Countless singers have found that success with a boy band is no guarantee for a long-lasting solo career.
Former One Direction member Harry Styles proves with a series of three concerts in the Johan Cruijff ArenA that it is indeed possible. And he is certainly not alone.
There has been no escaping Harry Styles in recent years. The singer sells millions of records, scores hit after hit, regularly shows his face on the silver screen and the (gossip) press can’t stop talking about him. There is no denying that he is one of the all-time greatest pop stars of his generation.
Styles starts his career with an audition for the British talent show X Factor, where he is placed in the boy band One Direction after a few rounds. The group finishes third, but grows into a worldwide hit phenomenon, with screaming fans everywhere the band members go. In 2016, the group takes an indefinite hiatus to work on solo careers.
The screaming fans have never gone away for Styles. The singer has released his debut single Sign Of The Times immediately a big hit in 2017. It is the first in a long line of successes anywhere Watermelon Sugar, Adore You be part of. Published last year As It Was itself became the most listened to song of the year on Spotify.
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When you think of NSYNC, you think of Justin Timberlake
The history of boy bands shows that usually a maximum of one singer per boy band solo becomes really successful. Just look at NSYNC. When the rest of the band members are still waiting for Justin Timberlake to return around 2002, his solo career immediately takes off so fast that he doesn’t want to go back. With hits like Like I Love You, Cry Me A River in SexyBack establishes himself as one of the biggest pop stars of the noughties of this century. Even after that, hits like Mirrors in Can’t Stop The Feeling. His success back then is definitely comparable to how big Styles is now.
The other four members of NSYNC almost all remain active in the media, but only JC Chasez also releases music himself. He manages to reach the charts a few times, but his solo career hardly leaves an impression.
The same goes for the members of the Backstreet Boys. Nick Carter still has a hit, but the singers quickly decide that they are stronger together. After a two-year break, they rejoined in 2005. The band still performs as a five piece.
The whole of One Direction does not do it without merit
The members of One Direction will be less in a hurry with a reunion. While Styles has arguably achieved the most commercial success, he’s not the only one with a prolific career.
For example, Zayn Malik, who has left the band a year before the rest, also starts his career with a number 1 hit: Pillowtalk. His duets with Sia and Taylor Swift also have over a billion streams on Spotify. The singer himself chooses not to tour and hardly promote his work, which means that his name has now been pushed into the background.
The latter does not apply to Niall Horan. The singer has built a stable career and will release his third album next week. Especially in the United Kingdom he manages to score hit after hit. Horan will visit the Ziggo Dome twice in March next year. The other members Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson have also had some hit success, but are still a bit behind compared to their band mates.
Yet every member of One Direction already has a bigger solo career than all the Backstreet Boys members and the members of NSYNC who are not Justin Timberlake.
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Will One Direction follow Take That’s example?
When the extremely popular British group Take That announced it was splitting up in the mid-1990s, aid agencies had to pull out all the stops to take care of the devastated teenage girls. Robbie Williams leaves the band a little earlier, because he is given an ultimatum because of his drug use.
Subsequently, he has by far the greatest solo career. Williams never really got a foothold in the United States, but in Europe he managed to regularly end up in the highest regions of the charts for almost twenty years. That is not for Gary Barlow, who writes the lion’s share of the Take That hits. Although he doesn’t do it without merit on his own.
After ten years, the men reunite in 2006, without Williams. It is the start of a successful and long-lasting comeback, with several number 1 albums and singles, especially in the UK. It goes so well that in 2010, when his solo career is all but dead, Williams rejoins the company for a few years.
Who knows, the other One Direction fans will also get Styles in a few years when a reunion is started. For now, he will first entertain tens of thousands of Dutch fans on his own for three evenings.
2023-06-04 03:00:00
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