It has been a very odd few weeks for One Direction fans. Some might argue that One Direction’s mentor Simon Cowell has had an even more difficult time. Cowell seems to be reeling from the fact that the members of One Direction are distancing themselves from him and Cowell has let his frustration show. A casual observer might think that One Direction owes their success to Cowell, but is that really the case? One Direction fans do not think so, in fact, many would argue that Cowell has exploited the boys from the day he signed them.
Earlier this week it was reported in The Inquisitr and elsewhere that Cowell was furious to find Niall Horan the latest member of One Direction to distance themselves from him. Cowell even told One Direction that he was “sorry for making you famous.”
“I hear so many things now, which they’re doing, which I’m not involved with. It’s a bit like I’m getting the hint you don’t want me to come to the party. Sorry for making you famous.
“Look, I’m not going to lie when I hear they’re doing something, and they haven’t approached me. You think, ‘well I would have liked you to,’ but it’s their choice. I’m not bitter…. much.”
According to NME when asked if he is involved in former One Direction star Zayn Malik’s new memoir, Cowell said, “You know what? I genuinely don’t care.”
It is undoubtedly fair to say that without Cowell, One Direction would never have existed. After all Louis Tomlinson, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and Zayn Malik entered the 2010 season of Cowell’s X-Factor as solo singers and were cut at the “boot camp” stage of the show. Cowell had spotted a gap in the boyband pop market and the five young men went on to become One Direction. The next five years saw One Direction become the world’s most popular band with countless millions of fans around the world.
I will never be as hyped as I was when the Best Song Ever music video dropped pic.twitter.com/O6eG3wVFRo
— NoControlProjec (@NoControlProjec) September 20, 2016
The Daily Mail reports that none of the members of One Direction have remained on Cowell’s SyCo label for their solo work. Cowell may well feel betrayed by One Direction and it seems that he feels that they owe everything to him, but is that a fair assessment?
There can be absolutely no doubt that Cowell engineered a social phenomena with One Direction. Much of the band’s early success was as the result of the exposure Cowell provided for One Direction, both through X-Factor and through judicious use of his media network contacts. Cowell clearly understands that in the entertainment business sex sells and the sexualization of One Direction began almost immediately.
The ink on One Direction’s contracts had barely dried before stories began to emerge that Harry Styles was in a relationship with Caroline Flack, a woman twice his age. To this day that trend continues. Try searching for One Direction or any of its members on Google and you will see thousands of stories linking a band member with some beautiful woman or other. Rarely will you find stories about One Direction’s music and whilst the media is full of stories about the boys’ personal lives, facts are scarce. Stories about One Direction’s philanthropy are rare as hens’ teeth.
One Direction placed third on X-Factor, but since signing to Cowell’s Syco they have churned out five hit albums and four massive world tours that lasted up to nine months. The shelf life of a typical boyband is short, so it was in Cowell’s interest to gain as much from the One Direction brand as possible and as quickly as possible. What Cowell or anyone else could not have anticipated was the loyalty of One Direction’s fanbase. Nor was it anticipated that One Direction’s members would work so well as a unit, winning the hearts of fans across the globe.
We know from the Sony email leaks that each member of One Direction had a role to play, they had to fit a carefully crafted image, one that appealed to their target market. It was only after Zayn Malik quit One Direction early last year that we began to see just how carefully their image was controlled. Zayn told Fader Magazin e just how tightly controlled One Direction is.
“There was never any room for me to experiment creatively in the band.”
“If I would sing a hook or a verse slightly R&B, or slightly myself, it would always be recorded 50 times until there was a straight version that was pop, generic as f**k, so they could use that version.”
Zayn later told Billboard that as a member of One Direction he was “censored” and even that he was banned from growing a beard . You can probably be confident that if Zayn felt the pressure of such a carefully controlled image then other members of One Direction felt the same.
It is easy to forget that the members of One Direction were as young as just 16-years-old when the band was formed. With little experience of the music business, it was natural for them to put their trust in media mogul Cowell. What Cowell failed to realize was that as One Direction members matured their talent and capacity for hard work shone through. He also failed to remember that without fans buying records and tour tickets no band would be a success. Cowell seems to have forgotten a golden rule that One Direction has always remembered, in the entertainment industry the fan is king. Many would argue that One Direction’s fans are the most loyal of all.
It is telling that Cowell finds it almost impossible to retain acts that have found fame through the X-Factor route. Earlier this year the Express revealed that only nine of the 155 X-Factor finalists are on his books. Steve Brookstein, the first X-Factor winner, claims that Cowell dropped him when he wanted to release his own music rather than a series of albums based on covers of other people’s songs. The Guardian reported that in his book Getting Over The X Brookstein claims that Cowell set out to destroy his career.
The truth is that Cowell has a poor record when it comes to retaining X-Factor acts so it’s hardly a surprise to see One Direction seeking to move on. One Direction are, by a huge margin, the biggest thing to come out of X-Factor and Cowell has made a huge fortune out of the band. It is understandable that Cowell should be upset about losing his biggest asset, but instead of branding One Direction as “disloyal” he should be thanking his lucky stars that he managed to retain them for so long.
[Featured Image by Rich Fury/AP Images]