One Direction’s Harry Styles and Zayn Malik: Why This Friendship Needs To Be Saved
One Direction’s Harry Styles and Zayn Malik allegedly have their differences. Without going into too much detail, Harry was allegedly devastated when Zayn left 1D. It is a generally believed that Styles has remained distant from Malik since then.
Zayn Malik, however, has publicly stated that he would like to hear from Harry Styles and other members of One Direction. Zayn recently wore a custom Versace jacket that sported designs representative of Harry’s tattoos, according to The Inquisitr. Nothing says “call me” quite like wearing someone’s tattoos.
Zayn wearing the Gucci jacket inspired by Harry’s tattoos pic.twitter.com/1PgNewTHWZ
— 1D updates (@1DAllUpdateess) September 26, 2016
One Direction’s Harry Styles and Zayn Malik are both brilliant and successful solo artists. One could argue why do Harry and Zayn even need each other, but they do. Both personally as friends and professionally as collaborators, they could benefit each other greatly.
Personally, Harry Styles and Zayn Malik would benefit greatly from resolving their differences. Life is too short for petty grudges and resentment simply isn’t healthy. Beyond that, they have many mutual friends so it only makes sense to be able to meet one another at social functions without feeling awkward.
One Direction as a band, however, is a professional consideration. It is possible this whole breakup and hiatus is really a plan to get out of their Syco record contract, and if so there is no argument between Harry and Zayn anyway. Their spat could also be just gossip. Provided that is not the case, Harry and Zayn really do need to find peace with one another.
Creatively, Harry Styles and Zayn Malik need each other. Even though they are great separately, together they exponentially increase their potential to become legendary. Why? History repeats itself, even music history. And it seems to be repeating itself now.
One Direction has often been compared to the Beatles, and there are some huge reasons for that. For those who remember Sir Paul McCartney, Harry is very much like Paul. Not only are their experiences in the band and their places within the band similar, they have a similarity of persona that is just uncanny.
One Direction’s Harry Styles, like Sir Paul McCartney of The Beatles, is cheerful, polite, friendly, goal oriented and tirelessly driven toward success. Both Harry and Paul have a natural understanding of business matters and are incredible negotiators and gentle leaders.
Zayn Malik offers the same thing to One Direction as John Lennon gave the Beatles. The Inquisitr comments on Malik’s similarities to John Lennon. Thanks to the restrictions of their boy band image, Zayn could not express his true gift and left the band. This is all the more reason for Harry Styles to reach out to Malik when they are out from under those restrictions.
While One Direction had five members, all had tremendous creative similarities except one. There was one who was most vocal about being uncomfortable with the genre. Zayn was the one who wanted to sing about sex. He was the one who wanted to grow a beard and was uncomfortable with the boy band image. Malik was the one who no doubt questioned authority.
Zayn Malik was that one who was different and stood up for those differences. He is also compelled much like Harry Styles to create, but not for the fame, or the money, or even the drive for greatness, so much as the uncontrollable impulse to create for the sake of creation.
Harry Styles is destined to greatness, perhaps even legendary greatness, with or without One Direction, and certainly with or without Zayn Malik. Yet, Malik has an almost indescribable quality that Harry doesn’t have, simply because Harry has the opposite of what Zayn has in spades. Music needs opposites, and the creation of great music requires the opposition of those opposites, often personified in band members.
One Direction’s Harry Styles and Zayn Malik were placed together. It is quite possible that either one or both of these two guys, given the opportunity, could perhaps replace the other and find other creative partners, but within the framework of a One Direction reunion, Zayn needs to come back.
The Beatles had John Lennon and Paul McCartney. McCarney’s music was like a clear spring day on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. Everything was crisp, clear, tangible, and illuminated. Lennon’s lyrics were like riding on the back of the Orient Express at midnight, on the way to Marrakesh, and suddenly catching the scent of jasmine perfume. Everything was moving, dizzying, dark and exotic. Zayn Malik has a bit of that “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” feeling as well.
One Direction’s Harry Styles and Zayn Malik have that kind of divergence in their thoughts and feelings as well. Harry Styles thrives on the crowds as explained in Inquisitr. It is all amazing for Harry, while Zayn feels uncertain and unworthy when standing before them.
One Direction’s Harry Styles is quoted in People, explaining how he is vitalized by the crowds.
“Playing these big venues when you just see a sea of people, that view … You stop for a second and wish you could bring all your friends to just stand there with you for a second and see it, It’s unlike anything else. There’s no drug you can take that gives you that same high. It’s pretty amazing that it’s a natural thing. The feelings come back to you – the view, the people. It’s cool to have such specific moments in your mind to look back on.”
Zayn Malik, formerly of One Direction, gets a very different feeling when standing in front of crowds. Zayn is also quoted in People.
“Dear fans, I have been working over the last three months to overcome my extreme anxiety around major live solo performances. I feel I am making progress but I have today acknowledged that I do not feel sufficiently confident to move forward with the planned show in Dubai in October.”
Zayn Malik broods and questions. One Direction’s Harry Styles is always so sure. Styles’ certainty of vision is like Jim Morrison. Like a rock and roll prophet, Harry is sure, but he still needs someone to question him. He needs someone to push against. Just as Lennon and McCartney used to push each other to be better.
Led Zeppelin had Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Jimmy Page was full of dark and arcane ideas. He was a fan of Aleister Crowley. Robert Plant, by contrast, was a nature lover with an intense fondness for animals, and the two were like night and day for want of another analogy.
One Direction’s Harry Styles and Zayn Malik are very much like Page and Plant as well. Not that Zayn is into the dark arts because he isn’t, but there is a darkness to the depths of Zayn’s inner pain and its need for expression that will not be suppressed or held down by any amount of cheerfulness. Great art requires pain and suffering, but also joy. There has to be a strong contrast.
Smashing Pumpkins had Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, and while neither of them is exactly a shining beacon of light and joy, as Harry Styles certainly is, each had a certain divergence from the other that frequently resulted in conflict. It was often that conflict that led to the power of their music. After Chamberlin was forced out by Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins was never quite as interesting.
One Direction’s Harry Styles and Zayn Malik are both brilliantly creative but in vastly different ways. Their speech patterns, their thought processes, and their overall dispositions are polar opposites of each other. Imagine what kind of music and lyrics they could write if they could cooperate long enough to collaborate, without any external controls.
The Doors had Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek. Morrison was the poet and the prophet, while Ray Manzarek was all about the music and the business side of things. Jim Morrison was completely legendary, while often the other Doors are nearly forgotten, but Morrison needed Manzarek.
Love rare video! https://t.co/M68pv47Cos
— Jim Morrison Project (@morrisonproject) September 22, 2016
Jim Morrison drove the entire band totally crazy at times, with his overpoweringly dark persona, coupled with his drinking. Often the others were the straight men for his wicked pranks and the witnesses to his crimes. John Densmore broke out in hives just from the stress of being around Jim sometimes, according to his book Riders on the Storm, but where would they have been without him?
RELATED REPORTS FROM THE INQUISITR
Do Zayn Malik And John Lennon Fit The One Direction And Beatles Comparison
Both Zayn Malik and Harry Styles have a few things in common with Jim Morrison. Harry has a similar face, similar hair, similar movements, a similar ambitious drive, and a similar confidence, while Zayn has the capacity for those darker thoughts and a bit of Morison’s sexual sensual capacity.
One Direction’s Harry Styles and Zayn Malik are both destined for greatness, and the albums they are working on now will be unforgettable. Together, though, their talents would be exponentially better put to use. While the work would be far more challenging together, their collaboration could yield something iconic and amazing.
One Direction’s Harry Styles and Zayn Malik need to reconcile any quarrels they may have with each other and collaborate when the time is right.
[Featured Image by Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images]
