One Direction

One Direction. Love them or hate them, you’ve definitely heard of this British-Irish boyband, more commonly known as ‘1D’. The group, made up of Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne and Niall Horan, signed with Simon Cowell’s record label Syco Records forming and finishing third in the seventh series of the British televised singing competition The X Factor in 2010. Propelled to international success by social media, and their fanbase, every single one of their albums have smashed records and topped charts in most major markets. After the release of FOUR, their most recent album, they became the first band in US Billboard 200 history to have their first four albums debut at number one. The previously five-piece band now carry on as a quartet after Zayn Malik left the band due to personal issues on 25th March 2015.

They have released four albums in four years, but each one differs greatly from the others. The first album, Up All Night (2011), is predominantly a pop music album which orientates into elements of the dance-pop, teen pop, pop rock and power pop genres, with electropop and rock music influences.The catchy tunes and slickly written lyrics, accompanied with the huge fan base, caused 4.5 million copies of the album worldwide. It became the best selling album of a group and the third best selling debut album of 2012. Although the two subsequent albums were whooping the music scene, the tie breaker was their latest album.

Fast forward to just last year, they released FOUR (2014), which topped the iTunes charts in more than a 100 countries.Their songwriting showed signs of maturity, yet was still cheery, uplifting and high spirited.The tracks, saturated with retro vibes, big, splashy Eighties pop rock influences and more elegant Seventies flavors, are easy to sing along to and are catchy as well, with the ability to get stuck in your head for hours.

If you still haven’t heard their albums, what are you waiting for!

Jocelyn (2T)