When One Direction dropped their music video for their latest single “History,” I’m fairly certain that my roommate who was on the other side of campus heard me scream.
One Direction’s indefinite hiatus began following their final performance on the UK version of X-Factor on Dec. 12, 2015. Since then many fans, including myself, have missed the English/Irish boy band. As was custom for the music videos on their latest album, “Made In The A.M.,” they did not promote the video before it was released, so when I got out of class and checked my phone on Tuesday afternoon, I was evidently shocked.
The song “History” was dubbed the anthem of the One Direction fandom and the music video has held up to everyone’s expectations. It provides a strong sense of nostalgia, the behind-the-scenes footage telling One Direction’s incredible story over the past five years. The video itself is a touching tribute to the fans that have either followed the band since its inception or at any point in the past five years. Not only did the video begin with the band’s formation on X-Factor as they stood side-by-side, but the flashback sequence retold all the little moments with fans at arena concerts to stadium tours, and ultimately ended with the four remaining members of the band sharing their final group hug on the same stage that they were on as strangers five years prior.
My favorite and least favorite part of the video was the ending. A lot of fans, myself included, were upset that the four of them decided to walk off screen in two separate directions -- pun not intended -- but there has been a great fan theory for that. The beginning of the song features Harry and Niall’s verses, which many have said are meant to be the fans’ perspective of how it felt learning that the group would seemingly be coming to an end. Alternatively, Liam and Louis’ verses after the chorus seem to be told from the band’s perspective, offering what the last five years have meant to them.
The lyric that coincides with this idea and that has been a sense of comfort for the fandom over the past month is: You and me got a whole lotta history, we could be the greatest team that the world has ever seen. Therefore, as Harry and Niall walk to the left and Liam and Louis walk to the right in the final shot, their final waves to each other give every indication that the video is far from a goodbye to the fans -- it’s a “see you later.”
“History” is a dialogue of doubt and subsequent reassurance. The four guys who are now entering the next chapter of their lives have expressed the same doubts that the fans have had since the band’s announcement that they were going on a temporary hiatus. However, the reassurance has been mutual. Not only have the four of them constantly reassured the fans that they will return, but the fans have also made it a point to reassure the band that we will be there for them as soon as they are ready to return. Given all of the drama, the criticism and the controversy that the One Direction fandom has been subjected to over the last five years, I think that the mutual loyalty between the fans and their boys is wonderful and clearly acknowledged in the “History” music video.