One Direction is an English-Irish pop boy band composed of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, and formerly Zayn Malik, until his departure in March 2015. They are currently one of the biggest pop acts in the world and have won multiple awards, including most recently Artists of the Year at the 2015 American Music Awards. They have broken many records, and are ranked the fourth highest earning celebrities in the world. They were put together as a band after each individually auditioned for The X Factor in 2010, where they were placed third and signed to Syco Records shortly thereafter. They have currently released five albums. (“One Direction”, 2015)
What has made One Direction such a force in the music industry are their …show more content…
Horan is "the cute one”, Payne is "the sensible one", Styles is "the charming one", Tomlinson is "the funny one", and Malik was "the quiet and mysterious one" (“One Direction”, 2015, “Image” para. 1). By assigning each member a characteristic, it makes selling the band to young girls easier in that girls have five different types of personalities to choose their favourite out of. Though each personality is somewhat different, all of the members still must maintain the masculine or hegemonic ideal. As identified by Raewyn Connell in The Social Organization of Masculinity, hegemony “refers to the cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a leading position in social life”, and hegemonic masculinity is “the configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy which guarantees the dominant position of men” (Connell, 257). The idea that they must “remain men” is heightened by their position as celebrities and marketing tools as they must perform their gender correctly so as to be marketable to young girls and their affections. Lou Teasdale, the group’s makeup artist and hair stylist, when asked how she ensures they do not look too styled, she responded by stating “I put as little makeup as possible on them. Sometimes boys like a plucked brow, but I refuse to do that. They need to look like men, not girls. If you start grooming eyebrows or putting on too much makeup, they start looking feminine” (Tenn Vouge, 2013). As “masculinity does not exist except in contrast with femininity” (Connell, 252), Teasdale is ensuring that the group remains as close as possible to the hegemonic male, even throughout history and even into present day, men have often worn makeup, especially while performing on
What has made One Direction such a force in the music industry are their …show more content…
Horan is "the cute one”, Payne is "the sensible one", Styles is "the charming one", Tomlinson is "the funny one", and Malik was "the quiet and mysterious one" (“One Direction”, 2015, “Image” para. 1). By assigning each member a characteristic, it makes selling the band to young girls easier in that girls have five different types of personalities to choose their favourite out of. Though each personality is somewhat different, all of the members still must maintain the masculine or hegemonic ideal. As identified by Raewyn Connell in The Social Organization of Masculinity, hegemony “refers to the cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a leading position in social life”, and hegemonic masculinity is “the configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the problem of the legitimacy of patriarchy which guarantees the dominant position of men” (Connell, 257). The idea that they must “remain men” is heightened by their position as celebrities and marketing tools as they must perform their gender correctly so as to be marketable to young girls and their affections. Lou Teasdale, the group’s makeup artist and hair stylist, when asked how she ensures they do not look too styled, she responded by stating “I put as little makeup as possible on them. Sometimes boys like a plucked brow, but I refuse to do that. They need to look like men, not girls. If you start grooming eyebrows or putting on too much makeup, they start looking feminine” (Tenn Vouge, 2013). As “masculinity does not exist except in contrast with femininity” (Connell, 252), Teasdale is ensuring that the group remains as close as possible to the hegemonic male, even throughout history and even into present day, men have often worn makeup, especially while performing on