One Direction: My Guilty Pleasure

January 17, 2015

My name is Tammy Marshall.  I am 44 years old, and I love One Direction.  There I said it.  They are my guilty pleasure.

I never thought my favorite band, at this age, would be a boy band.  But their music has sucked me in. When I listen, I feel young again.  It makes me happy.

The ironic thing is that when I first heard about the 1D hysteria, I thought "Oh, brother.  Who wants to hear a bunch of 13 year olds crooning about love?".  Of course, I knew nothing of their story (they were 16 - 18 when they were on XFactor, not 13) and hadn't heard any of their music.

Then, one day on Facebook, I saw a flashmob/proposal using "One Thing" and thought it was a terrific song.  When I goggled it and learned it was from One Direction, I thought,  "ok, so they have 1 good song" and that was that.  It wasn't until I started hearing "Story of My Life" on the radio, and found out it was 1D, that I decided to give their music a chance.

I checked out the video on YouTube, then clicked on a bunch of their earlier stuff.  Some of it was what I call "bubblegum" music (light, fun, but not too deep), but some of their songs were really, really good.  I loved "You & I" and "Little Things".  And the more I listened to the bubblegum songs, they more I loved them, too.

Then I started clicking on the YouTube clips and learned about their story...how they started out on the XFactor as solo artists, then when they were being booted off the show, Simon Cowell put them together as a group.  I was enthralled with their story.  Imagine, being such a phenomenal group when they didn't even know each other 5 years ago!

I ended up buying all four of their albums.  There is only 1 song, "Little Black Dress", that I'm not crazy about, and even that is growing on me.  I purchased 2 of their books "Who We Are" and "Where We Are", and became more and more impressed with the group.  They are 5 genuinely nice young men.  Yes, I realize the books will give the impression they want portrayed, but I have read so much about them from the people that come in contact with them, saying how respectful, polite, and nice they really are and it makes me love them even more.

If you haven't checked them out, you really should give them a chance.  You'll be glad you did!!