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Article by MARIA NIZAM.
International Day For The Elimination Of Nuclear Weapons 2017
It is rarely the book you came to seek, but the book next to that book, which changes your mind and heart.
‘When A Bookstore Closes, An Argument Ends’ by Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker (June 12, 2015)
1D is only group to debut at No. 1 with their first four albums
One Direction makes history, again, as the act’s new album Four debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. They are the only group in the 58-year history of the chart to see their first four albums debut at No. 1. (A year ago, they became the first group to enter at No. 1 with their first three studio sets, when Midnight Memories bowed atop the chart.) The new album was released on Nov. 17 through SYCO/Columbia Records. Here’s a by-the-numbers look at the achievements the British/Irish quintet has made with Four’s chart-topping arrival:
- With 387,000 sold in the week ending Nov. 23, according to Nielsen SoundScan,Four earns the second-largest sales debut of the year, and the biggest week overall for a group. Only Taylor Swift’s 1989 was larger, with its 1.287 million start.
- One Direction is the only group to see their first four studio albums debut at No. 1. (They were already the only group to arrive atop the list with their first three sets.) - They are the fourth act, overall, to have their first four studio albums debut at No. 1. They follow soloists Britney Spears (between 1999 and 2003), DMX (his first five, 1998-2003) and Beyonce (five, 2003-2013).
- Four tallies the biggest week for an album by a group since One Direction’s previous effort, Midnight Memories, started with 546,000 on the Dec. 14, 2013-dated Billboard 200 chart (reflecting the sales week ending Dec. 1).
- Four is One Direction’s fourth No. 1 album in a row, in less than three years. They previously topped the list with their debut effort, Up All Night (on the list dated March 31, 2012), Take Me Home (Dec. 1, 2012) and Midnight Memories.
- In the history of the Billboard 200 chart, only three groups have reached No. 1 with their first four studio albums: One Direction, The Monkees (between 1966-1967) and The Kingston Trio (with their first five sets, 1958-1960). While all four of One Direction’s albums debuted at No. 1, The Monkees and The Kingston Trio’s releases climbed to No. 1 after entering the chart at a lower rank. (The chart didn’t see its first debut at No. 1 until 1975, when Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy started atop the list.)
- In total, just six acts have reached No. 1 with their first four studio releases: Beyonce, DMX, The Kingston Trio, The Monkees, One Direction and Britney Spears.
PLEASE SHARE EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT THE MARCHING BAND PART OF THE VIDEO PLS PLS PSL
THAT TIME ONE DIRECTION HAULED A BUSLOAD OF TEENAGERS OUT INTO THE DESERT 150 MILES FROM HOME AND WERE LIKE “YOU CAN’T EVEN TELL YOUR PARENTS WHAT WE DID HERE TODAY” BECAUSE THAT’S NOT HILARIOUS AND SKETCHY AT ALL
7/20/2015 @ 3:44PM
Keep reading
Meet the new scent of your dreams.
Today, the boys of One Direction created internet pandemonium yet again by revealing the bottle of their third scent, titled “You & I.” And this truly is epically massive beauty news: It turns out that their debut perfume, Our Moment, was the fastest-selling female fragrance of 2013.
So how does this new one measure up? “I think they kind of blend together, almost like a uniform,” Liam says. “But this time, we all sat down, looked at what’s on the market, did our research, and smelled a lot of things.”
“It gives you a bit of background into what’s out there,” Louis explains.
“So this one is fruity, but a little bit more toned down and not too bold,” Liam continues. “Not like the ones that give you a headache after.”
To contextualize the fragrance out of boy-speak (even though it’s admittedly precious), You & I is basically a sparkling fruity scent. Think mango and grapefruit mixed with pretty pink flowers like orchids and peonies. It’s pure girly sweetness, epitomized by the “free charm that comes on the bottle—a beautiful little touch,” Liam adds.
As the boys point out, the launch event in New York City today (yes, this editor got to meet them!) was something of a milestone. “We’ve got as many fragrances as albums,” Liam notes. And speaking of, their fourth LP sounds like a winner. “We’re really hands on this time,” Liam says. “A lot of our singles are bold and pop, but there’s a chill factor on the new one. It’s like driving down a road in California on a lovely day.”
One Direction’s sound, in fact, has done some maturing with each album. And, Louis insists, the same is true with their scents. “I suppose it’s happened naturally in the progression of the three. That’s the way we wanted it,” he says. “But it’s not a drastic change.”
There is a drastic change, though: “I used to rob my dad’s cologne when I was 11 or 12—one of those real disco scents. Remember One Million?” Liam asks Louis of Paco Rabanne’s iconically overwhelming fragrance. “Oh, yeah. It smells like a club,” Louis responds with a laugh. “What about Joop?” he retorts. “It’s good, mate, but you do two sprays and then you’re just lightheaded.”
But ironically it’s not fragrance that’s the most pervasive smell on tour. “Someone had eaten a peperami (a beef jerky snack) and I smelled their breath on stage, and I actually said ‘Who’s had a peperami?’” Louis jokes. “Personally, I think it’s Liam or Niall or Zayn.”
“How did I get involved in this?” Liam asks. “Zayn has strong for peperamis.”
“So does Niall,” Louis points out.
“Yeah, but Niall always smells like fresh cotton,” Liam responds.
“Maybe fresh cotton with bad breath.”
You & I is available for pre-order tomorrow on Macys.com, and will be officially available for purchase nationwide on August 26th.
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You probably hate this band. That’s cool. But with their new album, it might be time to take a listen.
By Laura Reineke
One Direction’s new album Four leaked over the weekend, and it’s way better than it has any right to be. Wait, wait, wait—I know you think you don’t give a shit about One Direction. But while you’ve been busy aggressively avoiding them, the British boyband has evolved from cuddly-cute Euro-poptarts into a bunch of beautiful long-legged diet Springsteens (albeit less in political inclination than in “Hell yeah!” attitude and commercial accessibility). Four is a lively 80s throwback adventure awash in power guitar chords, piano, anthemic choruses, and walls of harmonies. It’s a vibe that totally suits them.
The five members of One Direction—Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson—are not the cleverest or most adventurous dudes in pop music. The band exists by chance and the good grace of Simon Cowell, not because they came to the table with much to offer beyond charm. It’d be a waste to expect from them some kind of game-changing tour de force. But with nearly a billion dollars in earnings and enough fans to qualify for United Nations representation, they must know how easy it would be to phone it in until their contracts run out, make a couple albums of bullshit pop, and coast to an early retirement. But instead they’ve seized the massive opportunities afforded them and are making a concerted effort to dig out their own sound, to develop their musicality and songwriting skills into something worthy of their hyped-up legion of fans. Four is an improvement for them on every level: it’s smarter lyrically, warmer emotionally, and considerably more cohesive than any of their three previous studio outings.
As their venue sizes have grown (they’re heading out on their second worldwide stadium tour in February), the music has expanded to fill them. The farmhouse folk-pop quality of the band’s ubiquitous single “Story of My Life” late last year felt at the time like a calculated move to stay on trend with chart toppers like Mumford & Sons and The Lumineers, but it turns out it was foreshadowing. While their third album Midnight Memories was a game but unwieldy effort to bridge the gap between pop and rock, Four sees the band diving full-on into Dad Rock mode. (Which, by the way, is a good thing: Anyone who thinks this isn’t a compliment has forgotten the life-affirming simplicity of a solid guitar line and a shout-able chorus.) The boys’ relief to have escaped the cookie cutter confines of their X-Factor roots is palpable.
For one thing, the songwriting’s gotten better. Payne and Tomlinson have taken on the bulk of the co-writing credits here as they did on Midnight Memories (working again with a team that includes Julian Bunetta, Jamie Scott, and John Ryan), but this time the effort feels more deliberate. The pair are both in long-term relationships and that influence has helped to push the nudge-wink flirtiness of their earlier songs into a kind of lived-in sexiness that’s apparent on tracks like “No Control” (“Taste on my tongue / I don’t want to wash away the night before”) and the infectious, reverential bop “Girl Almighty” (“I get down, I get down, I get down on my knees for you”). “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” is an arena rock jam destined for the fist-pump freeze frame ending of a Breakfast Club remake. Harry admitted with a shit-eating grin in an interview over the weekend that “Stockholm Syndrome” is “about a nympho,” and between its lyrical allusions to enjoying a bit of light bondage and its sexy “Bad”-era staccato beat, it’s one of the hottest, catchiest songs they’ve recorded.
There’s also a newfound confidence in their vocals. Styles’ raspy tone sounds much more at home in this sort of rock sound than it ever did on bubblegum pop. Horan and Tomlinson, who barely advanced beyond backup vocals on their debut, have really leveled up here; Horan flexes an appealing growl on that first verse of “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” and Tomlinson’s reedy tenor is in especially fine form on “No Control,” punching out the chorus like the vocal equivalent of a pelvic thrust. Payne and Malik are still the workhorse vocalists of the group, providing much-needed texture and the occasional showboating flourish. It’s Malik’s lush falsetto melisma on lead single “Steal My Girl” that really kicks the song into gear.
The songs aren’t all winners. “Ready to Run,” which takes the same chord progressions from “Story of My Life” and swaps in marginally better lyrics, absolutely belongs on the soundtrack of an inspirational movie about a teen girl at equestrian camp. 1D’s pal Ed Sheeran is responsible for the blah “18,” a too-cheesy ode to young love that we’ve all heard a million times before. And I’m still waiting for an explanation behind the choice of “Night Changes” as the second single. Other than a nice key change, it’s uninspired. But not even a truly unfortunate Casio keyboard drum loop can detract from the gorgeous, ghost-like harmonies of “Fireproof.” And I’m straight-up obsessed with “Fool’s Gold,” a frank admission that sometimes false love is better than none at all. It’s the best they’ve ever sounded, and the most perceptive: “I knew that you turned it on for everyone you met / But I don’t regret falling for your fool’s gold.”
The bar for boybands is low. We’ve come to expect a few years of bombast from groups like this, then a soft slope down toward a break-up, followed by D-list name recognition punctuated with the occasional guest spot on Dancing with the Stars or an US Weekly wedding headline. But four albums into global success no one could have predicted, One Direction aren’t getting the hint to wrap it up. They know you’re out here side-eyeing their reality show roots, deriding their young female fanbase, and dismissing their shiny pop sound, and not only are they not bothered, they’ve used that blind hatred to broaden their ambitions beyond what their critics think they deserve. Four is a focused, genuinely fun pop-rock album, and a sign of truly promising growth that isn’t likely to taper off soon. “And we go and we go and we don’t stop,” they sing in the sprawling breakdown of the ambitious, punk-tinged closer “Clouds.” It’s not a threat, it’s an invitation to take them seriously. What’s your excuse?
Laura Reineke has been a queen since she was 16. Follow her on Twitter.
NEW YORK – November 12, 2014 – NBCUniversal and One Direction today announced an unprecedented and expansive cross-platform partnership for the global launch of the band’s upcoming studio album, FOUR. One Direction superstars Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson will “take over” NBCUniversalin an exclusive partnership spanning multiple brands and platforms across NBCUniversal’s vast portfolio in support of the launch of the band’s fourth studio album. The partnership kicked off on Monday, September 8 on TODAY with the exclusive announcement of the album’s worldwide launch date of Monday, November 17, and a week-long “1D Fan Face-Off” contest culminating in the announcement of the band’s album launch performance on TODAY from Universal Orlando Resort. The collaboration includes a variety of special events including:
A live performance from One Direction on the TODAY show and Un Nuevo Dia Monday, November 17 originating from Universal Orlando Resort’s CityWalk (no theme park admission required).
A “1D” holiday special to air December 23, 8-9pm ET on NBC called “ONE DIRECTION: THE TV SPECIAL” – the band’s first-ever U.S. network special.
Competitions around the world for fans to win a grand prize of VIP tickets to the performance airing on TODAY and Un Nuevo Dia, and the second special performance by the band at the Universal Studios Florida Music Plaza stage, on Tuesday, November 18 (private performance – not open to the general public). Tickets available at http://smarturl.it/1DSpecialBundle
In celebration of the new album, fans visiting Universal Orlando Resort on November 17 and 18 will experience a specially-themed “Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit” roller coaster featuring music from 1D and a special 1D version of the ”Universal Cinematic Spectacular” nighttime show.
Guests inside Universal Studios can join the social media action at the One Direction in Orlando Fan Zone on Park Avenue.
Guests staying at Universal Orlando’s Cabana Bay Beach Resort will have an opportunity to attend an exclusive album listening pool party on November 16, 7-8pm ET to hear the album before it is released, and will also have the unique opportunity to sign up for specially recorded wake-up calls from the members of One Direction.
Additionally, exclusive interviews and news about the band’s new record will also be featured across NBCUniversal’s entertainment news platforms “Access Hollywood,” “E! News” and on Telemundo’s Spanish-language morning show “Un Nuevo Dia” as part of the partnership. U.S. promotional partners for this collaboration sending fans to see 1D in Orlando have included Amazon, Clear Channel, Vevo, Seventeen magazine, retail outlets Rue 21 and Claire’s, and the video game “Just Dance.” One Direction fans can pre-order FOUR at http://smarturl.it/1DFouriTdlx.
And now, we bid adieu to One Direction
Gillette Stadium was the boy band’s final stateside stop before they take a hiatus.
By Bryanna Cappadona
@brycappa
Boston.com Staff | 09.12.15 | 11:22 PM
“Boston, how about we sing some songs together?”
It was a classic Liam Payne call to action, but there’s something so thrilling about artists acknowledging your hometown. Especially if it’s One Direction.
It’s with great bittersweetness that we accept tonight’s show at Gillette as an anticipated turning point in One Direction’s sovereignty. It’s been five years since the boy band came together on the U.K.’s X Factor, and in that time, those favorite nobodies became unfathomable somebodies who put out four albums, released a movie, toured the world, and stole many, many hearts.
Tonight, One Direction sold out Gillette Stadium. It’s nothing they haven’t done before. Last year they did it thrice, nearly 70,000 people from all corners of the Northeast fleeing to be in the presence of those British-Irish lads. But this time, it’s different. The show marked One Direction’s final North American show as a group before heading into a European leg of On the Road Again until the end of October.
After that, no one knows if we’ll ever see One Direction The Group perform together again in the USA.
“It’s an important night for us, as it’s the last stop on this tour,” Harry Styles shouted from the stage. He told the crowd to dance their hardest. Louis Tomlinson admitted he’s “feeling emotional tonight.” Liam thanked his crew for an amazing tour. Niall said Gillette is one of his favorite stadiums in America.
2015 featured some pretty hefty obstructions in One Direction Land, primarily Zayn Malik’s exit from the group back in March.
In July, People.com reported that Louis Tomlinson was expecting a baby, which Michael Strahan then forced Louis to confirm on live TV. For what it’s worth, if this happened to Timberlake during his *NSYNC days, the world would have crumbled.
And then came the most ominous news of all: In August, The Daily Mail reported that One Direction was breaking up. “One Direction to SPLIT,” read its ever-provocative headline, sending Twitter into a frenzy, a point of hysteria that is, quite frankly, incomparable to any other thing that could warrant hysteria. Niall Horan told his 23 million Twitter followers that it was just a “well-earned break” next year. Liam Payne then disclosed in a solo, cover-story interview with Attitude magazine that it will be the time for One Direction to explore new things on their own.
So now here we are. Lots of fans at Gillette sported T-shirts that read “In memory of Zayn.” This could be perceived as an LOL gesture among 1D diehards, but there’s something to be said about immortalizing the good ol’ days. No fan wants to forget those unstoppable five boys plucked out of a mesh of aspiring youths by Simon Cowell. It was a seemingly arbitrary selection, which is what makes their incredible rise so endearing.
All good things come to an end, some parent somewhere probably told their devastated teenager. If only they really knew.
http://www.boston.com/entertainment/2015/09/12/one-direction-bids-final-farewell-gillette-stadium/lPX8Xe9aPd3RBgKk2a1guN/story.html
One Direction review – a demob-happy romp through the hits
Apple festival, Roundhouse, London One Direction come across as refreshingly human in a fun, intimate gig on what might prove to be the band’s final tour
“Oh no. We’ve lost another one,” notes Liam Payne, halfway through One Direction’s intimate Apple festival gig – a 1,700-capacity show that is, in all likelihood, the last opportunity their fans will have to see the whites of 1D’s eyes for some time.
Towards the end of lovey-dovey power ballad 18, Niall Horan disappears offstage, limping a little on his black cast, the result of a recent mysteriously fractured foot. No one really notices for a while – Harry Styles has just straddled a microphone stand in a suggestive manner. But Horan does not return for what seems an eternity. This gig is being streamed live and he is clearly not just strapping on a guitar behind a speaker. “They’re dropping like flies!” quips Payne as the band play for time. “We’re turning into Take That!”
Gigs by such slick juggernauts as One Direction (and Apple) don’t usually go far off-piste. Tonight’s one-hour show is meant to be about thanking Apple profusely and emptying bottles of water over the crowd, which is harder to do in arenas. Instead, Horan’s funny turn – the heat, he says, on his recovery one song later – is just one of a series of little glitches that turn this 15-track set by a phenomenally successful vocal group into something a little more intriguing: a demob-happy romp through the hits in which the facade of drilled homogeneity begins to slip.
Although they would argue it is merely the end of the beginning, we are now witnessing the beginning of the end for One Direction, the record-breaking boy band de nos jours. Earlier this year, 1D shed the brooding Zayn Malik. He gave up singing the high notes to make “real music”, a strategy that landed him in an ugly spat with erstwhile producer Naughty Boy, who has since consoled himself byworking with Beyoncé.
They’re dropping like flies! quips Payne as the band play for time. We’re turning into Take That!
More recently, the rump 1D announced a hiatus, assuring fans that 2016 would be a mere gap year, rather than the end of days. The day of this Apple assignation, One Direction released details of their forthcoming fifth album, Made in the AM, due in November (on the same day as a Justin Bieber album, allegedly). You could read it as meaning “recorded in the wee hours”; fans immediately decided AM meant “after Malik”. Tonight, 1D play MITAM’s persuasive lead single Drag Me Down, whose dramatic pre-chorus-to-chorus drop faintly echoes I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift. (Mercifully, there’s no whisper of Infinity, the dull ballad that accompanied the album announcement.)
So, business as usual, it seemed – until this strangely humanising set. Payne, the chattiest Direction, loses his microphone stand, meandering around during Little Things until Styles finds it for him. Styles, meanwhile, checks up on his sister, who is here on a date, and sings an impromptu Happy Birthday to a girl called Chloe. He jokes that it will be available priced 59p.
If One Direction are marking time – the last official date of their arena tour is Sheffield on 31 October – they are marking it with a mixture of commitment and insouciance. Styles, in particular, invests every line with passion, as evinced by his screwed-up emoting face. With his mane of luxuriant hair, a pink polka-dot shirt unbuttoned to the waist, he pulls mic-stand jinks and rockular poses on Midnight Memories and Story of My Life, suggesting a Romantic poet as imagined by a Japanese schoolgirl, or an anime Robert Plant. He points out men in the audience, singling out those with hipster beards. “He drives an old-school bicycle to work!”
By contrast, Louis Tomlinson, the football-playing cipher, smiles enigmatically and sticks tight to his mic stand, as though it might get away. Fireproof, the pleasantly mellow, West Coast-y, Fleetwood Mac-ish tune from 1D’s 2014 album, Four, features one of his more dulcet verses. The night’s unexpected star, though, is Liam Payne, who plays his microphone like a guitar, dances like he means it, and glues the team together. During What Makes You Beautiful, as the crowd take over the singing of their most-loved hit, the four enjoy a little pally moment centre stage: gearing up for one more push before each tests their mettle solo. Reduced, perhaps, but not diminished.
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Got a Whole Lot of History
Inside One Direction’s ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ Iconic Music Video 5 Years LaterOn the music video’s fifth anniversary, Fuse talked to the people who helped set the 1D phenomenon in motion
Emilee Lindner August 19, 2016
It’s early 2016 when music video director John Urbano strolls up to a little taco joint in Malibu with his wife and 2-year-old daughter. They’d just gotten off a five hour flight at LAX, and Urbano is still wearing sweatpants, just looking for a place to grab some sustenance before heading to a friend’s house. There are photographers swarming the restaurant’s outdoor garden — paparazzi he presumes, not too uncommon for Southern California. Craving some Los Angeles sunshine, he asks to be seated on the patio. Instead, they look him up and down and lead him to the darkest corner of the restaurant. Out of desperation for some grub, he obliges. Then comes a familiar, deep, British voice.
“John? Urbano?”
It’s Harry Styles. He’s wearing a bright blue T-shirt, and his brown hair is the longest it’s ever been, curls rolling past his shoulders. Styles gives Urbano a hug, and meets his daughter, whom he affectionately named “Baby Urbano.” That’s when a server approaches the family again: “Hey, if you want, we can seat you outside now, in the garden.”
…
Just 20 miles from the restaurant, Urbano shot One Direction’s first music video in July of 2011, and, coincidentally, it was his first music video too. Then, the five Brits, hoisted together by Simon Cowell on the U.K.’s X Factor, joined a small crew for the two-day shoot of “What Makes You Beautiful.” Posted to YouTube on Aug. 19, 2011, the video now has 789 million views and a year later, it earned the guys their first VMA (an event that Urbano wasn’t invited to), for Best Pop Video, and kisses from Katy Perry.
The video swerves from the stereotypical boy-band elements of the late ‘90s: heavy choreography, monochromatic costuming, cheesy storyline, a sense of in-your-face urgency, etc. Instead, they dropped Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik on the West Coast to sing to a camera — no dancing allowed.
One Direction had recorded “What Makes You Beautiful,” written by pop masters Savan Kotecha and Carl Falk, in Sweden after signing to Cowell’s Syco Records. It’s an exuberantly energetic track, complete with a guitar riff often compared to Grease’s “Summer Nights,” a spattering of cowbell and an epic drum fill that explodes into one of the most recognizable choruses of the past decade:
“Baby, you light up my world like nobody else / The way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed / But when you smile at the ground, it ain’t hard to tell / You don’t know, oh oh / You don’t know you’re beautiful.”
It was in the studio where they met their stylist, the London/L.A.-based Caroline Watson, who’s dressed Diddy, Chris Brown, Britney Spears and Usher. The guys, then 17, 18 and 19, would work with Watson up until their hiatus at the beginning of 2016.
“I went in with a blank canvas, I guess,” Watson told Fuse about first meeting her new clients. “I hadn’t watched [X Factor]. I hadn’t known anything about it. I think it was a good thing because then I wasn’t biased as to what I’d seen before because I hadn’t seen anything. It was kind of good to be doing it. Fresh and with new eyes.”
After meeting all five boys at once, Watson sat down with them individually, chatting them up about which colors and shapes they liked in clothing. Together, they all set three simple anti-boy-band fashion rules for the “What Makes You Beautiful” video: “We said no black and no leather. And no all-white. And then we just kind of made it happen from there.”
From the beginning, Tomlinson knew what he wanted: red pants, which he like to keep rolled up at the bottom, and a striped shirt. The rest of the guys got khakis of various shades of tan, and their preppy, collegiate look was born. Payne wore a white cotton top with a small, button-down v at the collar, Harry sported a short-sleeved dark plaid top, Zayn had a James Dean-inspired white T and Niall got a navy blue T, with matching Nike high-tops. The clothes came from everywhere, Watson said, and while high-fashion designers came to play later in 1D’s career, name brands weren’t too important when they were starting out. Watson still has the clothes, but she’d have to dig them out of a deep vault of couture.
“That video became the basis of the One Direction look,” she said. “If you think of One Direction, that’s exactly what you think of. That’s something I really worked hard on to kind of create the identity for the boys. That’s something that we ran with for many many years and then eventually we started to evolve and be more fashion-led. You know, til the end, really. It’s been absolutely amazing.”
A few weeks before the shoot, One Direction’s car pulled into the concealed driveway of Alley Cat Studios in Hollywood, a door shutting behind it. The entrance was designed to let people like Michael Jackson, Prince and Janet Jackson enter and exit without being seen by the paparazzi and fans, who would crowd the street to try to get a glimpse. On that day, however, no one was outside. “Less than two months after that, they’re everywhere,” choreographer Marty Kudelka told Fuse.
Despite their stance against dancing, the fivesome had some studio time booked with Kudelka, Justin Timberlake’s right-hand man who’s created the moves for Pink, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, NSYNC and Janet herself. Management wanted to fine-tune their natural movements and get them accustomed to being on camera, and for Kudelka, that was a welcomed challenge.
“For the guys, this is their first time coming out, we don’t want them to dance, persay,” he said. “They could move how they normally move, but we don’t want them to a Backstreet Boys or NSYNC because that’s not what they’re gonna be. They’re different.”
They had two, six-hour days booked, but they didn’t need all that time, Kudelka said.
“We did some stuff to kind of mess with them,” he said. ”We taught them some steps knowing they’re not going to use them, kind of to see how they naturally moved. Then we kicked them all out and brought them back one at a time and to talk to them, see their personality and have them just perform on their own.”
With the five of them together again, Kudelka would weave in between them, toting a camera as they sang. The only rule? Don’t look at the camera.
“After each of these takes, we’ll kind of play it back for them and show them and it was a learning tool for them in a rehearsal studio so we’re not necessarily wasting money on film and whatnot and crew. There’s just a few of us, there’s not as much pressure. So by the time we got on the video set, it’s second nature.”
It was time for One Direction’s day at the beach, and Urbano, who had previously shot their Up All Night album cover, was set up on Cycamore Cove Beach in Malibu. (Other scenes would take place outside a house down the coast and on the Pacific Coast Highway.) There, the Pacific Ocean laps against the grainy sand. Wooden tables and built-in grills are set up for picnickers spending the day in the park. Stories-high rocks tower over beach-goers at one end, creating prongs and curved formations that are doused in orange at sunset. A big hunk of white driftwood lingers on the sand. It’s the same place Blink-182 filmed their “All The Small Things” video in 1999 (ironically, the pop-punks mocked boyband stereotypes in the clip).
“At the beginning, we didn’t have anything to prove, nothing to lose,” Urbano told Fuse about shooting his first music video. “So we were just out there having a good time.”
Urbano ran down the beach as the guys lip-synched their song over and over. He captured individual shots, silhouette shots, and shots where they weren’t singing at all. He got them sitting down, standing up, running, kicking a soccer ball. They splashed in the salty sea, threw their arms around each other, shuffled in their sneakers, and barely stopped grinning. Urbano thinks they were just happy to be there.
“I can’t think that there was even 1 percent of acting,” Urbano said. “All it was was trying to get them to sing at the same time.”
There were a few onlookers, but no one recognized Harry, Louis, Niall, Liam and Zayn. A family of six puttered up to the set, approaching Kudelka to inquire about what was going on. “They didn’t even ask who it was, kept walking,” he said. “And they wouldn’t have known anyways.” One passerby was caught on camera, and will forever be known as the WMYB Ghost, as evidenced by the videos of some very eagle-eyed fans.
“I mean, can you imagine that today?” Urbano posed. “Like, if One Direction were on any beach in the world, and nobody knew who they were? Girls were just saying, like, ‘Who are these guys? They kinda sound good?’ To watch them go from that to not being able to go anywhere without being attacked is pretty cool.”
The hijinks were high, Urbano noted. In a behind-the-scenes video, you can see Malik shoveling sand onto Styles, who played dead on a towel. Tomlinson paraded around with some lighting props. And they even tried to give their director an English makeover.
“Harry Styles, I was constantly on him,” Urbano laughed. “He probably thought I was nuts because I would be yelling a lot. To get all five to focus on one thing was always challenging at the beginning because they all were, you know, they’re five different human beings, so to get them all to line up, for instance, on one lyric was a fun challenge.”
When it came time for the driving scene, the band piled into an orange Volkswagon Westfalia camper van with Tomlinson behind the wheel. Instead of the old Hollywood trick of hooking up the vehicle to a trailer, Tomlinson was really driving (a little too slowly, supposedly), and Urbano documented it all from the backseat. Unfortunately, this frustrated the California Highway Patrol, who were directing traffic around the shoot on a half-mile strip of Highway 1.
“The cops were saying ‘hold on.’ and I’m telling them to go,” Urbano remembered. “Then we pissed the cops off. Literally, they came up, and they were screaming at us, and they walked away and we all laughed inside the car. I was like, ‘Look guys, we have to pay attention to them because if they shut us down, we can’t use the highway.’”
The crew also had to film a deep pink, vintage Volkswagon Beetle convertible driven by three young actresses, who co-starred as 1D’s beach buddies in the video. For the models, Urbano called up his friend Francine Champagne at Vision Los Angeles, who casted Madison McMillin to play Styles’ love interest. McMillin, who now runs a clothing boutique, declined an interview, and in the past, she has been the target of many jealous Harry fans. Oddly enough, people have even set up fake social media accounts for her.
At night, they cozied up around a campfire, switching into hoodies and jackets. Despite a full day of working, everyone was still smiles. “Honestly if I would’ve asked them to work 24 hours in one day, they would have,” Urbano said.
When the shoot wrapped, Urbano said he spent a “long time” cleaning the specks of sand out of his equipment. “Anything for the shot though. I would lose a camera to get the shot,” he said. “Hey, there’s only one first video. You got to be good.”
… Epilogue …
One Direction’s last music video, 2016’s “History,” came 15 videos later. It features the footage of their beginnings on X Factor, behind-the-scenes tour clips and candid shots of the boys on the road (you can even see the back of Urbano’s head in it). In 2015, Malik left the band, but he’s featured prominently in the visual as a homage to the work the fivesome had done together: 5 albums, 6 tours, 3 movies, 17 singles, millions of screaming fans. In the video, they’ve got beards, tattoos, flowy haut-couture frocks and a swagger that’s been honed from intense stardom. It’s the perfect wrap-up to the end of an era—one that went from bubblebum pop to having them become artists in their own way. And although “What Makes You Beautiful” jumpstarted that only five years ago, One Direction has carved its chunk of pop culture out since then, evolving with fans and turning five goofy boys into a phenomenon.
A few months after filming “What Makes You Beautiful,” Urbano linked up with 1D again in Lake Placid, New York, to create the video for their second single, “Gotta Be You.” He also shot the cover of their second album, Take Me Home. He’s gone on to shoot music videos for Keith Urban and Justin Timberlake.
Watson, who’s launched her own line of bags, styled the boys throughout their peak, and admits they’re good on their own now. “I’ve taught them well.”
Kudelka is all ready to stage One Direction’s reunion, saying that he bumped into them at the 2014 VMAs while dancing in NSYNC’s reunion performance, which he choreographed. “Maybe we could make them dance this time,” he said. “Just a little bit, right?”
And perhaps 1D can get Urbano back when they return from hiatus, too. “When they come back out, round 2, that’d be cool,” he said.
You never know, they might just meet back up in Malibu…
WOOOP! HERE WE GO AGAIN!😂😂😂