Liam Payne’s voice is first heard on the first single from culture-changing boy band One Direction: “What Makes You Beautiful” launches into a bouncy guitar riff, a cheeky and borderline unnecessary cowbell, and then, Payne.

“You’re insecure, don’t know what for / Your heads turn when you walk in the door,” he sings, reassuring a cross-section of generations in a few words that he’s got your back, girl, And you should like yourself a little more.

Payne, who died aged just 31 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina on Wednesday, was also the last solo voice on the band’s final single, “History”, effectively becoming the oldest boy in the world. Used to start and stop an uninterrupted performance of one of the Bands of all time.

However the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear – Buenos Aires police said in a statement that Payne had “jumped from the balcony of his room”, although they remained unclear as to how this was established or whether it was deliberate. No details given. , Payne was a key part of the internet’s first boy band, earning an indelible place in the hearts of millennial and Gen Z fans.

FILE – This is a Friday, December 12, 2014 file photo of One Direction singer Liam Payne as he performs with the group on stage during the ’40 Principales Awards 2014′ ceremony at the Palacio de los Deportes in Madrid, Spain Are. , Photo Credit: Abraham Caro Marin

Before One Direction became One Direction, its members auditioned for the UK x factor separately. The judges decided to put five promising, but not yet outstanding, boys into a group. Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Payne finished third together in the 2010 contest.

As rolling stone Contributing editor Rob Sheffield explains, it was a “phenomenal” way for a boy band to make their debut.

“They were assigned to be together. And you don’t expect longevity from that position. To be honest, you can’t expect a single good pop record to come out of that situation,” he says. And yet, not only did it work, but One Direction essentially created “a new template for pop stardom.”

FILE – From left Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Liam Payne arrive for the world premiere of “One Direction: This Is Us” at the Empire Leicester Square in London on August 20, 2013. , Photo Credit: Ian West

The show allowed fans from day one to follow their career before their official 2011 launch with “What Makes You Beautiful”. Budding fans can use emerging social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr to find community, draw attention to the group, and talk directly to members in the early days.

“I honestly created a Twitter so I could keep up with One Direction, and that’s how I made a lot of different friends,” says fan Gabriel Copera, 28, of California, who remembers the band hosting livestreams and chats. We do. “Sometimes they would say something in response and it was very funny. I feel like we don’t even have that conversation with the fans anymore.

Maura Johnston, a freelance music writer and adjunct instructor at Boston College, says that sense of accessibility strengthened the group’s personality and relationship with fans.

FILE – One Direction’s Liam Payne performs during the Honda Civic Tour at Qualcomm Stadium on Thursday, July 9, 2015 in San Diego, California. Photo Credit: Rich Fury

“The fact that they came on this British TV show and they became this worldwide phenomenon, I don’t think it could have happened so intensely and so quickly without social media, without Twitter or being able to unite people. And it must have happened so widely. The Globe,” she says.

Millennial and Gen Z audiences practically grew up with One Direction, but the band was truly omnipresent. Johnson says this is at least partly due to arriving in a completely different media environment than today.

“It was a lot more concentrated,” she says of the early 2010s. “Algorithmic sorting of stuff hadn’t really taken hold. So, it was a broad, mass approach. …They were one of the last gasps of a mass phenomenon that anyone of any age, even if they weren’t a fan, had to pay attention to.

But developing a loyal fan base requires more than ubiquity. And there were countless reasons why listeners were attracted to One Direction. “They were five very different personalities as well as five very different musical personalities,” says Sheffield.

They also broke the rules associated with traditional boy bands: “They co-wrote many of their own songs. They didn’t do, you know, cliched, choreographed steps on stage,” he said.

Following the news of Payne’s death, Kopera says, “They got a lot of messages from people I haven’t talked to in years because I think everyone realized it felt like we lost a family.” Lost a member.” That sentiment was reflected in the crowd of fans gathered Wednesday outside Buenos Aires’ Casa Sur hotel, feeding a growing makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and currency notes while police stood guard.

Fans mourn former One Direction singer Liam Payne at a memorial after his death outside the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 17, 2024. , Photo credit: Marcos Brindicci

“I’ve loved One Direction since I was little,” said Juana Relh, 18, outside Payne’s hotel. “To see that he died and the boys will never be reunited is unbelievable, it kills me.” Johnston says Payne was like a “concerned” older brother to One Direction. He also co-wrote several songs, particularly in his later career – such as the Fleetwood Mac-channeling “What a Feeling” and “Fireproof.”

“He was a driving force in the band,” says Johnson.

In an Instagram tribute, Tomlinson called Payne “the most important part of One Direction”.

“I always remember him being the responsible and sensible guy of the group, and I feel like he wore his heart on his sleeve,” Kopera says.

Payne recently became vocal about his struggles with alcohol addiction, posting a YouTube video in July 2023 in which he said he had been sober for six months after receiving treatment. Buenos Aires police said they found clonazepam – a central nervous system depressant – and other over-the-counter medications in Payne’s hotel room, as well as a whiskey bottle in the courtyard where he was found.

“It makes you feel even more sad to see what happened to Liam, it seems like he needed help,” Kopera says. “And it’s very scary to think how the entertainment industry can eat artists.”

After One Direction disbanded in 2016, Payne’s solo career – a solo R&B-pop album in 2019, “LP1,” and several singles here and there – never took off like some of his bandmates. “He was the least successful,” says Sheffield. “It’s safe to say that the terms he was leaving with didn’t really get him what he wanted to do.”

“It’s hard to go from being a boy bander to being a pop star,” Johnson says.

Of Payne’s solo show, Sheffield explains, “He used to show a little montage of One Direction performing, which is the kind of thing you don’t do when you’re starting out as a solo artist. But fans took it in the same spirit in which it was introduced, which is a very generous statement of, ‘Yes, you’re here because of this history that we share, and I’m here because of that same history. Am.”

Despite Payne’s struggles and the tragedy of his death, Kopera is confident that “his legacy will always point to One Direction.”

The same is true for fans.

“When I look back at One Direction, I feel like, that was my boyhood. One Direction was the soundtrack to growing up, and I’m very grateful for that,” she says. “They were just a bunch of really normal boys.”