One Direction
It hasn’t been an easy year for One Direction fans.
“Directioners” – as the most devout followers of the worldwide boy band phenomenon fashion themselves – have endured a host of shocking announcements this year, from Zayn Malik departing from the group in March to “have some private time out of the spotlight” to the discovery that Louis Tomlinson is expecting a child.
But none of that could have prepared the group’s obsessive admirers for the Aug. 24 announcement that the 5-year-old band will be taking a one-year hiatus next March following the conclusion of its current “On The Road Again” world tour and the release of its forthcoming fifth studio album.
From viral memes to videos of sobbing young girls to frantic, unpunctuated tweets, the Internet erupted with responses that ranged from hysteric sadness to ambivalent indifference to giddy joy.
Students at this university, however, had more measured responses to the revelation that members of one of the most well-known boy bands ever are – at least temporarily – soon to be heading their own separate ways.
Junior Mackenzie Happe, a self-identified Directioner, said she “kind of saw it coming,” partially because she believes the band will never be the same after Malik’s departure and also because she knew the boys would inevitably want to pursue their own visions.
Happe – who owns zebra-printed One Direction folders that she carries around campus and has taken cardboard cut-outs of the band members bowling with her sister as a “little joke” – said she is far from sad about the news. Instead, she eagerly awaits what each member will do once they are on their own.
“It’s exciting,” said the art and journalism major. “Me and my sister will talk about what we think they’ll be doing a year from now, like who is going to continue singing and who is going to go into producing and stuff like that.”
Sophomore Kevin Jiang has a much more cynical view of the group’s announcement of a yearlong break, saying it “kind of sounds like a possible marketing scheme.”
But Jiang – who, aside from Malik, said he doesn’t know the names of the band members – isn’t bothered by the announcement.
“They’re not really my cup of tea,” the computer science major said. “I couldn’t care less to be honest.”
