One Direction unwrapped their 10th anniversary website on Friday morning (July 24), revealing a warehouse of hidden treasures, cherished memories, untold tales and all your favorite songs. The very first thing Directioners clicking in see is a simple message explaining that anything you like on the site will be compiled into a custom 1D mixtape that you can access through your Spotify and Apple Music accounts.
The opening images are a series of digital Polaroids of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik as scruffy haired teens who first got smushed together on July 23, 2010, on The X Factor after auditioning as solo acts. Just below is a YouTube video of their famous first performance together of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” for mentor Simon Cowell in Spain.
The chronological trip through the past then jumps to Aug. 19, 2011, when the group released their smash debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” with behind-the-scenes photos from the video shoot and some stories from its filming, including the tidbit that the band was pulled over twice during the shoot because Louis was driving so slow and that the boys unleashed “cheeky pranks” on Harry during his solo, pulling his hair, poking him and yanking open his shirt to distract him.
The timeline runs through the “Up All Night” tour and takes you “behind the lyrics” of “What Makes You Beautiful,” with songwriter Savan Kotecha describing the pressure to deliver a hit and how he had no lyrical thoughts until his wife’s “feel so ugly” comment turned into the spark of an idea (“she doesn’t even know how beautiful she is.”)
There are director’s notes from Vaughan Arnell of what it was like to shoot the high-energy video for “Live While We’re Young” from the band’s second album, Take Me Home, audio of the fellas talking about wishing they could time travel to see the dinosaurs and pictures, so many pictures. Plus, hidden phone numbers with silly bits of audio from the guys, band member spotlights on each and behind-the-scenes pics from the silly “Best Song Ever” shoot from their third album, Midnight Memories.
The site takes fans through the group’s first album as a quartet and, for now, final studio effort, Made in the A.M., with Harry reflecting on their first five crazy years and, if you scroll all the way through, an “encore” button that unlocks an exclusive fan pack and, your own exclusive mixtape. Though they are still on indefinite hiatus, the group took us on an emotional journey this week in a nearly five-minute YouTube clip, “10 Years of One Direction,” that went back to beginning and included some of the band’s most beloved hits, mixed with images from photo shoots, massive world tours and interviews from all five albums.
“Five albums in five years sounds hectic, and it is hectic,” Horan admits in in the clip, before Styles adds, “The fans have obviously always given us so much, we always felt it was important to give them new music.”
1D also spent the week unveiling 4K ultra HD versions of some of their most beloved videos, starting with “What Makes You Beautiful,” with “Live While We’re Young” out on Friday, followed by “Story of My Life” (July 25), “Steal My Girl” (July 26) and “History” (July 27). The week will wrap up with a live stream of their Where We Are Tour – Live From San Siro Stadium on July 28.
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