#1d contract

+ regained (some of) it back with project no control and now his solo effort. I feel his voice conveys so much emotion (sorry niall and liam. I did say I’m a louie!). Maybe because I am always listening more closely because his parts are small. IWTWYAS is so dreamy. LYG draws me in with that yearning and tension. I like watching videos after Z left and he sings almost all of LBD. I like how you can tell when he isn’t singing in the chorus because he really does carry many of them. In DFWYB ++ he doesn’t sing all the words in the chorus and you know. Same with RTR. “Cuz I wanna be” but he doesn’t sing free and I can tell. Of course all the studio versions are produced in a way that it’s harry or a lot of oohs and aahs instead of harmonies (I’m looking at you night changes!). Anyhow, sorry for the long post. It was meant to be about you and what you studied or do and I made it all about louis. Can you tell my love for him? Feel free to add on or tell me to bugger off.

Hi anon,

What a sweet and heartfelt fan message. I can tell your love for Louis, and I completely sympathize with the status he has in your heart.

You’re right, Louis’s voice is unique in its ability to convey so many genuine emotions simultaneously. Take “Just Hold On,” our only Louis solo song so far. The opening always, always takes me by surprise, no matter how many times I hear it, by its raw and honest yearning, its wistfulness. And by the time he sings, “What do you do when a chapter ends/ Do you close your book, and never read it again?”, I’m a mess. Yet he managed to convey a sense of hope and reassurance, too. The song is a musical embodiment of his courage when he sang at the X Factor performance.

The fact that fans can show him some love with Project No Control and Project Home (kudos to those who organized these projects), and give him any amount of confidence, makes me proud to be in this fandom. It’s the only fandom I know where fans consistently and persistently put in enormous effort to raise money for charitable causes, mirroring the enormous generosity of the band members. Even at their young ages, they have shown such genuine love toward charities. Louis, in particular, could be millions of dollars more wealthy if he wants to, but he has given so much, not only money but personal time and effort.

All the songs you mentioned have uniquely Louis contributions. The scratchy solos in “I Want to Write You a Song” reminds me of those nights on OTRA when the boys would perform even if they had a cold, shouting themselves hoarse. He does carry a lot of 1D choruses. His voice provides a unique contrast and “thickness” (as Harry said) to the 1D sound. He sings a lot of second verses because it’s the position in a pop song that needs special attention and interest. And of course, the iconic Louis solo at the end of “Something Great” gives meaning to the song title. The way his voice contrasts with Harry’s voice is a duo made in heaven– it has the beautiful contrast of two distinct textures, like “Leather and Lace” (the Stevie Nicks/ Don Henley song), but his harmonized chorus with Liam in “If I Could Fly” is also something incredibly beautiful.

And that’s not to mention his songwriting ability. We don’t talk much about “Love You Goodbye,” but Louis loves this song, and I really like it, too. It’s just a great pop song in the tradition of 1970’s pop ballads. And I like Louis’s solo, not just for the acrobatics of the octave leap, but also because he sings with the clipped vowels that reflect his Yorkshire accent. It adds personality to the song.

I’ve been involved in music most of my life, in performance and theory. I was a student in conservatory. I actually didn’t like One Direction’s music until Four, because of my bias against their boy band image, and because it was “too young” for me. I would hear “What Makes You Beautiful” on the radio and sneer at the transparent pandering to their demographic. The music video confirmed that bias.

Then I heard “Night Changes,” and I thought, no way is this One Direction. It sounded like an actual acoustic, folk-influenced ballad. The harmonies were a little bit bluesy and I loved that. And I really loved their voices, especially Harry’s and Zayn’s (though I couldn’t identify them at the time– I didn’t even know how many people were in the band). Then I heard “Fool’s Gold,” and I watched a “One Direction Funny Moments” video. The boys were different from what I expected. They weren’t “acting” cute. They were genuine and snarky and mischievous and uninhibited, and their voices were untrained but naturally beautiful. After I watched @freddieismyqueen’s videos on Larry Stylinson for two nights straight, until 2 AM each night, I thought, come on. There’s no way this is true. This is crazy. When I heard the song “Once in a Lifetime,” and the way Louis and Harry sang their verses, I thought, if Larry is true, it’s the most unbelievable, but also the most pure and beautiful love.

So I started evaluating evidence for myself, reading posts everywhere online. I followed the Occam’s Razor test of trying to fit evidence into the least convoluted explanation. I actually wasn’t convinced about Larry for ages. Then I sat at a One Direction concert and heard Harry sing, with my own ears, “And all his little things.” And RBB/SBB. What possible reason was there for all of the education about the history of closeted entertainers, and Stonewall, and the direct, unsubtle tie-ins with band members, particularly Harry and Louis?

But putting Larry aside, there’s no question in my mind that the Louis we see today has been through serious psychological trauma in the process of surviving One Direction’s contracts. Entertainment has notoriously open-ended legal arrangements that can take years to unwind– sometimes up to a decade. The fact is, we as fans can be impatient, but we don’t really know what’s going on, and the pace of resolution can be very, very slow. Just like the sale of majority shares of Syco to Sony– it took almost a year after the fact for the story to come out.

I love the passion of Louies. He really deserves the best fans. I don’t know about other people, but I will be here for as long as it takes, through all the smears, through all the falsehoods tabloids “report” about him. I know who he is. He has shown again and again who he is under duress. In the most challenging circumstances, he stands for those being bullied, he defends those who need to be defended, he is strong and kind, he puts himself in vulnerable positions to protect those he loves, and even those he doesn’t love– because of his ethics and courage.

We actually know for a fact, that AGT contracts stipulate no negative portrayal of Simon Cowell or the show(s) for perpetuity. Image clauses are real.