One Direction

Dec 13

One Direction

LEANNE GUTIERREZ ⎜PROFESSOR FLOTO ⎜JOUR 463

INDIVIDUAL REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary………………...... ………………………..………………………3 Overview………………………………………………………..………………….4 Hypothesis.……………………………………………….…….…………………..4 Methodology………………………………………………………….………...4 - 5 Findings………………………………………………………….……………..6 - 7 Conclusion………………………………………………………….……………...8

Individual Report…………………………………………………………………………...9 Hypothesis………………………………………………………….……………..10 Methodology………………………………………………………….…………..11 Findings………………………………………………………….………..…12 – 15 Conclusion………………………………………………………….………..……16 Challenges………………………………………………………….…………...…17

Appendix………………………………………….....…………………………………....18 Mike Vulpo, E! News Writer Interview Transcript…………………………...19 - 20

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

3 OVERVIEW

Since 2010, British boy band One Direction has rapidly risen to pop culture royalty on an international stage, and on a global scale. The five-member group was put together by music industry mogul Simon Cowell, and includes Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik.

In the past three years, the band has sold over 19 million singles and 10 million albums. Their presence both in their native Europe and the United States has grown exponentially, with their social media and online presence trailblazing the way. Some even compare them to the Beatles, calling them the new “British Invasion,” a term we defined as, “a cultural invasion through music, television and fashion, with pop culture and sociological implications.” Following the Beatles’ 1960s British Invasion, a second invasion occurred in the 1980s, with the emergence of the likes of British artists such as Elton John.

Though there has been an undeniable popularity surge for the band, One Direction’s actual album sales, awards and cultural impact do not compare to the prestige of actual previous such “British Invasions.”

HYPOTHESIS

Despite the fact One Direction has been compared to the Beatles and has infiltrated the American music scene, we believe that there is no current “British Invasion.”

METHODOLOGY

The foundation of our secondary research was built first by studying the historical context of past British Invasions in the US and around the world. Moreover, we studied other past and current British bands, musicians and artists.

We then studied One Direction’s unique personal branding strategies, their Internet presence and social media influence. We also looked closely at sales the band has generated.

The core of our primary research consisted of a focus group, four individual interviews and content analysis.

Focus Group

On September 30, 2013 at the University of Southern California, we conducted a focus group. The group consisted of eight Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism students, including 3 males and 5 females. It lasted for about one hour, with Professor Jennifer Floto as moderator.

Interviews

1. Rebecca Sahim, Sony/ATV Music Publishing

2. Jim Yeager, USC Professor – Entertainment PR

3. William Biersach, USC Professor – The Beatles Expert

4. Mike Vulpo, E! News Writer

Content Analysis

We conducted content analysis by utilizing Google at first, which gave us millions of articles using just the term “One Direction.” From these millions, we pulled 35 that we found were most relevant. Many repeated terms from the articles included: “British boy band,” “boy band,” “British pop group,” and “Beatles.”

When we met class guest speaker and content analysis expert Kjerstin Thorson, she instructed us to use Factiva in order to get accurate results of these articles. The search parameters when using Factiva were extremely specific. We used the exact phrase “One Direction,” the date range for the articles was from July 12, 2012 – November 7, 2013 and they were only from within the United States. We ended up with 16,927 articles.

The most prevalent trend was the Beatlemania-like hysteria tone of the writing found in the articles, as well as key terms like “boy band,” “Harry Styles” and “Pop Culture.” An astounding part of our content analysis was when we found that from a survey of more than 1,000 One Direction movie ticket buyers, 98% of them were female.

By using Radian6, initially we found that by searching “One Direction,” there were too many results to show. Then surprisingly, in the last 30 days, our final Radian6 search showed that there were much less social media buzz about the band, with only 58 tweets, 27 Facebook posts, and 13 Blog Posts with the key terms “One Direction,” “British Invasion” or “1D.”

5 FINDINGS

Secondary Research

. To understand the term “British Invasion” better, the context of the current supposed British Invasion must be juxtaposed with history and today’s other successful British musicians.

. As mentioned earlier, past British Invasions have included the 1960s Beatles era, which also was influenced by the Rolling Stones, The Who and the Kinks. The Beatles were introduced to America with their famous hit single, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in 1963, which went directly to #1 on the charts. The band was widely recognized for uplifting the cultural climate following President Kennedy’s assassination.

. A second British Invasion took place between 1982 and 1986, and included Queen, Duran Duran, David Bowie and Elton John.

. Today, One Direction’s personal branding has made them a global phenomenon. Attention to the band’s persona has spearheaded their popularity over the past few years. Social media interaction has given them a connection with fans no other British band has had before.

. One Direction is not the only British band that has recently grown to such success. Other recent popular British artists include Mumford and Sons, Calvin Harris and Amy Winehouse.

. One Direction’s social media presence has surpassed all other British musicians of today, with a combined total of 89.8 million Twitter followers. Their personal and professional lives are followed by millions of fans everyday.

. One Direction was the first boy band to sell 500,000 digital copies with Up All Night, and sold 540,000 copies in the first week of album Take Me Home.

. One Direction album sales, though impressive, pale in comparison to the likes of Justin Bieber, *NSYNC, Adele and the Beatles

. Despite these statistics, One Direction front man Harry Styles has spoken out about his thought that his band is, in fact, part of a “British Invasion.”

6 Primary Research

Focus Group:

The focus group we conducted consisted of 8 college students between the ages of 20 and 22—3 males, 5 females. It lasted approximately 27 minutes, and was recorded.

From the focus group, it was clear from the participants that they thought we were not, in fact, in the midst of a British Invasion. The tone at many points in the focus group was dismissive and even condescending at some points, with strong opinions expressed. Participants knew who One Direction was, but interestingly did not know how or why they knew them. Some of the participants drew comparisons between One Direction’s following and Beatlemania, as well as the Backstreet Boys/*NSYNC era and the Spice Girls.

Interviews:

. Rebecca Sahim, Sony/ATV Music Publishing o One Direction took formulaic approach from boy bands in the 1990s like Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC

. Jim Yeager, USC Professor – Entertainment PR o Said it sounds like a publicist made up the term “British Invasion” o Believes anyone who actually experienced the first British Invasion would not think we are in the midst of one today

. William Biersach, USC Professor – The Beatles expert o British Invasion is defined as a “cultural invasion” – not just music o Biersach thinks that One Direction and other British artists’ influence is not a “cultural invasion,” but an “upsurge in interest. o Does not think the band has as much talent as the Beatles

. Mike Vulpo, E! News Writer o One Direction is “absolutely” a British Invasion o E! News articles about One Direction consistently get the most views o The band uses British lingo and image to their advantage

7 CONCLUSION

After compiling all of our extensive primary and secondary research, reviewing and analyzing it, we together proved our hypothesis: there is no current British Invasion. While there may have been some initial instances where similarities could be drawn between the original British Invasions and One Direction, it is certainly not enough to constitute the same cultural implications as before. Our primary research findings blatantly show through our interviews that highly knowledgeable entertainment professionals do not consider One Direction as any sort of “British Invasion,” with the exception of one outlier. Our secondary research reiterates with album statistics that though One Direction has an impressive sales record, it loses out to other famous boy bands, current pop stars or current British Musicians. Collectively, our research demonstrates the validity of our hypothesis: One Direction is not spearheading a current third British Invasion.

INDIVIDUAL REPORT

9 HYPOTHESIS – THE PROCESS

HYPOTHESIS 1:

We believe we may be on the precipice of a British Invasion given the popularity of One Direction and other artists.

. Our first hypothesis was created without having done any of our research. It is important to note that the organic reaction of our group initially was to call the band a British Invasion. . However, after we discussed our collective research as a group, and conducted our focus group, we decided our original hypothesis definitely needed to be changed.

HYPOTHESIS 2:

We believe although One Direction, Adele, etc., are very popular in the United States, calling them a British Invasion is jumping the gun.

. At this point all six of our team members had collected so much research and data points, we knew we had to rethink the hypothesis again. The vision of the case study would be lost in a sea of data, and would not be a feasible, workable hypothesis.

HYPOTHESIS 3:

Despite the fact One Direction has been compared to the Beatles and has infiltrated the American music scene, we believe that there is no current “British Invasion.”

. After writing our third and final hypothesis, I could begin to conduct my primary and secondary research with more relevance to the goals of the case study.

10 METHODOLOGY

Secondary Research

I pulled and read 40 articles from the Google search engine. All of the articles selected concerned One Direction and their online, digital and social media presence. These articles included aspects of the band members’ lives both personal and professional, and how it is presented to the public on online platforms.

Primary Research

I conducted and filmed an in-person interview with E! News Writer Mike Vulpo on October

9, 2013 in Downtown Los Angeles, California. The interview lasted approximately 12 minutes.

11 FINDINGS

Secondary Research

. Social media has been an undeniable component of One Direction’s success and rise to fame.

. This level of deep personal connection and interaction with fans is something that no other past British Invasion has ever had. . Social media’s influence for the band after their X-Factor exit propelled them to fame, especially with their relatable, home-made “Video Diaries.”

o Videos like these made the band a brand. Their good-natured, brotherly demeanor immediately made the group of boys likeable to fans.

. Their heavy presence on social media makes them seem easily accessible to fans. . Social media makes it incredibly difficult for any band member to hide anything. Any kind of bad behavior, mistake or scandal will be forever documented. On the other hand, any good deed or shining moment will also be documented.

o One Direction vs. The Wanted Twitter Feud: Zayn Malik of One Direction and Max George of other British boy band The Wanted have been known to start Twitter fights; Louis Tomlinson of One Direction and Tom Parker of The Wanted have also started heated Twitter exchanges.

. Fans feel as if they are sharing experiences with the band members because they follow what they are doing at every minute of everyday. This has created a breed of loyal, outspoken young fans that feel as if they know or have some sort of ownership over One Direction – a group known as, “Directioners.”

13 o In response to this fan-girl outpouring, the British Channel 4 created a documentary entitled, “Crazy About One Direction,” showing obsessed, crazed One Direction fans.

o Soon after, GQ magazine released a series of covers featuring each One Direction band members’ face, with a controversial caption on Harry Styles’ cover, which read: “He’s Up All Night to Get Lucky.”

o In retaliation to both situations, these fans turned to social media with cries of anguish, many angry responses emerging on Twitter and Facebook.

o Hysterics like these are the reason why One Direction has merit enough to be compared to the era of Beatlemania.

14 Primary Research

. My interview with E! News Writer Mike Vulpo was extremely significant because it was one of the only signs of extreme inconsistency in our research.

. Mike was the youngest interviewee in our primary research, and was the only one who adamantly thought that One Direction is “absolutely” a British Invasion.

. Before I even said the interview was about One Direction, I asked Mike how he would define a “British Invasion.” Without hesitating, he said One Direction.

. When asked why, Mike said:

o There are very few young people who do not have at least one One Direction song.

o One Direction members use British lingo, swag, image and accents to their advantage in their persona.

o They are known for being British, which means being different – something that American girls aren’t used to.

15 CHALLENGES

One of the most massive challenges that we had to overcome as a group was to settle on a hypothesis. It was extremely difficult to agree on a thought, understand all of its implications and word it eloquently. As we reworked and reworked our first hypothesis, it was hard to conduct secondary research because we did not know if we were researching relevant information anymore. I began to doubt our original hypothesis. Consequently, I then began to doubt all the secondary research I had done for it. It was also complicated having to coordinate if every other person had done the correct research for the week. As the very first project manager, I was put in charge during an enormously chaotic time. It was hard to communicate with other group members because no one seemed to know if what they were doing was the right tasks. Our hypothesis was still evolving in those weeks, and we had no choice but to evolve with it. Despite this initial challenge, we managed to stabilize quickly as soon as we decided on our final (third) hypothesis.

Combining all of our seemingly disjointed research was another large challenge I had to quickly overcome. My research is deafeningly different than everyone else’s data. It was hard to comprehend how both sides could be true, and how to convincingly convey that to others.

16 CONCLUSION

Based on all of my secondary and primary research alone, our hypothesis would have easily been disproven. The levels of hysteria propelled by social media/online fandom are inarguably comparable to the Beatlemania era of the 1960s. The sheer quantity of unique Twitter followers, Facebook likes, YouTube video views and other One Direction online- based statistics are simply too colossal to doubt. The amount of individuals that follow One Direction’s every move overshadow any kind of Beatle fan—purely because the technology of 1960s cannot compete with the technology of today.

Social media has absolutely changed the game of branding a boy band, and infinitely increasing its amount of fans. From a qualitative standpoint, it must be considered that the passion of these Directioners is at an extreme. The numbers speak for themselves, but the power to be heard is fueling fandom. Each time One Direction fans react online to a significant 1D event, they are heard: whether their words trend worldwide on Twitter, or are simply shown to a friend, thanks to social media fans now have a voice. They have the power to express their feelings online, documented forever and written in ink.

This powerful resource for boy band One Direction has given them an advantage over any British Invasion that has come before them. From my research’s freestanding point of view, One Direction is in fact spearheading a British Invasion.

APPENDIX

MIKE VULPO, E! ONLINE NEWS WRITER October 9, 2013 Interviewed by Leanne Gutierrez

Do you think that American music or British music has more pull in the overall music industry and why?

Well, speaking from an American I would say that America has more power just because we are surrounded by it more whether it’s on radio, or on magazines, or in stores, or in the media. I mean every so often you hear about a British artist coming to the US but you also hear more times US artists touring all around the world, including London. So I’d say America

How would you define a British Invasion?

One Direction is a British Invasion. A group or a singer who hails from London or calls London home, and makes it to another country including the United States and fans just go crazy for them. And they take over radio stations around the country, and US magazines, and US newspapers, and US TV shows and they’re like one of us… One of our residents.

Why do you say One Direction is a British Invasion?

One Direction is a British Invasion because no matter how old you are, there is a really good chance you know at least one of their names. And there’s very few young people, especially girls, that don’t have at least one of their songs they can sing out loud… whether they want to admit it or not. And um, they also use the whole British swag and British lingo and accents to their advantage. And I think that’s a huge appeal to them from what girls usually see across America.

So you do think One Direction is a British Invasion?

Of course I do! Look around! They’re everywhere! They’re everywhere! They’re in people’s ears, they’re on the billboards, they’re in concerts, they’re on TV! They’re everywhere. How could you not say they are a British Invasion?

As opposed to [British Artist] Adele who has many more formal awards and Grammys than One Direction, what makes them different?

Um, I think winning awards is only part of being a successful musician and performer. I think it’s a lot about…These days celebrities can do everything from touring to making their own products to their personal life. It’s all one big package and all a part of their brand. And Adele, sure she has some super successful songs and super successful albums, but One Direction… there’s just so much more to them for their fans to explore and follow on a daily basis?

Would you compare them to the Beatles?

Absolutely. When I went to the One Direction concert with my sister, their tour bus was leaving the Staples Center and the amount of people that started screaming and literally running to get a glimpse of them on the bus, was something I’ve never seen before. There’s very few people that can make people go absolutely crazy, and One Direction did it for the girls at the Staples Center that night.

What do you believe makes British musicians likeable in the US?

I think they’re different besides their accent, and their fashion… They just kind of bring a new persona and new personality to people that are used to a certain type of group. I mean, we’re used to hanging around the same people. I mean sure, we have a New York accent here, a South accent there. But British, they’re kind of like rare, and intriguing to a lot of people and One Direction uses that to their advantage with their fans.

What have you experienced with One Direction in the workplace at E! Online?

At E! Online, which is one of the leading entertainment sites for the US, whenever we cover One Direction, we get thousands and thousands of page views. And we write everything about them whether it’s their new music video or new song… Just this week I wrote about how Louis and Liam were surfing in Australia and the headline was something like “Louis Is Shirtless Before Going Surfing on the Beach,” and the fans went crazy for it! And it may be stupid to some people, but it shows that there is a huge market for what One Direction is up to.