Trivia / One Direction

• Approval of God: In the midst of the grossly overblown flame war over "Best Song Ever" ripping off "Baba O'Riley", Pete Townshend said that he was flattered that the song was popular enough to be ripped off (and pointed out that it had already been a hundred times).
• Colbert Bump: The One Direction fan base are strong enough to make new artists' careers (i.e., Ed Sheeran, 5 Seconds of Summer), derail rising artists (The Wanted) and bring once-mighty stars to their knees (Justin Bieber, though he later recovered).
• Content Leak: An early version of their Comic Relief charity single One Way or Another (Teenage Kicks) was leaked before the official release.
• Creator Backlash: In an interview with Zane Lowe for Beats 1 Radio, Zayn admits that he never wanted to be in the group the first place.
• Creator Killer: Nothing has yet happened to 1D themselves, but they are one of, if not the main catalyst in the declining popularity of Justin Bieber (although Bieber's increasing Jerkass behavior that started around the time 1D became popular in the U.S. may have also had something to do with it), at least until 2015 (See Broken Streak above). Not to mention they destroyed The Wanted. Their popularity also came at the expense of Austin Mahone, Emblem3, Conor Maynard, Union J, and a whole other slew of heartthrobs. The only anomalies to this trend are 5 Seconds of Summer (a group closely affiliated with 1D and their openers on their 2013 and 2014 tours) and Shawn Mendes (who survives by primarily targeting adult contemporary audiences).
  • They went on a long "hiatus" and everyone has pursued their own projects and careers.
• Dueling Works: Their first (and only) post-Zayn album Made in the AM came out the same day as Justin Bieber’s comeback album Purpose. Bieber won the Billboard #1, though on the day itself news of both were pushed aside as people heard of the 2015 Paris bombings.
• Fake American:
  • You wouldn't know Niall was Irish if you only ever heard him speak in his American accent.
  • Louis pulls off a fairly good (if extraordinarily hammy) American accent, too.
• Fake Brit: Niall, the same as above. They all swapped accents in one video diary, and Niall's imitation of Louis's Yorkshire accent was pretty hilarious.
• Fake Irish: While Niall is actually Irish and just good at accents, Harry (who likes to imitate Niall's accent, especially when the band is actually in Ireland) is not.
• Fandom Life Cycle: Their fandom was fairly large once they broke up, and the remainders now follow the members' solo careers.
• Genre Relaunch: 1D pretty much single-handedly revived the Boy Band in both the United States and the U.K., Sure the Jonas Brothers were big, but 1D have reached a level not seen since the likes of the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC
  • After their hiatus, the boy band reinvented itself once again, with another international phenomenon leading the charge.
• What Could Have Been: Liam was rejected by the X-Factor in its 2008 series. Had he made it farther, we might not have 1D as we know it.
  • According to Florrie, Xenomania (producers behind her and Girls Aloud) were commissioned to record and produce several songs for their debut album, but none of the songs made it to the album for whatever reason.
• Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: Zayn temporarily deactivated his Twitter account due to the hateful comments he received, in extreme cases being called a "terrorist".