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They don’t depend on new mass-marketed albums, fan books, merch, or collectible dolls in order to be everywhere. In late 2016, Vine is of course dead, but One Direction’s presence on Twitter and Tumblr is as strong as ever. They received an eager welcome from Tumblr they were perfect for Vine. Because of their brand’s emphasis on chaos, they were imminently loopable. They were teens themselves, unlike many of the old-dude “boy” bands of yore who would have faltered on this precipice. In their 2011 propulsion across the sea from the UK, they rode the wave of the first year that parents let their teens have Twitter accounts. That’s because - as if fated by the gods - One Direction was born on the eve of social media dominance. One direction was born during a magic moment
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They’re kept alive by GIFs and fan accounts on Twitter and the bloggers who love them, including those at the (sadly) soon-to-be-shuttered Hearst site Sugarscape, a more readable and diligent version of Tiger Beat that has followed their every move since day one. Today, they’re as omnipresent on the internet as they were at any point in their five-year reign. A cultural object so serendipitously conceived that it will never happen again quite the same way, and so perfectly timed that it’s stubbornly refusing to go away. All there is that matters is One Direction itself. There’s no slang, no fashion trend, no musical innovation, no theme, no sound, no movement that this group of boys created on purpose and willed into existence. There’s no mainstream phenomenon you can point to that was obviously inspired by One Direction - though one could make the case that Taylor Swift’s pop about-face wouldn’t have gone so cleanly without the opportunity to write a dozen or so songs about Harry Styles. By the less tangible measure of cultural influence, things get a little murkier. They churned out five albums in as many years, and even nabbed some co-signs from the ‘70s and ‘80s icons they had so charmingly ripped off.
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They’re the most profitable boy band in history. One direction is the highest-paid band of 2016īy the numbers, One Direction was and is an undeniable force to be reckoned with. It was a steady revenue provider well into 2016. It sold 2.4 million copies in the remaining month and a half of that year, and then took 45 weeks to drop out of the top 200. Made in the AM, released in October of last year just before the hiatus, was their fifth album to debut in the Billboard top 10 - breaking a record set by The Beatles. But the group also still has nearly 9 million monthly listeners on Spotify - more than four times the number boasted by 5 Seconds of Summer, their knighted successor. A big reason for One Direction’s $110 million haul for 2016 is simply rolled over cash from their On the Road Again tour, which grossed over $200 million and wrapped in late fall of 2015. Regardless, One Direction was Forbes’ second highest-paid musical act for the year. The boys have been busy, but they haven’t been together.
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In the meantime most of the members have moved on to new projects: a solo recording contract here, a label imprint there… a Christopher Nolan film, a golf management company, an embarrassing production moniker, an Ed Sheeran-lite debut single. One Direction has been on an indefinite “hiatus” since December 13th, 2015 - one year ago today.