The One Sided One Direction Feud
Why is Harry Styles acting like a vindictive ex? // One Direction Deep Dive #2
It’s been a busy year for One Direction fans already, with Zayn Malik performing in Vegas, teasing new music and finally announcing a tour, as well as Louis Tomlinson’s album rollout culminating in the release of his third full-length, How Did I Get Here? on January 23rd. And their joint Netflix docu-series is still on the horizon.
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If that wasn’t enough, Harry Styles decided to not only announce his comeback, but also unexpectedly, and with very little notice drop his single on the same day as Tomlinson’s album, guaranteeing that he would absorb all the oxygen in the news cycle, detract from Tomlinson’s efforts and ensure that he would be mentioned in every promotional interview that Tomlinson did, which is, of course, what happened.
It seems an intentional and targeted a move, especially since Styles’ upcoming release was not listed in Sony’s 2025 Q2 Investor Report. Odd, isn’t it? That Sony would omit their number one selling male artist’s upcoming release from an investor’s report? It’s not the first time he’s been left off, either, not since the 1D fandom discovered these reports were a thing and started tracking them in 2017.
It’s also not the first time he’s dropped something to block Tomlinson from success, the last time being in September of 2022. Coinciding with the release of Tomlinson’s lead single for his sophomore album, Bigger Than Me, Styles released a physical copy of Late Night Talking. Could that really be an accident? At that point in time, the single itself was over two months old, and the album it came from was released in the spring.
Styles then went on to release another single a month later, once again serving as a block to Tomlinson’s ongoing rollout. With his previous album it wasn’t as on the nose, but he still released multiple singles during the same lead up as Tomlinson’s debut rollout was taking place, ensuring that any promo opportunities could be safely secured and withheld, and radio would have to choose which one of them to play. If you think that sounds conspiratorial, it’s something Tomlinson’s own team said when discussing their promo strategy for his second album. BMG’s Lisa Wilkinson told music.ally, “But you’ve got to compete against Harry [Styles] and Niall [Horan]. They’re the first people you’ve got to compete against.” Despite her mentioning Horan, it’s worth noting that he didn’t release anything at the same time as Tomlinson, so mentioning him at all is deflection. Wilkinson also mentioned that they tried to secure a Rolling Stone cover to promote his album, but the month they were gunning for went to Styles, instead. He’s seemingly always lurking in the wings.
Blocking competition isn’t anything new, Taylor Swift has done it multiple times. The most egregious being when she added her entire catalogue to Spotify on the same day as Katy Perry's album dropped. But they had an existing feud, and were competition.
While Styles presents a hurdle for Tomlinson, the converse isn’t true. That’s what makes his and his team’s intent on blocking him so bizarre.
Tomlinson isn’t competition, not considering how inertia as a result of his Sony years has set him back, and just how much weight Styles has had behind him since before he even ended the band. That, along with the fact that they’re former bandmates, and there’s no reason to assume they’re on bad terms makes this apparent grudge even stranger. There’s no reason for HSHQ to be so hellbent on sucking up all the oxygen and cornering Tomlinson into being reactive, having to answer questions about what he thinks of Styles’ new releases and his haircuts when he’s trying to promote his new music, all the while Styles can blacklist the topic and have smooth sailing promo with a proactive, corrective publicist doing all the heavy lifting.
Even fans have started to clock that there’s something strange going on, and the defense has been that Styles “doesn’t owe Louis anything,” which is true. He doesn’t owe it to Tomlinson to mention him in interviews or compliment him or even acknowledge that he’s a musician. Not owing someone something isn’t the same as intentionally trying to sabotage their album release, especially when you know that your industry backing means you’re going to steamroll over someone that isn’t a threat to you. It’s telling, and not in a good way.
I’m reminded of the 90s English boyband Take That. The most famous member of this group is Robbie Williams, but he wasn’t the Chosen One; that was Gary Barlow, and Williams was kicked out of the group. According to him, he left the group with a debt of half a million pounds because he had to pay to extricate himself from the contract that tied him to the same label that the band was on, as per standard “members leaving” clauses that bands are typically under. He was incredibly bitter, very open about feeling dismissed while in the band, and went on to insult Barlow at every turn.
In Chris Heath’s 2004 biography of Williams, he’s described as having a “natural impulse towards stewing resentment and revenge” which was on full display in his early solo career, attempting to denigrate Barlow publicly at every turn and proclaim his superiority. Considering what happened, it’s understandable, and they’ve reconciled since. Barlow even addressed these dynamics in his 2018 book, A Better Me:
“Rob felt that for the last year of Take That, he was crying out to every one of us. ‘Help me. I’m not happy. I don’t want to be here. You’re all doing things that I don’t like.’ In the end he left, and we handled that badly. […] Once he’d survived that and it didn’t destroy him, then he wanted to destroy me. And that lasted a long time. He said that I was always the subject he could fill an empty interview with.”
But if we’re applying these dynamics to 1D, Malik is the one who should be resentful; he’s the one who left. He’s the one who struggled with not having a say, with mental health issues, a severe eating disorder, and being able to see that Styles’ ask for a “hiatus” was a thinly veiled break-up announcement, jumping ship six months early to save himself.
Yet, Styles is the one who has shaded Malik since he left the band, seemingly because he stole Styles’ thunder. Ever since Malik’s departure, Styles has had nothing good to say about him. He used an SNL appearance to insult him by calling him Ringo, but apparently, Ringo is useful for cross-promotion, since HSHQ is now paying Zayn accounts to promote him,
And Styles’ fans continue to defend him. There was a blip of outrage when the insane ticket prices for his tour dropped, which he continues to be dragged over, but that now makes him a victim of a smear campaign, according to them. They fully flipped into offensive mode after Malik made a comment about ticket prices while performing in Vegas, saying, “hopefully the ticket prices weren’t too high.” While this could be seen as a defense of fans who are being extorted, harries saw it as an attack on their poor victimized icon, and instead of continuing to call him out for his greed, turned their pitchforks back on Malik and Tomlinson.
Malik was just “jealous”—something an “insider” made sure to let Page Six know, naturally. Because letting your insiders drip-feed snarky commentary to tabloids is a great way of keeping your hands clean. And it’s the narrative fans love to absorb, carrying on the one sided feud. As I explained in my fandom warfare post, for many stans, fandom also comes with anti-fandom targets; people who need to be denigrated and humiliated as part of their act of fandom. And for harries, that applies to his former bandmates.1
Malik making a comment that he hoped his tickets were affordable—without naming names, unleashed the hounds after him. Tomlinson having the gall to tweet about “cutting through the noise” for his album release, well that’s inexcusable. Styles doesn’t owe them anything, allegedly, but they owe him eternal deference and endless respect, lest they become the targets of renewed harassment campaigns on his behalf. Harries went from upset that he was gouging him to defending him and going to war over his honour.
Tomlinson said it best when hetold TMRW magazine in 2020, “We all have our own hardcore fan base that almost work as an extension of our personalities,” and I think that’s incredibly evident in Styles’ boymom fans whose interest lays more in claiming superiority, chart positions and accolades rather than enjoyment of the music, and are ready to bare their teeth at any perceived slights, from people who are not a threat in any way whatsoever. Styles structural advantage remains, as does his stranglehold of the press. Ten years on, and nothing has changed.
The irony of ironies that that Styles doesn’t have to get involved to sabotage Tomlinson; LTHQ’s incompetence is enough all on its own, something that will be covered when I do my deep dive on his career. Ultimately, all this move did was to wake some people up to his ruthlessness. Too little, too late, and fans, as I’ve covered before, have very little actual influence on the state of things. His coverage continues to be fawning, his institutional backing isn’t going anywhere, the cult fans remain indoctrinated, but at least the facade has chipped a little bit. The branding has faded, ever so slightly.
Except for so-called “Teflon Niall” who earned that nickname while in the band, and has continued to manage to skate by without any shit ever sticking to him. He should teach a class.
i wonder what the hardcore Larries are making of this right now
this is exactly the type of journalism i joined substack for. was never a huge 1D fan despite being in late elementary school and early middle school during their peak, however this was suchhh an interesting read!