After the One Direction concert in St. Louis Aug. 27, talk of the five British members of the band flooded KHS halls. It seemed most students either disliked One Direction or fell head over heels in love with Harry’s long hair don’t care personality. We each provide reasons for what makes them beautiful or not.

Not a fan–Lindsay Huck

Society is full of singer/songwriters, dancers, actors/actresses and other various online sensations, some more talented than others — but what is undeniable is how celebrities are seen as better than they are. A perfect example is a five member boy band, One Direction, first discovered on X Factor in 2010. While they’ve grown, their image and music have quickly become overrated.

What bothers me the most about One Direction is their fan base. It is mostly made up of teenage girls, who all love and idolize One Direction because of their looks, personalities and their lyrics, which are nothing special or out of the ordinary. But what is the most irritating is how people can obsess over every aspect of One Direction, most commonly the boys in the band. The bottom line is, the fans of One Direction are disrespectful and unaccepting of people who don’t like them or their music.

Their songs consist of their experiences with love, mostly what they love or dislike about girls, similar to every typical boy band. Although many teenage girls love One Direction, they aren’t unique artists and they don’t set themselves apart from the multiple boy bands of the present and past, such as the Backstreet Boys and The Jackson 5. Like every other boy band known to date, they are bound to be booted out of the spotlight eventually.

One Direction is a band whose publicity comes from their looks. Throughout the past few years, they’ve won the hearts of many teenage girls who have become fixated with them. The world doesn’t need another overrated boy band with bad lyrics and an annoying fan base, and One Direction is the definition of it.

One Direction , taking the world by storm–Ali Randazzo

Each generation of teens has a boy band that takes the world by storm: The Beatles, NSync and now One Direction. Boy bands typically wear matching attire and deliver pop music with plastic meanings of crushes or heartbreaks. But the boys of One Direction stray from normality by singing of homesickness with raw vocals. They have bad days and are not afraid of showing it and most of all, they love their job and their fans.

The five members have strong vocals and do not need to rely on synthesisers like most boy bands. One Direction started as five individuals from small towns dispersed all over England and Ireland. On the seventh season of  X Factor, a British talent show, One Direction was formed as a band and finished third in the competition. Little did they know, their career had only started. Each voice complements each other; Harry Styles and Liam Payne carry the chorus of songs, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson sing each verse and Zayn Malik hits the soprano notes.

According to the BBC, their third album, Midnight Memories, entered the US Billboard 200 at number one making them the only group to have their first three albums top the chart in their opening week.

One Direction spread like wildfire all over the world in a matter of months, selling over 156,000 copies by 2013. The boys went from playing soccer on weekends, to meeting Queen Elizabeth II, to touring every nook and cranny of the world. Access to social media was the leading cause of teen girls catching the 1D fever. Fans have resources to recap each concert.  For example, without Vine videos, the world would not have seen when Harry sprayed his Ice Mountain water into the crowd, seen Zayn toss Liam over his shoulder, or Niall do an interpretive dance.

Another reason the British band touches the hearts of fans all around the world is because of their relatability. For example, Harry’s parents divorced when he was 7; Liam has been through extensive medical procedures concerning kidney dysfunction; despite Zayn’s effort, he never did well or fit in with the other kids in grade school. The five boys dealt with normal, not so glamorous experiences most people can relate to.

At the recent St. Louis concert, about 66,000 fans crowded into the Edward Jones Dome carrying heartfelt signs, such as one that said, ‘Thank you for saving me 1D’. Even halfway across the world, the boys helped their fans through rough times just by staying true to their image. The boys know they would not be living their dream without their support, and One Direction will continue to give thanks through music, smiles, and beautiful hair-dos for years to come.