One Direction - What Makes You Beautiful

September 16, 2011 Critic Jonni 0 Comments


One Direction came third on the seventh series of the X Factor. That series is probably the only series to have the most live final contestants release singles and albums, or at least have signed to a record company. So far there is, Matt Cardle (winner), Rebecca Ferguson (second), One Direction (third), Cher Lloyd (fourth), Mary Byrne (fifth), Katie Waissel (seventh) Belle Amie (eleventh), Storm Lee (fourteenth) and Nicolò Festa (sixteenth). This is One Direction's first single, and it's bound to do well on the charts especially since mid-week has predicted number one for them. This song is catchy and heart-felt, it does sound similar to other songs, which I'll mention later, and it is one of those songs where you don't even realise you are singing a long to it until something drastic happens like the radio being turned off or something, and you're still singing. It's that catchy which would explain why it'll get a high charting position.

One Direction is a 5 member pop band whose singing voices are brilliant on their own but even better together. The 5 members within this group are Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson. In the X Factor they all auditioned for the boys category, at boot camp some of them paired up and made friends to try and get through boot camp stage. By the suggestion of Nicole Scherzinger these boys were grouped up into a boy band, and now thanks to her, we have One Direction. I have to say that I really don't like Liam's hair, it used to be straight in The X Factor, however now he's tried to copy Harry a bit, and it definitely hasn't worked out for him, I don't think. One Direction are now storming YouTube with just over 8 million hits, with popularity here in the UK as well as America and Australia. This band could be the next big thing, and could be the first UK X Factor band to make it as global megastars.

This song is all about a girl who the boys think is beautiful only she is shy and is unaware that she is, but apparently "that's what makes you beautiful". I don't know whether the intentions behind the song is hat all 5 members want to go out with her (imagine that argument over who would get the girl) or just someone each of them have known in the past. The song was written by Carl Falk, Savan Kotecha and Rami Yacoub. Savan has once again popped up as the song-writer on this blog, the last time I listed him as song writer was for Britney Spears' single "I Wanna Go", so he is becoming more and more well-known in the music industry, and can definitely see more catchy song-writing coming from him soon.

The music video is a little weird, I am not totally sure what to make of it. The music video contains a lot of fun, which is what you naturally expect from this band, however it isn't what the story is about really, is it? One Direction are on a beach waiting for this girl and her friends to show up. I find it funny how they only ever show one girl when the band members are singing, it suggests that they all like this one girl which seems a little over the top, if you asked me. This one girl could be taking all five on a ride.... But I don't see why each member didn't have a girl of their own to sing the song to.

I really like the bit towards the end when you see clips of the band and they've just sparked up the sparklers and they are sparkling in the background as if all the bits of sparkle are showering the members, I know how they've done it but I think it's quite clever, it goes with the "Na Na Na Na Na Na Na" bit in the song, but that's all I can pair it up to, along with the fun element side of this video. I still don't get why they didn't make this video a bit better.

Overall I really like this first single from this band, I can so see them becoming really big, but could imagine that a split might happen in about a decade's time maybe, since each member did audition by themselves. But maybe I'm wrong, maybe they do have a strong bond between them all and that it will last until they are old, we'll just have to wait and see. However the video isn't that good, and it's quite average to be honest, with very little links with the song. So I'm sorry to give it this rating, but I have to be totally fair.
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