Deep Mukherjee 
Liam Payne is four years too late to be a member of the ’27 Club’ – the list of unfortunate, legendary musicians whose lives met an abrupt end at the age of 27 and who have now attained cult status.
Payne, a former member of the boy band One Direction, died at the age of 31, falling from the balcony of his hotel in Argentina’s Buenos Aires, reportedly under the influence of drugs.
In Payne’s music career that lasted nearly a decade and half, it is unlikely that one would find iconic moments akin to Jimi Hendrix singing his version of ‘Wild Thing’ and setting fire to his guitar at the Monterey Pop Festival – hands raised as the flames engulfed the instrument doused in lighter fuel – or that of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s unforgettable performance for MTV Unplugged in 1993. Both Hendrix and Cobain are members of the ’27 Club.’
And yet, Payne was a member of one of the most successful musical acts in the world. One Direction is undoubtedly the biggest such group of the late 2000s, carrying on the mantle from Backstreet Boys and NSYNC who owned the 90s.
After a few years of meteoric rise, One Direction met a predictable end destined for most bands in the genre – it went on hiatus, with all the members deciding to pursue solo careers.
While Payne did taste some success as a solo artist with singles such as ‘Strip that Down’, his most popular songs remain those produced during his time with One Direction, when he also wrote many of the hit numbers of the group.
To this date, Harry Styles – Styles won the Grammy for his solo album Harry’s House last year – remains the biggest star to come out from One Direction. The group had five young singers – Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Styles, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson. It was formed during the 2010 edition of the The X Factor and taken to the pinnacle of success by Simon Cowell’s record label – Cowell had previously promoted other boy bands such as Westlife – Syco Records.
The One Direction band, of which Liam Payne was a part. Photo: X.
Each member of One Direction had a massive following among millennials and Gen Zs alike.
The downside of One Direction members tasting fame at a young age – late teenage years in the case of Payne – was that they, much like members of other boy bands, were often caged in an artfully-crafted persona which was created for them by image consultants and marketing pundits to ensure that the band appeals to its core audience of teenagers and fans in their early twenties.
Eight years since One Direction went into indefinite hiatus in 2016, barring a few such as Styles, most of the band members are still remembered best for songs such as ‘Best Song Ever’ or ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, even long after the members have become men in their thirties, navigating relationships, kids and exasperation while parrying questions about a reunion.
Be it in Payne’s single ‘Strip that Down’ or Malik’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Live Forever’, in the songs they made after exiting the band, one could sense a restless urge to shake off their image as integral cogs in a boy band and reinvent themselves.
In comparison, singers such as Ed Sheeran, who wrote a number of songs performed by One Direction have become only more popular.
The dark side of success, especially in the context of boy bands, has many precedents. In the movie Music and Lyrics, actor Hugh Grant played Alex Fletcher, a former member of a once-successful band, who is left adrift after his bandmate becomes a huge star.
Unable to keep up with the cutthroat competition in the music industry, Fletcher is relegated to obscurity, becoming a caricature of his former self, now playing at small concerts and birthday parties for people in their late thirties, who were once the diehard teen fans of his band.
The former members of One Direction remain huge stars who gain from the advantage of being one of the first music groups to tap the power of social media in the 2010s.
But separated from the band, former members such as Payne had the constant burden of staying relevant in an age where new, younger stars had taken their place in the teen awards or the top of the charts.
This is not new. George Michael, one of the two members of the 80s musical duo Wham, went on to chart a massively successful solo career, becoming one the best-selling musicians of all time. While Michael mesmerised crowds with his duet with Elton John, ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’, the sun did go down on the career of his Wham bandmate Andrew Ridgeley, who, after a forgettable solo album, slipped into oblivion.
After NSYNC broke up and Justin Timberlake went on to become a big pop star, the other members of the band would be restricted to occasional cameos in Timberlake’s concerts, failing to do away with the boy band tag and reinvent themselves in their forties.
In the days preceding his death, a grim picture had emerged about a problematic side of Payne’s personality. Payne’s ex-fiancée Maya Henry had accused him of manipulative behaviour, and coercion. She had sent Payne a cease-and-desist notice recently. Henry also accused Payne of “weaponising” One Direction fans against her.
The increasing chasm between past success and a future with the pressure of replicating the same level of fame can lead to tragedies such as the passing away of Payne, whose death reminds us “just how fast the night changes for boy bands.”