On November 25, 2013 the famed boy-band One Direction released their 3rd album called Midnight Memories. Midnight Memories is supposedly the album that would help transition the band’s career into singing more serious themes and overall have a more mature image than they did when they first broke out into the music industry in 2011. In an interview with Harry Styles, one of the five members of One Direction, he said: “If you listen to the first album, then listen straight to the third album, it’s completely different.”
Perhaps the route that the One Direction members are going down is doing well for their careers. In its first week, 237,000 copies of Midnight Memories were sold, making it the top-selling album of 2013 in the U.K., according to the Official Charts Company. Before that record-breaking event, it was reported that U.K. singer Emeli Sande’s album Our Version of the Events was the most-selling album in the U.K. of 2012 with sales of 693,000 copies throughout the whole year (while on the other hand, 1D sold 685,000 copies of their album in just 5 weeks).
This hasn’t been the only time One Direction has experienced success as great figures in the music business. Their debut album Up All Night (2011) sold 176,000 copies in the first week, their second album Take Me Home (2012) sold 242,000 copies in its first week and managed to snag #1 in the U.K. Music Billboards at the same time.
In 2011, 1D was noticeably all about innocent romance and puppy-love songs. Their songs were catchy (i.e. What Makes You Beautiful) but were marketed off to mainly 12-year old fan-girls and other pre-teens in that age category. Take Me Home was an album that served as a bridge between typical-teenage-boy-band-music-sounding Up All Night and more-mature-sounding Midnight Memories.
Best Song Ever is a successful single from the soundtrack that still proves that One Direction is still a group of youthful teenage boys who are just looking for a good time. However, Story of My Life is also another well-known single that takes on another theme and its lyrics are beginning to develop that more “meaningful depth” to it. There are so many other songs on the CD such as Half a Heart and Diana that have backed up the theory that the One Direction members are all growing up.
As time goes by, the boys have been changing up their image (by growing facial hair and getting multiple tattoos, etc.) perhaps to reach out to the fans who have also grown up and changed. But whether they’re trying to sell their merchandise to those typical pre-teens or to a bigger older audience, One Direction will manage to pull up on top if they stay true to themselves and keep on making music that many kinds of people can relate to and enjoy. The game-changer that they threw at us didn’t only stir up a lot of publicity—it managed to broaden and expand their career even further than before.
