It is a quick read, and not terribly enlightening, but it is fun and the real joy is that the audiobook is read by the boys themselves. There is an official autobiography, Who We Are: Our Autobiography, in which all five boys trade off talking about their lives and the band.
Last but not least, the Where We Are: Live at San Siro Stadium concert movie was filmed during the tour following the release of Midnight Memories. It charts the band pre- and post- X-Factor and provides behind-the-scenes details about the boys, their friendship, and their relationship to the machine that is One Direction. That movie is called One Direction: This Is Us, and it is practically sacred to the 1D fandom. The tour for Take Me Home was filmed and turned into a movie directed by Morgan Spurlock, director and star of the Oscar-nominated documentary Super Size Me. Up All Night: The Live Tour is pretty self-explanatory, but the other two are a little harder. There are concert films available for the tours corresponding to albums 1-3. You could find out the album names with a quick Google search, but I’ll make it easy on you. Instead there are albums and official books, unofficial books, movies and one fanwork-to-professional-publication. One Direction aren’t a text, so there aren’t graphic novel adaptations and sequels and prequels. This is, in the broadest strokes, the history of 1D. Zayn and Louis got into a tiff on Twitter, and Zayn signed to RCA and began working on an album for a 2016 release. They had a tumultuous five years of stadium tours, multi-platinum albums, and famous girlfriends, and then, in 2015, the departure of Zayn, the announcement of the hiatus, impending fatherhood for Louis, and rumors of solo plans for Harry and Liam. One Direction went global before they had even recorded a single. By the time One Direction were eliminated, in third place, the crowds of fans waiting outside had become so large the boys needed security to escort them through and people worldwide were declaring their love for the band on Twitter and tumblr. What followed was a fever dream of bad performances and terrible outfit choices, but people were captivated. They could continue in the show, but only as a group. Instead he offered them a second chance at their dream. When production asked Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Harry Styles back on stage, the boys remember Harry saying it was because Simon wanted to make them cry because it would make good television. Five teenage boys auditioned for the show and got through the first round only to find out they didn’t have what it takes to make it as solo artists. One Direction, also known as 1D, started on U.K. The One Direction fandom is huge, it spans platforms, and it is as alive as ever. Those four weeks came after the hiatus, after the last promotional appearance, after the last of the new music had been released.
1,652 pieces of One Direction fanfiction were published on popular fanworks site Archive of Our Own (also known as AO3) over a period of just four weeks in January 2016. But did you know that on January 27th, Louis Tomlinson (1/4th of One Direction) tweeted a picture of himself with his 6-day-old son? Within 20 minutes, “Freddie” was trending on Twitter.
You’re busy, you’ve got other trends to keep up with, I get that. You may be wondering why you need to know about them if they are on hiatus.
“Zayn Malik Leaves One Direction,” “Different Directions for One Direction,” so-and-so signed a solo contract, someone else is in the studio rapping. Believe me, 20 have definitely seen some headlines. Or maybe you’ve just seen the headlines while you tried to catch up on pop culture news. Maybe you’ve heard someone talking about it at the library. Maybe you, like me, have been to a show or two. After five years, more than 50,000,000 (yes, that is 50 million) albums sold, and 325 headlining shows played, it is probably fair to say you’ve encountered One Direction at some point.