One Direction - is this a legit new threat wrt to a new boy band invasion? y/n

Adding to that list, Loved You First and Nobody Compares are also up there. Little White Lies is also a potentially great song ruined by "Blurred Lines"-level lyrics.

"Diana" and "Midnight Memories" are awesome; the latter is Fisher Price "Pour Some Sugar on Me."

yeah i thought "sugar" was kiddie-friendly enough

i'd argue bon jovi did a pretty fine job distilling arena rock into pop singles as it was - part of my problem with one-d's floor stompers is their relative smoothing out of what was already pretty damn smooth.

Yeah, I'd agree in that Bon Jovi did a fine job themselves. "Larger than life" is more of a sibling to "Livin on a prayer", rather than a descendant/evolution.

oddly enough, their inability to dance was actually one of the reasons i couldn't take them seriously initially. just five reality contestants hopping around awkwardly next to each other, reading the Non-Threatening Boys language given to them. That it's gelled to the the degree it has makes me wanna tip my hat for cowell for finding some collective chemistry that wasn't particularly obvious to me.

The first time I saw/heard One Direction I was sort of impressed, I suppose, it was in the Olympics closing ceremony and they were the best thing there by far. They sang What Makes You Beautiful, which is still my favorite and the one thing in their catalog that sounds as explosive as anything from the Cheiron/Maratone era, probably due to the Rami involvement.

However, after that I got more or less the same impression. They definitely didn't have that imposing, monolithic thing the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC or Britney had, which was I was looking for in a boy band. The lack of dance routines made them look weaker in stage. In hindsight, they were evolving into a different thing.

are there any album cuts one should check out if i love "kiss you" and "best song ever," i'm not fully on board with "midnight memories" and "steal my girl," and couldn't care less about the dorm-serenade ballads beyond noting some Sensitive Lad lyrical touches?

I'm only familiarizing with Midnight Memories and Take Me home, but C'mon C'mon sounds amazing. In their latest, I'm enjoying most tracks except for 18, though I suppose my favorites are Ready to run, Where do broken hearts go, Night Changes, No Control, Fireproof and Clouds. Change your ticket is my favorite of the the bonus tracks.

that one direction can't dance never really stood out to me, since they're part of a wider pop landscape where dancing well (if at all) is less valued than it's been in a couple of decades. i'm not sure whether that's due to sheer laziness from labels and artists, a pushback against the image of rigorously hyper controlled pop that bsb & britney embodied or a result of r&b's fading dominance over pop music where the mj/janet dancing template was the standard, or something else? it's an interesting discussion i think.

Credit to whoever decided to make a cute joke out of their bad dancing in almost all their early video clips.

made a playlist of my forever 1d jams and i haven't really listened to any other music since

guess this is the end

petition for new board I Love One Direction

tracklist or stfu

feel like it's not done yet i'll get back to you

http://i.imgur.com/XzF0WR0.png

imo "still the one" is the best fucking song in the world

add "what makes you beautiful" as a bonus track

i just bought the movie

I endorse this tracklist.

feel like i can't accept a playlist that doesn't include "through the dark"
when the night is coming down on you
we will find a way through the dark

really, every album after their first one has been incredible and each has like eleven 10/10 songs on them so not sure i could make a playlist. like, midnight memories is unfuckwithable from beginning to end. take me home is ridiculous if you switch the amazing bonus tracks ("still the one", "nobody compares", "magic") with "summer love" and maybe "over again" and "last first kiss"

my POX would maybe be:
kiss you
rock me
they don't know about us
you & i
don't forget where you belong
through the dark
something great
fireproof
clouds
change your ticket

also "little things" actively KILLS me

What's happening in this thread Is so important, for a long time I thought that I was the only fan here. 'Still the one' Is the best song ever (pun not intended), yass

Four's closing trio of "Spaces"/"Stockholm Syndrome"/"Clouds" is amazing

i don't like the mumfordy 1d tracks very much at all. srry "through the dark"

hey ok sorry alfred and others i have not actually listened to the new album yet.

what i want to know is, and maybe this has been discussed in this thread already, but harry + louis? thoughts? i feel like they are not really a thing, but did they maybe sorta fool around once? maybe.

reading the last few dozen posts in this thread makes me really love ilx

i feel like they are not really a thing, but did they maybe sorta fool around once? maybe.

"fool's gold"

man i might have to buy a ticket for their stadium tour if "Clouds" is in the setlist

this is about where i am with being able to remember which dude is which tho
https://twitter.com/MrGeorgeWallace/status/550532798881099777

feel like "stockholm syndrome" is actually the key larry text on this album.

you'll get there some dude. everyone gets there eventually.

i dreamt about "still the one" recently

They played a ballads set at the Rockin' NYE show last night, ugh

"Best Song Ever" always sounds good when it turns up at one of our school assemblies--I'll definitely take it over the two Taylor Swift songs that hit #1 last year.

i love tswift and i love 1989 but "style" aside i can't really take it seriously as a harry styles breakup album when four exists.

They played a ballads set at the Rockin' NYE show last night, ugh

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 1, 2015 6:41 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

post-"What Makes You Beautiful," they only get traction on U.S. radio with ballads ("Story Of My Life" by far the biggest and "Night Changes" on its way to being much more successful than "Steal My Girl"), which i think is such a shame, all their best stuff is uptempo imo.

I've puzzled over the decision making process behind that. Do programmers think there's some part of their audience demographic for whom those songs come off as too bubblegum or teenpop?

well, ballads in general have made kind of a comeback on pop radio in recent years. and their ballads fit in w/ the other ballads being played, whereas something like "Best Song Ever" sticks out like a sore thumb.

I'm not sure they would stick out more than "Rather Be" or Idina Menzel or maybe some other things.

perhaps. the format is pretty weird and varied at the moment. they just seem to slot in less easily either way.

"night changes" is their best single tho

rock doesn't really get played on pop radio right now and they don't do pop influenced by dance music or R&B so that sort of leaves them in the ballad lane

also they have classic rock influences whereas basically all crossover rock hits here are influenced by pitchfork indie rock

"night changes" is their best single tho

:|

well as clarified several times upthread they are garbage at picking singles so i guess i could see that

it is however in no way better than "kiss you"

"What Makes You Beautiful" is still a hell of a signature tune imo. "Night Changes" might be my least favorite on Four.

"Mirrors" is probably as classic rock as "Steal My Girl."

"what makes you beautiful" is really good but it kinda feels like a different group at this point

"What Makes You Beautiful" is the band's N Sync-era preset.

fairly sure the rock-on-pop-radio stuff is a red herring -- no one who isn't a music critic sees one direction as rock or as anything but a boy band

right but among modern boy bands they have the almost singular distinction of having no R&B or EDM aspirations and lots of guitar in the mix on practically every song

true, but if a band is a boy band then all of that is simply not heard by most of the public, who still thinks they are that photo upthread. if anything, I'd venture that the lack of R&B/EDM aspirations contributes to that

yeah I wonder if sticking to ballads as singles, ship's remark about ballads making a comeback on pop radio notwithstanding, is the record company's way of not dealing with promoting rock tracks on top 40 radio.

"What Makes You Beautiful" is still a hell of a signature tune imo

otm. fucking timeless pop tune imo