Liam Payne's death in Buenos Aires, its drama and violence, will forever condition the interpretation of his career as well as that of One Direction, the boy band that turned the singer from Wolverhampton into a star. 14 years after his television debut, Payne's early songs with his colleagues, so innocent when they first appeared, now serve as clues leading to the balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.
Biographies of boy band members are always suspected of being manipulated, fictionalized to fit the group's narrative. In any case, it is known that Liam Payne was a child with poor health, involved in athletics and theater, and among all the 1D members, he had the earliest and strongest calling for the stage. At 14, he auditioned for 'The X Factor' and sang Sinatra's "Fly Me to the Moon." Simon Cowell, the head of the UK's 'The X Factor,' was impressed but advised him to take it easy and come back in two years. Payne did just that. He then sang "Cry Me a River," a 1953 ballad that has been covered countless times. "Cry Me a River," "Fly Me to the Moon"... Teenage Liam Payne seemed to boast a deeper background than what is usually attributed to children his age. His performance earned him a spot on 'The X Factor,' not as a soloist but as part of a band with Irish Niall Horan, Zayn Malik from Bradford, Harry Styles from Cheshire, and Louis Tomlinson from Doncaster.
The five were boys from provincial cities, all between 16 and 19 years old. During the competition, they sang songs by Elton John and Bonnie Tyler and performed with Robbie Williams. One Direction finished third in the 2010 'The X Factor,' but it soon became evident that they were the music industry's winning bet. Matt Cardle, the winner, would soon distance himself from the show and its producers. Rebecca Ferguson, the runner-up, was heading towards a career of prestigious authorship with a narrower audience.
The first verse of One Direction's first song was sung by Liam Payne. The song was called "What Makes You Beautiful" (2011) and the verse said, "You're insecure, don't know what for." In the music video, Payne had the look of a timeless teenager, as if he had stepped out of the 60s: a bit Beach Boy and a bit Justin Bieber, mischievous yet good-hearted. His voice was the deepest of the quintet, and his demeanor was the calmest, the least theatrical. In a way, the message he conveyed was that he was steering One Direction. Although this was a misconception because the band was managed by their executives, it was somewhat true that Payne was the most determined singer, the one who seemed to know what was going on there.
What was going on there? A step forward in the history of boy bands. One Direction was not free from genre clichés but was a much more refined product than its predecessors. Carl Falk, Rami Yacoub, Savan Kotecha, Ed Sheeran... The list of prestigious songwriters who helped propel the quintet is significant. One Direction was not a one-dimensional product like other boy bands but excelled in almost any genre, from classic ballads to sexy rock a la Fleetwood Mac, from imaginative pop like Mika to dance music... Payne shone in songs like "Best Song Ever," "Steal My Girl," and "History," establishing himself among his peers as the most musical of the five, the one making strides as a songwriter. Over time, Harry Styles became the central figure of One Direction, mainly due to his charisma and ability to interpret the world he lived in. It was more of a cultural influence than strictly musical.
One must not be deceived: One Direction was a commercial group, managed to yield intense results in a short time. "Up All Night," "Take Me Home," "Midnight Memories," "Four," and "Made in the A.M." were the five albums the band released at a pace of one per year, amidst global tours and chronic promotional campaigns. Despite the stress, the evolution was natural and satisfying. "Made in the A.M.," the band's farewell album, was not a refutation of their early songs but the culmination of five years during which the One Direction product acquired layers. Their songs referenced pop history in a cultured way, fitting well into what remained a group for teenagers.
The pace of One Direction's work was unsustainable, of course. In 2014, Zayn Malik left the band. In 2016, his bandmates followed suit. In 2017, Payne released his first single, "Strip That Down," which included inevitable self-assertive verses: "You know, I used to be in 1D (now I'm out, free) / People want me for one thing (that's not me) / I'm not changing, the way, that I (used to be) / I just wanna have fun and (get rowdy)." Later, there were songs with Rita Ora and J. Balvin, and an album compiling his singles, titled "LP1" (2019). The issue with "LP1" was the comparison: compared to Harry Styles, who adapted rock history to a new generation's sensibility, or Niall Horan's successful reinvention as a credible singer-songwriter, Liam Payne chose the crowded border between dance-pop and hip-hop, where standing out is more challenging.