Here are 60 minutes of One Direction to give you a taste of Liam Payne's talents
Liam Payne, a former member of the preeminent 2010s boy band One Direction, died on October 16 at the age of 31. In his short and fairly troubled post-1D career, he never fully slotted into his own lane the way fellow band members Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and Zayn Malik did. He released one EP (First Time) and one album (LP1) and scored one top 10 radio hit, "Strip That Down," which spent 28 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, but he never achieved the full potential of his substantial talents as a soloist.
As a member of One Direction, though, Payne was the glue that bound the operation of hastily thrown-together teenagers. Payne was cut from The X-Factor in 2008 and grouped into a band when he auditioned again in 2010; that band, which became One Direction, placed third in the competition but nevertheless exploded into international success. Over the next five years, the beloved boy band became a phenomenon that spanned five best-selling albums and one of the highest-grossing concert movies of all time (One Direction: This Is Us). In the early days of the band, as the group was flung into the utter chaos of mega-fame, Payne was affectionately nicknamed "Daddy Direction" for being the sensible, responsible voice of reason amongst his more mischievous bandmates.
Payne functioned as an anchor for One Direction beyond his personality. Coming into the group, he was the most technically proficient vocalist; he once called himself the "first verse man" because of how often their early tracks began with his voice. His impressive range saw him take over many of the more challenging live parts after Malik departed in 2015. And as the group progressed, so did Payne's talents as a writer and producer. He began to collaborate most often with Tomlinson (a partnership Tomlinson was interested in continuing to explore even in their solo careers, though they never got the chance to work together again after One Direction split). Payne was ultimately credited as a co-writer on more than half of the songs on the group's final two albums. "Learning how to write [songs] is the best way of ensuring your career has longevity and that you have control over it," he told The Sun in 2014 (via CapitalFM).
One Direction's brief but prolific career charts the evolution of Payne's abilities, from the perfunctory pop of 2011's Up All Night to the mature, eclectic collection of tunes on 2015's Made In The A.M. He honed his skills as a lyricist and even tried his hand at remixing and producing songs in that time. If he had more of it, Payne surely would have found his voice as a solo artist, whether that be as a singer, writer, or producer. Unfortunately, we’ll never get to see the artist he could have become. But in these 60 minutes of One Direction tracks, we can always return to the artist he was. It's the soundtrack of Liam Payne's coming of age and the coming of age of millions of fans throughout the world.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/06wkpyMWe1AFgNP1Schhyt?nd=1&dlsi=600568f2c7134dcd
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