I'm not following him that much.

I'm fully supportive of all the hoe pics though lol. He's not that much my type, but he's young, fit and reasonably handsome, so, yeah, sure, give us a bit of a show, Payno.

R472 There are now posters up in LA and New York too, so it was either planned and just discovered in Australia because they are nearly a day ahead, or they sped up the schedule. It's going to be interesting though...

Rob Sheffield really aggravates me for some reason wih his brown nosing of anything Harry related. He has tweeted a pic. of one of the 'Do you Know Who You Are?' posters alongside a pic. of Leonard Cohen's album 'Songs of Love and Hate' and said.......'the Leonard Cohen font is such a power move'. Firstly ,its a font and absolutely no-one else would ever have associated it with the font on that album cover, secondly why is it a power move?? and thirdly its a FONT!!

Lots of rumours that Niall and Selena are dating. She was seen walking into his house today and celebrated his single release with him and other friends earlier in the week.

R478 I very much doubt it. But of course people "wondering" about it gives him and his new single some buzz. Selena is one of the biggest young pop stars these days.

Harry's new era is already taking off, twitter has gone a bit crazy right now, I try to stay away, all these people tweeting at once give me vertigo lol. And apparently his first album re-entered the iTunes charts in New Zealand at #5! Amazing, it's been nearly 2.5 years since it came out.

'Lots of rumours that Niall and Selena are dating. She was seen walking into his house today and celebrated his single release with him and other friends earlier in the week.'

If they are, it will be for the third time! He sang On The Loose about Selena:

'I know what she's like

I fell for it twice

And now I'm just warning you.'

R481 The fact that this Niall/Selena thing is going on for nearly 4 years (although I honestly don't know - were they ever officially a thing? I wasn't around back then and didn't really look into it too deeply) makes me think that they're just friends these days. I get why fans want that, they'd look kind of cute together, but as I said, I very much doubt anything is going on except Selena helping Niall out with a bit of promo and headlines.

Niall finds it hard to duplicate the Alex Turner voice he uses on NTMY in this performance.

Physically, he has changed so much. Definitely nobody's heartthrob anymore, but maybe that was part of his rebranding.

Harry's album didn't make it.

Harry's album is on this Top 100 of the 2010s.

Flicker was largely ignored by music journos. Only five reviews qualified for Metacritic, whereas 24 of Harry's did.

Niall has reaped the reward for his full on US promo this past week ( including a Beats 1 interview, a Youtube live event & a live performance for the Elvis Duran show) with a 23/50 spot on the all important Todays Top Hits Spotify playlist. In fact his last tweet was 'It’s an amazing feeling to be added to today’s top hits by my friends at Spotify , means a lot.' And it does mean alot becuase without it he hasn't a cat in hells chance of improving his very poor streaming figures. He was added to HOT HIts UK Spotify playlist earlier in the week ( although he was only placed at 50 on the list )which improved his UK streaming but this Todays Top Hits is apparently the big one because it has 24 million followers. I didn't realise the power Spotify holds over streaming when it comes to being on these playlists for pop artists but anyway he's on it. I mean all this bears no comparison to the Liam/Louis promo. Neither of them did any promo in the US at all I don't think, they certainly didn't get any radio support either in the US or the Uk ( which Niall has) and definitely didn't make it onto a Spotify playlist. As a result Liam is performing at an HMV store opening event in Birmingham this weekend, which is unbelievable to be honest. We'll see tomorrow but I don't think Niall has made the UK chrt top 40 with Nice to Meet Ya which I'm surprised by after all the positive reaction to it. That could still change with the Spotify Playlist and UK promo but what it does show once and for all is that the 1d bubble has 100% burst if UK fans couldn't get the 1st single from the new album of 1ds most likeable/2nd most popular member into the top 40 in the UK chart. If his sales/chart position does improve form hereon in it will be down to the general public becoming aware of it and liking it enough to stream/buy it.

R484 R485 All that proves is that musical taste is subjective. If Rob Sheffield compiled a list of the top albums of the 2010s we know who would be number 1. I can also say ( being from the UK) that the UK press were far less impressed by Harry's album than the US seemed to be and if you look at Metacritic gave Harry's album the same score of 60 as they gave to Niall's album. Lyrically they both need to up their game imo.

R486 I think Liam did some radio promo in the US, he was in NYC when SIU came out iirc. The store opening gig is a bit baffling to me. I don't know much about the store or the other performers (I think James Arthur is from X Factor as well?), but in general a store opening doesn't sound ... very high profile to me? Maybe they paid very very well? Because SIU performed better than Louis' KMM and Liam is also a much better life performer. But Louis still has better upcoming gigs with Premios Telehit and Poptopia. So much for his fans' conspiracy theory that Louis gets boycotted by his management/label, because Syco/Sony is evil lol.

[quote]We'll see tomorrow but I don't think Niall has made the UK chrt top 40 with Nice to Meet Ya which I'm surprised by after all the positive reaction to it. That could still change with the Spotify Playlist and UK promo but what it does show once and for all is that the 1d bubble has 100% burst if UK fans couldn't get the 1st single from the new album of 1ds most likeable/2nd most popular member into the top 40 in the UK chart. If his sales/chart position does improve form hereon in it will be down to the general public becoming aware of it and liking it enough to stream/buy it.

Yeah, I agree with that. I really expected NTMY to be more of a hit. It's a catchy song and Niall really worked that promo on radio and social media. He has encouraged his fans repeatedly to make it a #1, so I guess it's the same as for the others and only a part of the 1D fans stayed with him. It will be interesting to see if it just takes some time for the audience to notice/like NTMY like Slow Hands did.

There's some speculation online about who will do the next James Bond theme and some people/news outlets think Harry is a good bet. I really don't think this will happen, but it's fun to think about and nice, that apparently people think it's a possibility.

Vogue UK is stoked about Harry's upcoming music.

" I really expected NTMY to be more of a hit."

Niall's song was the number one song added to radio playlists across the country.

'Niall's song was the number one song added to radio playlists across the country.'

Of course it was, Capitol go hard with radio payola, like they did for that country and western song, Slow Hands. But Niall isn't going to chart high despite their efforts.

Twitter is going insane, with two worldwide Harry related trends. It looks like his single is going to drop at 5am EST,

it already appears on UK playlists for New Music Friday.

Lol you have no idea if Its going to chart high stop hating. It’s stabilised on iTunes without a discount and it hasn’t had any tv performances yet. Radio love it and are playing it like crazy and now that it has finally got added to playlists it’s rising on Spotify everyday again. If it tanks you will know, Niall isn’t one to get a upfront hit then free fall, it’s the opposite with him. Slow hands didn’t get half the radio play ntmy has gotten.

Harry fans be hating on Niall getting radio play and blaming payola. He had a radio deal just like Justin Bieber and billie Ellis and Charlie pith but radio decided to play him More than them, which is a very good sign for the song

'If you look at Metacritic gave Harry's album the same score of 60 as they gave to Niall's album.'

Metacritic's score is an aggregate of all the serious reviews which qualify, it's not their own rating. Niall isn't taken particularly seriously as an artist by music critics, so only five bothered to write a long review which qualified for Metacritic.

His tour was the same story. Harry got dozens of rave reviews from all over the world, Niall about six.

R493 I meant on the iTunes charts so far and the actual charts, which we'll have tomorrow, I guess. I was sure it would reach #1 on the iTunes charts in Ireland. But yeah, I also wrote that we'll have to see if it just takes a bit more time for NTMY like Slow Hands.

It's good that it got added to a lot of radio playlist, it will ensure that more people get to know that song, but that doesn't mean it's a hit (yet). Just that his label worked hard for NTMY and that radio stations liked it.