Liam Payne helped unlock One Direction's potential

Liam Payne's voice opens One Direction's debut single, his face the first to receive a close-up. music video. After showing five teenagers riding horses on a Malibu beach for a few seconds, the shot dissolves to Liam's perfect coif, his unbuttoned shirt, his disarming smile. He turns to the side in the middle of the opening line — partly to restore his silence, but also to put aside any doubts. “You're insecure,” Liam sings, waves crashing behind the 17-year-old singer, his eyes adjusting to take in the world. “I don't know why.”

“What Makes You Beautiful” helped One Direction, a boy band from the United Kingdom formed in The X Factoroff to a smashing start with its 2011 release as a brilliant pop debut with precise melodies, power-pop production and immediate flashes of personality from its five members. However, while Harry Styles stuck the landing on the stripped-down bridge, Zayn Malik oozed emotion on the second verse, and Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson displayed their respective charms in slow-motion music video shots, Liam's opening verse took on a supremely confident stop. this was instrumental in the tone of the song.

His voice was strong and deep beyond his years — “Being the way you are oneu-u-uf,” he sang with absolute assurance, as the last syllable reverberated quietly upward to set his 1D bandmates on a higher note. The first verse isn't the flashiest part of the song, but its understated delivery helped unlock what was to come. This is what made Liam necessary. it's what would do to One Direction for years to come.

Payne died on Wednesday (October 16) aged 31, a tragic loss for anyone who felt connected to the One Direction global star's rocket ship and invested in Liam as an integral part of that whirlwind of success. Over the course of the group's five studio albums, One Direction's sound has produced some of the most satisfyingly popular albums of the 2010s — from the lush pop of their debut All night long in his arena-rock riffs Midnight memories in his sunburnt sing-longs Made in AM — as their international popularity exploded. And within this sonic evolution, Liam became the group's jack of all trades, a suave utility player who could sing high when needed, complement his bandmates and pull off a lead vocal full of noise and power.

There have been many occasions where Liam has taken the spotlight on a One Direction hit, from 'Best Song Ever' to 'Steal My Girl' to 'History', and as the group graduated to the biggest venues on the planet, he showed an ability to perform to huge crowds while maintaining a confidence and grace that made every stadium performance seem utterly familiar. The culture 1D created during its run prioritized inclusion and never spoke to its younger fans. Liam was instrumental in reimagining the long-standing boy band model as a more global, social media-savvy and ultimately more accessible pop phenomenon.

And as the group members began preparing for solo careers beyond One Direction, Liam became a more prolific co-writer and contributed some of the group's strongest late-period material. After co-writing songs like 'Story of My Life', 'Diana', 'Little Black Dress' and 'Right Now' in 2013 Midnight memoriesLiam helped shape One Direction's most accomplished album, 2014 Fourwith credits on top songs like “Fireproof,” “Clouds,” “Fool's Gold” and “No Control,” among others. After co-writing six songs in 2015 Made in AMLiam had established himself as a creative presence in the studio — something that would guide him as he ventured into post-1D work in the late 2010s, on his own for the first time since entering The X Factor and were then grouped with four other teenage boys.

“To be honest with you, I wasn't going to do a solo business,” Liam said Bulletin board in 2017, prior to the release of his debut solo single, the rhythm pop song “Strip That Down” featuring Quavo. “I was just going to get into songwriting and go ahead and do that. But then I said, “You've been trying to do this since you were 14 years old. You'd be ridiculously stupid to turn down the option to make a deal.” And Liam nailed that deal: “Strip That Down” reached the top 10 on the Hot 100 and became a Top 40 radio staple for months.

Liam continued to collaborate with other pop figures (Zedd, J Balvin, Rita Ora) while exploring hip-hop, R&B and dance music. debut in 2019, LP1a follow-up was supposed to be in the near future, following the release of the single “Teardrops” earlier this year. As we remember Liam after his tragic death, we must also reflect on a musical journey that was cut far too soon, with questions about what he would continue to pursue as a solo artist, as well as any further collaborations with his One Direction mates, now remains unanswered.

However, in the same way that those six opening words of “What Makes You Beautiful” echo in our brains more than a decade after they rolled off Liam's tongue, One Direction's influence on modern popular music cannot be forgotten – and the Liam's role in creating this seismic shift was necessary. In ways big and small, he helped chart the course of a quintet that took the world by storm, a team player instrumental in the group's founding. One Direction's music was always meant to live on and reach future generations, but on this sad occasion, Liam's place in that music should be celebrated.