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cantcompetewhereudontcompare · 16 days ago

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DECONSTRUCTING FANDOM MYTHS: "Harry Styles got to where he is because he was pushed by the label"

In light of Liam Payne's passing, certain middle-aged bloggers who have come back with a vengeance to spew lies all over the fandom (lies that get repeated and permeate the opinion of every chronically online fan that's adjacent to any degree to the 1D fandom or its solo artists), so I decided to deconstruct those lies. One by one.

This will be a series of separate posts analyzing it in detail.

"Harry Styles got to where he is because he was pushed by the label"

Absolutely not, not even CLOSE to the truth. I know people are aware, tangentially, of what Liam said in Logan Paul's podcast. Impaulsive, a couple of years ago. Clips of that went viral and he got a lot of hate for it. But actually go and watch it. I cued the relevant bit in the link, so you won't have to watch any unnecessary part.

In the podcast Liam says that he went from 180,000 people who auditioned down to the last 24. For the uninitiated, The X Factor was the most popular show on TV around that time and SO many people auditioned. I'll explain the process of the show briefly because it'll also be relevant later in this post.

You first send a tape in, and then you get a callback to audition in front of producers (this was in March-April). If you go through, you go to the live auditions which in 2010 happened in six cities (Glasgow, Birmingham, London, Dublin, Cardiff, and Manchester). Liam did Birmingham, Niall did Dublin, Harry, Louis, and Zayn did Manchester. 211 acts made it through after live auditions in 2010, to the next stage which was bootcamp.

Bootcamp lasted 5 days. On the second day, about half the acts were dismissed, leaving 108 standing, which were divided in four categories. Boys, Girls (these two were ages 16-27), Groups, and over 28s. There were four judges and each judge "mentored" a different category. Because of the format of the show, each category has to have an even amount of contestants (in 2010 it was 8 acts per category). The "Boys" category was very full, so they dismissed the 1D guys unless they agreed to form a group. They did, so they then went to the next stage, which was Judges' Houses. Simon was mentoring Groups that year, so 1D went to "his" house in Spain alongside the 7 other Groups. The goal of this stage is cutting the acts to 4. Only 12 acts make it to the Live Shows.

1D passed Judges' Houses and went on to the Live Shows, there were 10 Live Shows in total, with the last one being the Final. 1D made it to the Final and came in third (the winner was Matt Cardle, runner-up Rebecca Ferguson).

Anyway, as I was saying, in 2008 Liam made it to Judges' Houses, and since Simon was mentoring Boys that year, he was his mentor. He didn't make it to the final 4 acts, and was instead cut off. In the podcast, Liam says that after being cut off, Simon had dinner with him, his mom, and one of the X Factor producers, who would later become a 1D manager, and told him that he wanted to put him through but that he was too young and needed to get his education in.

Another small tangent, education in the UK goes Primary School (until age 11), secondary school (until age 16), and then two years of what's called Sixth Form (also known as college, also known as A Levels). These last two years weren't mandatory if you weren't going to university back then. Liam was 14 in 2008, so if he waited two years, he would finish secondary school. The X Factor actually lifted the age limit to 16 after this. Harry has said that he always wanted to audition to the X Factor but he was always too young (remember, he's 6 months younger than Liam so he didn't make the age cut-off in 2008, and then they lifted it even higher). And I'm adding this here because it drives me nuts, Harry DID FINISH HIGH SCHOOL. He took his GCSEs which are the exam you take to finish high school. He just didn't do those extra two years of college (none of them did, btw, Louis did first year twice because he failed it the first time, but he didn't finish either).

Anyway, so Liam has dinner with Simon, where Simon essentially tells him "you have what it takes but I'm not taking you out of school. Come back when you finish." And Liam does just that. Not only that, but he (and I'm quoting here) "sings everywhere he can." He sings for money, he takes vocal lessons. He sings at old people's homes, at his local soccer stadium in Wolverhampton (which is not a small deal, btw), he sings in pubs. He literally talks about being paid a lot for performing at times "more money than I'd ever seen."

I think a lot of people don't know this. A lot of people have no idea that Liam WAS actually a professional singer BEFORE 1D. And he's not lying, he's not exaggerating, he's not gloating in this part of the interview. It's 100% true.

Then Liam says that because of the promise Simon had made him, he worked around Liam's face to create a group. I know we've all seen the footage of Nicole Scherzinger putting 1D together through their headshots. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the X Factor is highly staged. They didn't decide to put the band together in front of the cameras on the fly. Simon has been trying to recreate that ever since, and he's put several groups together in similar circumstances since then (Little Mix and Fifth Harmony are successful tries at it).

These boys had been auditioning since March, as I said. In fact, Liam says in the podcast that "it's pretty obvious who's gonna make it through because cameras start following them around." Remember, Zayn had the whole "where is Zayn" saga, and Harry had that segment "playing" all the female contestants. (Don't get me started on how disgusting that was, considering he was 16, but oh well). Both of these things happened in bootcamp. Why? Because the producers saw something in Harry and Zayn and knew it'd probably pay off to have footage focused solely on them. I'm not claiming it's all a big conspiracy, but clearly they saw value in them.

Liam didn't claim that he was the only reason the group got put together, but he was one of the reasons, and I think he's 100% correct.

With the fact that he was auditioning for a second time, once the show started airing, he created his own little niche fanbase.

He had a website where he sold signed wristbands.

And even had a name for his fanbase:

He'd gone to talk shows YEARS before 1D was formed. This is him on Lorraine in 2008. The video itself was uploaded BEFORE he first even auditioned for the X Factor for the second time.

Here's the actual video:

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And now I'm going to show you, factually, how Liam was who the producers of the show thought would be the main guy and who was ACTUALLY pushed to the front.

This was their entrance for their first ever performance at the X Factor live shows

This is how they were standing while waiting for feedback from the judges. Liam tended to be in the middle or in the front in most photos and interviews. None of this is accidental, btw, blocking in TV is a serious matter, whoever is at the center is who your eyes will be drawn to.

It doesn't matter how many times The Hags try to rewrite history and claim that Harry was "pushed to the front," nothing they say, no matter how many times they repeat it, can change history and what we can see with our own eyes.

That doesn't mean that they would blindly push Liam no matter what. They would course-correct if someone else started to give signs of testing better. They, in fact, did just that.

Keep in mind, back in 2010, social media was in its infancy. Instagram had just been created (and it only became a thing since 2012), Facebook was huge but it was very personal and none of the guys really used it much.

Twitter had started to become relevant in 2009, and most young people were flocking there. Justin Bieber and One Direction fans were the backbone of what's today known as "stan Twitter."

What I'll do is analyze Liam and Harry's popularity on Twitter going by the air date of their X Factor episodes, which you can find in the picture below.

Liam's audition aired September 4 (auditions 3) and Harry's audition aired September 18 (auditions 5)

I'd love to do a proper breakdown of their follower counts but that's not really possible because there isn't an archive that can tell you that accurately. We'll have to rely on their own tweets and tweets from fans.

I'll also analyze their performances, the solos they got, how blocking was handled, etc. There was extra content where 1D was featured, and I'll address that as well, but keep in mind the extra content was only seen by a handful of people relative to the amount that watched the live shows - you can see the ratings above. We're talking 13 million viewers on average.

Neither Harry nor Liam would be featured on the X Factor again after their auditions until bootcamp aired. As you can see above that was September 25/26. There were glimpses of them the 25th (like the ones I mentioned before about Zayn dancing and Harry dating), but the main thing was the 26th when they were cut from the show only to be brought back and put in the band.

Liam had nearly 7,000 followers on September 15 2010 (10 before bootcamp).

Meanwhile Harry had 2,800 September 26, right before the episode aired:

The next day, after the episode aired, Harry nearly doubled his followers.

And so did Liam by September 30, with 14,000

Judge's Houses was when 1D was first introduced as such and they performed Torn. This aired October 2/3. I don't have data for these days.

Something must've happened October 6 (I'm thinking maybe a Twitcam?) because we have the first archived version of their accounts and we can actually see their followers.

Liam had almost 24,000 and Harry had almost 19,000

Liam still had an edge but Harry was rapidly approaching. Liam went from tripling Harry's followers, to doubling them, to only being a few thousand above.

Here we have the airing schedule for the next couple of shows.

1- First live show, October 9/10: They performed Viva La Vida.

Liam opened and closed the song, Zayn and Niall had short-ish solos. Harry and Louis had none. I posted pics of how they were standing above, but Liam was blocked in the middle the whole time.

2- Second live show, October 16/17: They performed My Life Would Suck Without You.

Liam opened the song and had a second solo in the second verse. Other than a single adlib by Zayn of two words mid-song, only Liam had solos. Liam was also blocked in the middle and close up for most of the song. (You can fact-check, just watch the video). At this point it's pretty clear Liam is the one being pushed. The others are barely singing. In both performances so far Liam has giant close ups that last a very long (for TV) time.

3- Third live show, October 23/24: They performed Nobody Knows

Liam opens the song and sings for quite a bit, Harry gets his first solo, performing the bridge. They're static the entire performance, with Liam blocked in the middle.

Before every performances they showed a short interview about their week, and this week they showed footage of and talked about going to the mall and how that caused hysteria with fans. After the performances was over, Dermot O'Leary, the host of the show, asked them who had to sign the most autographs. They all said Harry. Keep in mind, at this point (when the whole autograph thing happened), this boy has had NO SOLOS in the live shows. Just that one performance of Torn and his audition.

I'll now address the part about the other bits of footage they showed aside from the main performances. They had bits and pieces in a show called XTra Factor, Megamind, Question time, etc. You can find a full playlist of 1D's appearances in these videos here. That, and the video diaries, of course were the only pieces of content the X Factor made about them. These were fluff pieces that either aired during the week or after the live shows, or were internet exclusive, so like I said, the audience that consumed this was pretty small in comparison to the live shows and as such it doesn't really warrant an analysis. That said, all the members were featured pretty evenly on these, with Louis perhaps being the main one because he was very loud and energetic.

I think these videos were fundamental to establish a fandom, but I wouldn't say it really affected who was popular. Louis was by far the least popular member while they were in X Factor (this is a fact, not me being shady, and this would of course change while they were in the band), even though he was the one who was probably featured the most in this content (he was also pretty much always front and center in the video diaries, for example).

Aside from that, there was social media, where all five did Twitcams and tweeted fans and stuff. Liam was the most active on Twitter and it was an inside joke both in the fandom and with the guys that Liam was always doing a Twitcam.

We're in late October and so far, Harry has not been pushed at all. I think we can all agree on that. And yet, by the 26th, he was the most followed member, juuuust edging Liam

You can see how Niall and Zayn have about half the followers Harry and Liam have and how Louis is trailing all five.

4- Fourth live show, October 30/31: They performed Total Eclipse of the Heart

Niall and Liam did a call and response bit where Niall would say "Turn around" and Liam respond with the rest of the verse. Louis and Zayn had small solos. Harry had no solos, being the only one not to have any. Just saying. No solos. They start the performance sitting down. When they stand up Harry is blocked in the middle, but they switch when the song ends with Niall ending up in the middle.

5- Fifth live show, November 6/7: They performed Kids In America

Liam started the song, again. Niall had a small solo and so did Louis. Harry and Zayn did a bit where they harmonized together. Harry had one (1) solo adlib. He was blocked in the middle the whole performance, to be fair, first time this has happened so far. I can sense the air shifting but still very short solo time.

6- Sixth live show, November 13/14: They performed Something About The Way You Look Tonight

Liam starts again, Zayn has a few small adlibs. Harry has an actual big solo (and he knocks it out of the park). He's also blocked in the middle again. We're 2/3 of the way through the season and more than halfway through the live shows, btw. The X Factor started airing August 21st and finished almost exactly a month after this performance on December 12. It's clear the producers are starting to notice just how popular Harry has become and they're shifting the focus in front of our eyes. When Harry starts singing the audience SCREAMS (jump to 0:40 seconds in the video).

7- Seventh live show, November 20/21: They performed All You Need Is Love

Liam starts once again. Harry is now permanently blocked in the middle, it seems, and he has a solo following Liam. Niall has a solo after the chorus, Harry takes the solo after Niall as well, he also closes out the song with a call and response, where he sings "Love is all you need" and the rest chorus "love, love, love." The shift is in full swing. Liam is still opening, but only because he sets the tone now, and seemingly not because he's the de facto leader anymore.

8- Eighth live show, November 27/28: They performed Summer of 69 and You Are So Beautiful (other contestants were being eliminated so now the ones remaining are singing two songs).

Summer of 69: Liam starts, and he's the only one to have a full solo, the rest of the song is mostly all five with Harry doing a couple of adlibs. Zayn is blocked in the middle at first, but Harry ends up in that position when the song ends.

You Are So Beautiful: Liam starts. Harry takes the solo after. He's blocked in the middle again. Zayn has a solo after, then it goes back to Harry (complete with a high note), and he ends the song. I don't think Niall and Louis opened their mouths.

We can now update on followers, because I can finally find some more data.

December 2, Harry has 118,000 followers

December 3, Liam has 101,000

The shift has shifted, fully. Sorry, Liam, you had a good run.

Jokes aside, Harry forced their hand. He became the most popular one with little to no solos, while someone else was supposed to be the focus. He wasn't the focus of the extra content (that would be Louis) and he wasn't the most active one on social media (that would be Liam). It just HAPPENED. 100% organically.

Yes, of fucking COURSE once they saw the raw attraction this boy generated in hordes of girls they switched gears. DUH. Wouldn't you??? They don't make these decisions based on nothing. If the audience wants Harry Styles they'll give them Harry Styles. That is how it works.

9- Ninth live show, December 4/5: They performed Only Girl in the World and Chasing Cars

Only Girl: Liam started, Zayn had a small adlib, the rest of the song is all five. They moved around the stage a lot, so the formation doesn't really matter all that much.

Chasing Cars: Liam starts and he's blocked in the middle at first. They switch after the first chorus and Harry blocks in the middle as he takes his solo in the second verse. He's also doing high harmonies so you hear his voice the most throughout the entire second chorus very very loud while the others blend together. This is the first time that happens so clearly. He also closes the song. This is their last performance before the final, and it'll echo the way most One Direction songs will go for their entire discography.

I have to say, the audience gets loud before and after every performance, and every time they switch solos too. The audience adores all of them. But they get SO loud when Harry starts a solo. I'd watched all of these years and years ago but had forgotten that detail.

Also, the myth that Harry wasn't as good as Liam and Zayn at this point is just preposterous watching these performances. His voice is so solid when he has to sing. Liam is obviously more steady (literal years of experience vs a couple of weeks), but he's not better than Harry by any means, just better equipped, I'd say. Zayn's voice is very thin and way more off pitch than I remembered (Harry can get flat as well, but he belts with a lot of power while Zayn at this point cannot, probably nerves tho).

Anyway, the X Factor final would air December 11/12. Obviously it aired at night, so the next two tweets are right before the final.

Liam gained 3,000 in about a week.

Harry had gained 20,000.

And if you've watched all the videos I linked, you'll know exactly why.

I don't really have more insight on their followers in 2010. I can't find any other tweets that mention numbers. But for the sake of completion, let's analyze the final two performances.

10- Final, December 11/12: They performed Your Song and She's The One.

Your Song: Liam started. They were blocked with separate spotlights but when they formed in line, Harry was blocked in the middle, and immediately started his solo. The bit about Harry doing high harmonies for the second chorus happens again. This time Liam closes the song.

She's The One: Liam starts. Harry is blocked in the middle yet again (it's so funny lol). He takes the second solo. Louis introduces Robbie Williams after Harry's solo, who stands right next to Harry and takes the next solo (and all the solos after this). Robbie hugs Harry for most of the performance, then Louis who's on his other side. The camera is solely focused on Robbie with a little bit of Harry, which I find fucking HILARIOUS. What incredible foreshadowing.

Anyway, was Harry PUSHED by "The Powers That Be"? I mean, sure, but only after they realized how insanely popular he was. They stubbornly tried to push someone else to the forefront for two thirds of the competition and only clued in towards the end.

More so, when they gave in and started to push Harry, it actually worked. 1D became massively popular with hordes of fans, and most of them latched onto Harry. It's not like they switched gears, pushed Harry after Liam, it also flopped and someone else was more popular, but they stubbornly decided to continue pushing Harry. If it happened with Liam, it could've easily happened with Harry. But it didn't.

What you need to understand is that you can push whatever you want to an audience, but just because you push it doesn't mean it's gonna work out. Some things and some people click and others do not. Marketing can only help so far. And these decisions aren't made lightly. There's a ton of market research, of analyzing data, and checking reactions. If Harry hadn't tested well once they shifted, they wouldn't have kept pushing just for the sake of it. Just like they didn't with Liam.

Things don't happen in a vacuum. Harry didn't have any industry connections to warrant a push from the start (that would be Louis, who's mom knew James Corden). He hadn't been on TV or taken vocal lessons (that would be Liam). He also had never taken musical lessons for any instrument (that would be Niall). His family was working class. His mom has recently talked about how many jobs she had when he was growing up and how exhausted she was. Gemma talked about her and Harry being latchkey kids, having to fend for themselves. We know Harry worked multiple jobs since he was a child and until he was put in the band (since he was like, 10). He'd never gone to London before X Factor.

When The Hags claim that he was "chosen" and "pushed" they never explain the why in detail. Because THEY CAN'T. Not without admitting that Harry is talented and charismatic. I've seen some say "people like him because he's attractive." I mean, of course, he is. He's very attractive. So are the others, though? Different levels of attractiveness, of course, but they all got put in that band because of their looks. If they could sing but looked fugly they wouldn't have been put in a BOYBAND. In fact, I think being cute was more important than being able to sing at the time. Not naming names, but...

There's also been claims of "well, he was probably easy to manipulat." Brother ALL OF THEM were easy to manipulate. They were working class kids with a dream. I know part of being The Hags is having a bitch eating crackers attitude to him breathing, so of course they're never going to admit that he's not just good looking, but he's also charismatic, and has a great stage presence, and has a beautiful tone of voice, and an incredible work ethic.

But most importantly he had that Thing that people just latch onto. It's not something tangible you can describe. He just has it. It's the reason The Hags have been foaming at the mouth for a decade. There was nothing extraordinary about him that would producers want to push him above the others nefariously. The reasons you want to push an artist are typically very benign because that's the nature of the beast.

He didn't get an unfair advantage among his band mates.

Someone was ALWAYS gonna be in the forefront. Every single band in the history of bands has had at least one front-person. The producers initially thought it'd be Liam, put him in that position, but Harry took that from him organically, as much as it pains The Hags.

Fast forward to right before 1D released their first single (What Makes You Beautiful, which came out August 19 2011), and Harry now has 120,000 more followers than Liam (25% more). Louis Niall and Zayn are all pretty close together in followers, about 30,000 behind Liam and 150,000 behind Harry.

Now fast forward to around the time of their debut album release (mid November 2011)

The difference has now stretched to >200,000 (cannot get this tweet to embed but it says Liam is almost at 800,000).

This distance will grow bigger and bigger until the end of 1D and the start of their solo careers. By the end, Niall had solidified himself as the second most popular 1D member. These were the numbers on January 2016 (after 1D ended but before Zayn started his solo career):

Yes, once Harry became the frontman, he became THE FRONT MAN. In their first single, he sings the bridge and sings directly to the girl in the music video.

We also know Harry was BY FAR the most prominent voice in the group.

I haven't independently verified these screenshots, but I've been seeing them make the rounds on Twitter for ages with no one fact checking them, plus they... well, they sound about right. If there's anything that's wrong about them, please let me know, but counting these numbers sounds like an absolute nightmare that I'm simply not willing to put myself through.

This is counting ALL the albums, of course, but we know Harry consistently had the most amount of solos throughout their discography.

He also lead most choruses by far

And while for the first two albums Liam would start basically every song, Harry would quickly catch up with the latter three

And I was actually able to independently verify this (because it's not that hard), and the numbers aren't exactly the same but they're very similar. Somehow I have more songs? Maybe whoever did this only used the standard versions of the albums.

These are the totals: Liam 36, Harry 31, Niall 11, Zayn 9, Louis 4.

When they did interviews Harry was almost always sitting right next to the host (this would depend on what was the best spot for blocking in terms of the cameras and lights the show would use, but typically it's next to the host)

He was typically in the middle or in whatever place gave him more attention in photo shoots and he was, for instance in the thumbnail of most music videos, a lot of the times alone

Anyway, what's the point of this? The point of this is that my mama didn't raise a liar. Harry WAS pushed to the front once he became the most popular one... in the middle of the X Factor. And because he was pushed to the front a vicious circle (I'd describe it as virtuous, to be perfectly honest) was created, where more people heard his name, and he became even more popular, so he was pushed more. And so forth.

The media picked up on this, of course. It very quickly became "Harry Styles and his Directions."

Harry was very gracious about it, and we'll touch on his attitude towards that and his potential solo career in a post soon, but rumors of him going solo started almost as soon as they became huge.

1D released their first single in August 2011 and their first album in November. Neither of these would be released in America until 2012 (January for WMYB and March for UAN), once they did, 1D became massive worldwide. Harry started dating Taylor Swift towards the end of 2012, and that gave him a surplus of name recognition. He was already the most popular one by far, as we've established, but dating America's Sweetheart only created more distance between his celebrity ant he other four.

Thing is, he didn't date Taylor Swift for this reason. I know The Hags tend to be conspiracy theorists (or former conspiracy theorists that never lost their ways), so they will absolutely tell you it was PR to further his career, but I PROMISE you, it wasn't. This is something that can be very easily verified by virtue of just... paying attention to Harry and Taylor's relationship a little closer than the average tinhat tends to.

I'll clarify that I'm not fond of Taylor Swift. I flat out don't like her. I don't like her and Harry together either. But I don't just believe in things I personally enjoy. I believe in REALITY. One day I'll make a breakdown post of their relationship (which has been overly romanticized and minimized in very similar amounts). But the point I'm making right now is: yes, she raised his celebrity, but no it wasn't PR. In fact, the audience was aware of them being a couple for like, two months, when they had something going on, on and off, for several years (mostly off, let's be real).

After Harry was linked to Taylor, the talk about him going solo hit mainstream media. I mean, even before he was linked to Taylor the media discussed it.

May 2012

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These reports come from The Daily Star, which is National Enquirer levels of BS, of course. Harry once sued them for alleging on their cover that he had leaked nudes and posting a manipulated picture of his "naked" body (it was photoshop). But still, why did they make this rumor in particular up? Well, because he was the most high profile member, even in May 2012.

The reports kept coming, April 2013.

Harry Styles Going Solo?! One Direction Rep Says There's "No Truth" to False Album Reports. Source

The source for this one is The Mirror, which is slightly less terrible than Daily Star, but still quite terrible. The Sun would've been their go-to publication if this was something that had any type of substance (The Sun is also quite terrible, but they did have a lot of ties to 1D's team, particularly their publicist). Of course, 1D's team shut the rumor down immediately. They did this over and over. I'm not going to show you every instance. There were even leaked emails where it was asked that Harry did events on his own and Sony politely informed them that, no, Harry didn't do events on his own without the rest of the band.

The song Don't Let Me Go leaked in June 2013, and of course people jumped.

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Truth is they all recorded versions of the songs individually. This is something Louis touched on, I think in his documentary? Harry wrote Don't Let Me go, and he recorded a demo of it, because they all did that. The song was for the band, not for himself.

In terms of writing, that's another topic I'll expand on later, but while they were all slowly dipping their toes into songwriting, Harry seemed to want to branch out. 1D had been assigned a team of writers and producers spearheaded by the super talented and successful Savan Kotecha, who was their coach in the X Factor (he's an Oscar shortlisted and Golden Globe and Grammy nominated songwriter behind a huge amount of enormous hits (Can't Feel My Face, God Is A Woman, Love Me Like You Do, DJ Got Us Falling In Love, etc).

He quit after 1D's second album, after being harassed by Louis (I will absolutely expand on this some day), but he maintained a good relationship with the others. When he left, he recommended a set of songwriters and producers to take over his place for the three following albums, this time spearheaded by Julian Bunetta (also very accomplished, but, yeah, slightly less so than Savan).

While Harry did write a few songs with both of those teams (he actually wrote Happily with Savan for 1D's third album, the last song Savan wrote for 1D before leaving). He also sought out other songwriters.

You can find a complete breakdown here, but while still in 1D Harry wrote with the likes of John Legend, Gary Lightbody and Johnny McDaid (Snow Patrol), Dan Layus (Agustana), Jake Gosling and Chris Leonard, Gavin DeGraw, Ryan Tedder, Johan Carlsson, the band Kodaline, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Max Martin, et al.

Harry started writing songs he kept for himself in 2014 (he mentioned this about his song Two Ghosts, which he later released in his debut album, for instance). And he also wrote songs for other artists, such as Ariana Grande, Alex & Sierra, and Michael Bublé.

Of course, this branching out got him a ton of connections and a ton of grace from members of the industry (who have always spoken wonders about him). He mentioned meeting his current manager and longtime friend Jeff Azoff in Toronto in 2012. Obviously The Hags get bent out of shape about this, because Jeff is son of legendary music manager Irving Azoff.

But Harry's connection to Irving is completely irrelevant in terms of his popularity. As I established here pretty plainly, he became the most popular member in 2010. Their team had to visibly pivot from promoting Liam Payne as the de facto leader to promoting Harry. People latched onto him organically.

Yes, when you have that once in a lifetime reaction from the audience to an artist, different types of music people with high positions of power will take notice and want an in for themselves. We'll get more in depth about this in the next post, so I don't want to continue to waffle on a lot longer, I think this whole "Harry was only popular because he was pushed" thing has been thoroughly debunked.

He was pushed because people CHOSE HIM.

And it was a good decision to do that because he was a huge part of 1D being successful. People try to humble him so often, "he wouldn't be famous if it wasn't for 1D."

You don't know that. Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube in 2009. Harry was in a band in high school. He did musicals in school. He loved doing karaoke and was an avid music enjoyer. He was very much musically inclined and could have very well become famous without 1D. He could've auditioned for the X Factor again at a later date. He was SIXTEEN when he was put in the band.

It is not a fact that Harry wouldn't have become famous without 1D. He could've. But we also know that the minute Harry said he wouldn't sign his contract again, the band disbanded (and that's the subject of the new post).

Harry could and has thrived without 1D. But One Direction has never thrived without Harry. So.

#fandom myths #long post

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foxes-that-run · 10 months ago

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MH cried on stage about haylor?? I need to see this give me link

The TLDR is that the meltdown video: ramps up at 3:49, there is also this tumblr post by someone who was there about it and this news about it.

Maylor/Haylor storytime with too much info

Matty Healy's villain origin story is that he’s a nepo baby “Artiste” that was passed by the major labels. Meanwhile Harry grew up nearby and was signed for £20m by a major label off a TV show. MH has been low key obsessed with Harry, eventually dated his girlfriend, dumped her and she said she had temporary insanity. He said they never dated in 2014, doing so would be emasculating and he released a HS diss track at the time. In 2024 he said TTPD does not reflect the relationship they had.

MHs parents are actors Tim Healy and Denise Welch, overseas 1D fans may know his mum from this Loose Women interview with 1D. His parents had a messy public divorce covered in Tabloids.

1999 - When his mum was featured on This is Your Life, in this clip, 10 year old Matty said he wanted to be "a popstar and top class musician" with his mum looking tense.

2002 - the 1975 was formed with school friends in Manchester, it will be 10 years before they have success.

2009 - 1975 met and was unsigned by every major label. Their manager formed an independent label and signed them for £20.

2010 - One Direction is formed on X-Factor with Harry, 5 years younger also from Cheshire, 30 minutes drive from Mattys hometown of Wilmslow, both near Manchester. 1D becomes a national sensation and sign a £1m record deal with a major label.

2011 - One Direction continues to grow with the X-Factor tour, records Up All Night and starts their own tour.

2012 - What Makes You Beautiful is #1 in 16 countries including the UK and US. Harry starts dating Taylor Swift and the world loses it's mind over them and the band.

2012 - December - Halsey posts "That Haylor Song" on Tumblr which went viral, it mocks I Knew You Were Trouble

2013

2013, February - 1975 get their first top 20 song, Chocolate that reaches #19 (Teenage Kicks was on #6 in the same chart, on it's way down from #1).

2013, September 3 - Harry tweeted that he downloaded the self-titled 1975 album. Matty Healy told an interviewer that he went from 4k followers to 15k followers in 10 minutes. Matty said they became mates, he texted Harry to thank him. The 1975 covered What Makes You Beautiful:

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2013, December 28 - Halsey posted to Tumblr photos with Matty Healy and in a hotel room with him, saying "Matty and I got close this year which was amazing"

All fab, or so it seems.

2014

2014 - January - Halsey starts writing about Matty Healy, later in 2014 she said she went to a concert and met him

2014, February - Taylor finishes 1989, Harry and Taylor start dating again and seem to for the rest of the year.

2014, March 20, fallout boy shares this photo of Matty Healy, fallout boy and 1d minus Harry to instagram captioned “London hangs.” I don’t know when the photo with Harry is from, the jacket is St Laurent 2014 and it first appeared on live journal June 2014. Harry wore the coat again in September.

2014, March - MH plays call or delete with Harry's BFF Nick Grimshaw and calls Niall and Harry, he says he has Niall’s number because he is writing a song for one direction and that he had never spoken to Harry before (but had his number and Harry recognised his voice and/or just would know Nick had the show on and who was on it.) MH asks to borrow £5k and Harry agrees. Harry probably knew he was on Nick Grimshaw.

2014, April - his mum says MH is writing a song for 1D and talks about Anne.

2014, April 24 - Halsey covered a 1975 song.

2014, May - Halsey writes about her hand in Matty's curls.

2014, May 8 - One Direction record Change Your Ticket in Fasano Hotel, the TV Special includes footage (2:12) of Julien and Niall figuring out the lyrics and melody in Rio De Janeiro. The band then toured

2014, May 24 - One Direction and the 1975 both play the Glasgow Big Weekend, though 1D fly in for just their show they are then in London.

2014, July - Anne tweets Denise with a throwback photo

At some point they play Change Your Ticket for Matty who Later said:

“They got me in and they said, ‘We really like your band. Would you write a song for us?’,” Matt revealed to Spin. “[But] they didn’t seem to be actually that interested. They just wanted to play me this song that they said was really, really inspired by us.", “Listen guys, fill your boots, the song doesn’t sound that much like ‘Girls’. But the guitar and the whole vibe of it is a complete lift, So take the guitars off and we’re good." “It would have been a bad 1975 song.”

2014 - October 27 - 1989 released. On the same day Halsey's debut 93, about Matty Healy also is released.

Taylor says to Rolling Stone that her publicist has said a relationship is not a good idea:

‘How long do we have on the clock — before something comes along and puts a wrench in it, or your publicist calls and says this isn’t a good idea?'” (bless you @cntfightmydemonsthyknowhowtoswim)

2014 - October 29 - Halsey gives an interview on the All Things Go podcast where she says she had met Matty. She talked about her debut single 93 and Matty Healy, she has posted to Tumblr indicating they were dating.

2014 - November 8 - Matty Healy wears a 1989 T-Shirt, Taylor likes a Tumblr post about it.

2014 - November 17 - FOUR comes out with Change Your Ticket including the 1975-esq guitar. In the Four Hangout Harry says "well done Tyler" (32:25) and Niall adds "your Boyfriends back", Liam adds "Your gonna get in trouble" Tyler is Taylor's name I n the Man video, the 1D band had rhyming or celebrity code names for themselves that they used in interviews (Harry = Susan Boyle, Zayn = Wayne)

2014 - November 19 - Harry, Taylor & Selena go to a 1975 concert together. This is often cited as the Maylor starting point, Harry was there and called her boyfriend by Niall 2 days before. Taylor posts a video of her, Selena and Harry is briefly seen. Video of Taylor and MH backstage.

2014 - November 28 - unverified rumour that Taylor was seen in an SUV at Chattanooga near the 1975 concert. She was in London 30th

2014 - December 2 - Harry and Taylor at Victoria's Secret After party and leave together in London. First time Style performed.

2014 - December 4 - Taylor at a 1975 concert in NYC, last till 2023. 1D in London, appeared on Graham Norton. Rumours Taylor dating Matty. he tweets they got his name wrong.

2014 - December 6 - Taylor has laryngitis at Jingle Bell Ball. Matty Healy does this on stage in Boston, crying and yelling at the audience:

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8 December - Blind "The B- list celebrity offspring of two of the worst celebrity parents ever has been hooking up the past few weeks with the lead singer of the band that Taylor Swift loves. Apparently they sent Taylor a pic of themselves naked in bed together." (Ali Lohan (Dina and Michael)/Matty Healy “The 1975″)

2014 - December 9, after Twitter ran with the meltdown, coupled with Matty being linked to Taylor who the band knew to be with Harry. They go on more Four promo. One Direction was not getting on, Harry had broached the topic of the Hiatus a few weeks earlier. They appear on RTL in the Netherlands. Liam seems drunk and makes a beard joke at Harry.

24 December - Tabloid media about Ali Lohan/MH

And that's the end of the 2014, interaction, between Matty appearing in the 1989 t-shirt and the meltdown was 1 month, and Harry and Taylor were seen together in that time. Taylor did go to one 1975 concert without Harry, 2 days before Matty melted down.

13 December Taylor tweets asking the media to stop accusing her of dating her friends (kk & MH)

In this time Matty was also smoking heroin, from the New Yorker in May 2023:

In 2014, amid the early rush of fame and steady touring, Healy began smoking heroin, the only substance he found that could pull him down from the stratosphere. It was a secret, for a while; then the band staged an intervention. Healy resisted: he was the star, and the rest of them would have to get on board.

2015, November - Matty said to the Guardian:

On 6 December, onstage in Boston. “There was girl stuff,” he says. “There was family stuff. There was financial stuff. There was drug stuff. I remember hearing the crowd and having an identity crisis. I thought: ‘If you want to see a show, I’ll give you a fucking show. If you’ve come to see the jester drink himself into a slumber, I’ll give it to you.’ I felt like I’d become an idea as opposed to being a person.” At one point, a fan shouted, “I love you, Matty!” He’s ashamed of his response. “What did I say to the poor fucking girl? ‘You don’t have the right to love me. You don’t know me. I love you but you don’t get to love me.’ Jesus. Can you imagine your favourite band shouting that at you? What a dickhead. What a horrible thing to say to a kid who fucking does love me.”

2015

2015 - January - Matty also does this interview where he says it was all fake that he dated Taylor and there is noone in the world he knows less than Harry Styles

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2015 - February 26 - Taylor pictured hugging Nick Grimshaw, Harry’s BFF, next to Matty Healy at the 2015 Brit awards after party. Harry was in Australia, he and Taylor had broken Up and this is the night she met and seemed to immediately start dating Calvin Harris’s until June 2016

2015 - April - Matty Healy and sources close gives a lot of interviews saying he is angry about Change Your Ticket and that One Direction stole the 1975's sound.

19 July 2015 - Matty Healy dates Halsey after she goes to a 1975 concert who shares the above instagram photo

2015- Matty starts dating model Gabriella Brooks, who he dates until 20 February 2019

Love Me

2015 - October - 1975 Love Me came out which is a rather direct Harry diss:

the lyrics reference Blank Space "Rumors Fly": "You've been reading about yourself on a plane".

"caught up in fashion, Karcrashian panache" a style reference and a diss to Kendall

music video where Matty makes out with the cardboard cutout of a 17 year old Harry Styles.

on stage he copies Harry's dancing in this song.

In the BTS Matty says "I just wanted to make a video that was about some kind of sexually confused rockstar type that who buys into his own nonsense really"

he also wore Chelsea looking boots and pointed them out in the BTS

Matty said he got permission from the celebrities, but also added that he did not plan to make out with Harry's. Meaning Harry did not give permission for how his cut out was used.

2016

2016, March to Q Magazine, (and widely reported) Matty said:

“I feel like I’m not very good at relationships,” he’d said, and I wondered why. Healy explained the jumble of reasons – insecurity, self-obsession, a fear of misrepresentation. Was it also, I asked, a fear of losing himself? He nodded. “Absolutely. And the reason I mention that is because if I had [properly] gone out with Taylor Swift the first thing I would’ve [thought was] ‘Fucking hell I am NOT being Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.’ You know, FUCK. THAT.” Then he had added an afterthought: “That’s also a man thing, a de-masculinating, emasculating thing.”

In 2016 Matty was dating Gabby and they posted to instagram a lot, like this photo of them at Coachella together in 2016. They seem happy and committed, they dated for another 3 years. He toured the whole year, (dates) South East Asia January, UK/Europe March - April. Coachella 24 April (they were in Canada on the 29th) then US & Canada until July. Back to SE Asia & UK in August, South America in September, US again in October with shows every other night.

12 November 2016 - to the Guardian Matty again mocks Haylor, with a reference to Hobama, also confirming they didn't even kiss:

"Did he have any relationship with her, I ask in my best Ken Starr voice. “No.” Sex? “No.” Did you kiss? “No.” So why the huge hoo-ha? “She came to a show and we hung out. We fancied each other, but then we couldn’t have it go any further, because it would be like going out with Barack Obama.” He says there was nothing misogynistic about his comments, he was simply being honest: he didn’t like the prospect of two giant egos clashing and him coming off second best."

2017

They continued touring constantly, (dates) Uk/europe January, February. South America March, April. US/Canada April - July.

2017 - November - Matty went to Rehab, they didn't tour till 2019. Matty was still dating Gabby.

I'm skipping ahead a few years, Matty brings Taylor and Harry up alot, like in random interviews with Zane Lowe, Nick Grimshaw etc. But the vibe is often separating him from success. I wonder if he is also reminding others he knows them.

12 April Harry maybe shades Matty in his Rolling Stone Interview:

I had a really nice upbringing. I feel very lucky. I had a great family and always felt loved. There’s nothing worse than an inauthentic tortured person. ‘They took my allowance away, so I did heroin.’ It’s like – that’s not how it works. I don’t even remember what the question was.”

In May Taylor and Joe went public, dated till 2023.

September- Harry posted that he liked it when the 1975 covered What Makes you Beautiful. Matty responds saying "you. are. peng"

2019

2019 - February 19 Matty breaks up with Gabriella Brooks, who he dated since 2015.

3 January - MH asks to produce Harry's next album… via twitter…. and says Harry has blocked him.

4 October - Matty Healy interview where he says he wants to produce Taylors record (said about Harry earlier the year) and went on to say 'that taylor swift song about supporting gay people, when it came out we already knew that."

2020

2020, January 20 - Matty starts dating FKA Twigs, they dated until 2022

2020, February Taylor, Joe and Matty are at the NME Awards:

Healy said: “I went over to her. I was like, ‘Taylor, we need to make the record.’ No, I didn’t. She said hello to every single person. Obviously it’s Taylor Swift so everyone was saying hello. “She was just stood behind me. I mean, I haven’t seen Taylor in years so it was actually a really nice room. But it, unfortunately, wasn’t the time for me to pitch my post-rock Joni Mitchell project to [her].”

2022

2022, June 7 - Matty breaks up with FKA Twigs who he dated since 2020

Collaboration with Jack Antonoff

2022 - 5 January - 14 February - he works with Jack Antonoff. The band did not work with Jack before 5 January 2022. On 5 January they were in Real World Studios (i.e. not Electric Lady with Jack) and the record was complete by 14 February 2022. It is an album made to be played live and Jack did not write lyrics, under 6 weeks is about right. There are rumours of a collab which Matty both says it is fake news he worked on Midnights and then that he did but it wasn't used. Taylor never acknowledged.

2022 - 27 March DM Story Jack had an argument with FKA Twigs who was dating Matty after the Oscars.

2022 - midnights comes out, no 1975 collab.

2022, December - Matty starts dating model Charlotte Bliar D'Alessio. they had been dating 'for weeks' and date until the end of March.

2023

2023 - 12 January - Taylor performs anti-hero and The City at 1975 concert, multiple rumors Harry was also there: x, x, x

2023 - 15 January - MH invites HS to perform, H declines. MH makes inappropriate comments accusing Harry of Queerbaiting.

2023 - 11 February blind item:

2023 - March - Reps for Matty Healy's girlfriend Meredith says

“She did not see this coming at all. All the time Matty was in the studio with Taylor, she thought nothing of it. He’d spend the day in the studio and then come home to her. “Things were going well until around March 29 then, out of the blue, he stopped replying to messages and calls. “He just ghosted her and that was it. Then, four weeks later, he went public with Taylor.

2023 - March/April/May/June - Taylor touring the US. The 1975 touring Latin America in March, Asia and Australia in April and May, Europe in June. The only times they would have seen each other are the handful of times they were photographed.

2023 - 14 March - MH spotted with Dasha, said he was bad in bed and TS thing ended.

2023 - 10 April - Taylor and Joe's separation press release. MH delete socials said:

"everything happens in eras. The 1975 is a very eras band. The era of me being a f***ing a***hole is coming to an end. […] I can’t perform off the stage any more.”

2023 April 14 - MH cries on stage in I always wanna die, and puts his head in his hands during Love it if we make it in Sydney. Saying “You changed all the words on my set list to rude words,” he says, pointing off-stage, before admitting the culprit is “trying to cheer me up because I’ve been going through a bit”. Covered in news

2023 April 24 - MH introduces 'She's American' in Tokyo with: "When I picture it, there's like three places I picture people listening to it, there's Manchester, Pennsylvania, that’s a whole other thing don’t worry about that and Tokyo” 1975 was formed in Manchester. Matty and Harry are from nearby Wilmslow or Cheshire respectively.

2023 - May 3 - TS & MH mouth "this is about you, you know who you are. I love you" on stage. Before cardigan, a song Taylor wrote for Harry referencing Falling.

2023 5 May - MH at Eras tour, Sparks Fly and Teardrops on my guitar. He joined Phoebe Bridges on stage.

2023 6 May - OOTW/Fifteen. MH attends again

2023 11 May - MH and Taylor hold hands in NY

2023 12 May - Gold Rush & CBBH, Philli. MH on stage at Eras in skeleton costume. MH and Taylor at group dinner hold hands.

2023 13 May - TS This Love, no intro/Forever and Always (Philli) MH attends eras and seen with Scott Swift.

2023 15 May - Taylor leaving Electric Lady with MH

2023 16 and 18 May - Matty carries a bag to and from Taylor’s NY apartment, she’s seen at electric lady earlier in the day.

May - blinds about MH saying something shocking about Beyonce, shocking porn habits after podcast, hooking up with underaged girls, calling Andrea names, abuse of violent porn stars he watched. (referring to these comments in Adam Friedland podcast - DM link.) double down on racist comments because T doesn't care.

2023 24 May - People reports Taylor kissed MH at Zero bond, no photos of them arriving, no photos allowed in club. Last time reported to be seen together. 50 days since his ex said they were good.

2023 27 May - during the Radio 1 Big Weekend at Glasglow, a broadcast event, Matty Healy acted unusually and said "Try romanticising your life for a job, see how you like it". This section is cut from the BBC's official video of About You. Harry was also in Scotland in Edinburgh. Matty opened the show (wearing a lab coat he took off) with an apparent acknowledgement that the relationship wasn't sincere:

“Is it all a bit? Is it sincere? Will he ever address it?” he asked. “All of these questions and more will be ignored in the next hour. Ladies and gentleman, this is The 1975.”

2023 June 5 - MH break up reported by TMZ later confirmed no longer speaking. People:

"She had fun with him, but it was always casual," a source confirmed to PEOPLE on Monday. "They are no longer romantically involved." "They were never boyfriend-girlfriend or exclusive and were always just having fun," another insider tells PEOPLE. "There is no drama, and who knows what could happen again. It was a good time and ran its course."

2023 August 16 - MH back with the girl he dumped in March for …. That.

2023 September - Matty starts dating Gabby who he is still with.

I have no idea what happened in 2023, but I think the blind about him hating H is correct.

2024 February 15 - MH said on stage “Do not come for me. Trust me. You know who I’m talking to. Honestly, you know who you are. I’m as mental as I seem. I have the receipts. Don’t f**k with me. Trust me.”

2024 6 June to us weekly

“He loves the attention it’s brought to him, [but] he also thinks it’s hilarious because at no time [were they] ever serious,” the friend claims. Healy’s pal adds that the musician was “completely blindsided” by TTPD’s “lyrical content,” especially Swift’s allusions to her and a love interest discussing marriage and children. “For her to be saying things about baby carriages … and living together — he says it had never even come up,” the friend says.

2024 October 23 - Matty Healy on Doomscroll podcast likens Taylor to the Marvel of music because self-referential and implies it is not good. Says relationship was casual and will not write about her on the next album... after spending 2 hours complaining.

#Haylor #maylor #taylor swift #matty healy

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