Leave the One Directioners Alone!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would have heard of One Direction, the latest boy band to come out of the UK and Ireland and take the world by storm. Normally, knowledge of a boy band is restricted to the under 20s but the One Direction phenomenon recently hit our shores and they were subsequently interviewed by what seemed like every journalist in the country, which must be one of the most boring experiences ever. It must be tedious to have to answer the same question 20 times in one day about what you wanted to be when you grow up and whether you still have your feet on the ground.

As interesting as all that is, what I also found interesting was the attitude of some of the journalists. I imagine it’s not exactly the highlight of their lives to interview what they probably perceive as another flash in the pan boy band, but some of them were extremely patronising to these boys. They were trying really hard to say, “You realise that you are not actually the greatest thing that’s ever been don’t you.” To the boys credit, they pretty much responded by saying, “Yeah, we do. Thanks for pointing that out.”

Some journos tried this same tactic with the fans, and I have to mention something here - I love The Beatles. They are without question the greatest band ever and no other band will match them for the impact they had on music and for overall talent. However, I still cringe when a journalist talks to a 16 year old girl who is fanatical about One Direction and says, ‘Well they’re not The Beatles you know.” The girl than screams something incoherent, but you can just make out the words One Direction, and then in unison everyone in the country over 25 rolls their eyes.

Well put a stop to that eye-rolling you old foggies! And just take a moment to remember the One Direction of your day. For me, it was New Kids On The Block – Jon, Jordan, Joe, Danny and Donnie. Back before they tried to become more relevant by calling themselves NKOTB, or even worse when they teamed up with the Backstreet Boys and became NKOTBSB. I know there is supposed to be an ‘and’ in there between the band names, but everyone is thinking ‘New Kids on the Backstreet Boys’. I really don’t think they thought that through.

Anyway, back to the New Kids that I loved. Everyone had a favourite. Mine was Joe. Lots of other people liked Jon and Jordan. If you were a bit cooler you liked Donnie. (Poor Danny. I don’t know anyone who liked him.)

I remember that feeling of being a bit infatuated by someone famous, cute, talented and untouchable. It was fun. You might have experienced that with The Beatles, The Jackson Five or even NSync. That is what those One Directioners are experiencing now – just a bit of fun. Why point out to them that One Direction aren’t the greatest thing since sliced bread. You and I both know that they will figure that out soon enough. Very soon these same kids  will know all about student loans, mortgages, and if they are blessed not to know it already, they’ll also find out that relationships aren’t always as great as the love songs say they are.

If I haven’t convinced you to leave the One Directioners alone yet, why not try to remember how you felt last time someone tried to tear down something that you find enjoyment out of. We tend to take it personally when someone tells us that they hate our favourite band, or movie, or sport. Even if they are not even talking about you, it feels like they are. “If they hate this thing that I love, what do they think about me?” 

My 7 year old daughters love One Direction and I can’t imagine interrupting their joy by telling them that I thought they sucked. Because after all, this phase of carefree joy that they, and all One Directioners, Beliebers and ‘whoever-elsers’ are experiencing, will , just like the success of a lot of their idols, naturally come to an end all too soon.