Greatest Pop Stars

Greatest Pop Stars

2012 One Direction: Vintage Pop Stardom

Sep 24, 2026 · 1 hr 37 min · 13 segments

In 2012, boy bands hadn't been a major part of the American pop marketplace in a decade — but by the end of the year, not only had X Factor alums One Direction (Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn…

In 2012, boy bands hadn't been a major part of the American pop marketplace in a decade — but by the end of the year, not only had X Factor alums One Direction (Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Niall Horan) crashed onto U.S. shores, they had absolutely taken the country over, releasing two Billboard 200-topping albums full of pop-rock bangers, swarming all of pop culture and marking a new era in social media and musical fandom. This episode of Vintage Pop Stardom sees host Andrew Unterberger joined by Billboard co-chief content officer (and author of the upcoming 1D book 'A Whole Lotta History') to remember the year that One Direction became One Direction, creating the closest thing to Beatlemania we saw in in the 2010s. Check out a YouTube playlist of the biggest One Direction moments of 2012, all of which are discussed in the episode, here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFsrDcNsyDPk&si=R6jeXLev0oV\_\_3QD Pre-order Jason's 'A Whole Lotta History' here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Whole-Lotta-History/Jason-Lipshutz/9781668205846 And if you enjoy the pod, please consider donating to the following causes: Transgender Law Center https://transgenderlawcenter.org/ Trans Lifeline https://translifeline.org/ Destination Tomorrow https://secure.givelively.org/donate/destination-tomorrow-inc Gender-Affirming Care Fundraising on GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/c/gender-confirmation-surgery-fundraising Human Rights Campaign - In Your Area https://www.hrc.org/in-your-area Also, please consider giving your local congresspeople a call in support of trans rights, with contact information you can find on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠5Calls.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2012, boy bands hadn't been a major part of the American pop marketplace in a decade — but by the end of the year, not only had X Factor alums One Direction (Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn…

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One Direction's Critical Reassessment8:03 – 18:04

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:03

That was definitely one of the most fascinating things for me just doing the research for this podcast was going back and realizing that One Direction did kind of straddle the line in between new media and old media.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:15

Like, obviously, when we think of One Direction, we mostly think of them in terms of hashtags and viral videos and very, very kind of 21st century, 2010 specifically videos.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:25

social media and stuff like that.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:27

But they were also unavoidable on like basic cable television.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:31

And they were unavoidable in print magazines, you know, maybe not as much as some of their forebearers would have been, but they were there.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:37

They have plenty of cover stories to talk about in 2012.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:40

There's plenty of sort of old school interview stuff to find of theirs.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:44

It's just only one half of the equation now.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:47

And the half that really kind of got people's attention was the other half.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:51

And just in terms of you basically stumping for One Direction since the beginning, I can kind of vouch for you here.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:57

Yeah.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

8:57

I remember there was a time back in 2015 when neither of us were at Billboard at that time, but we were hanging out with a bunch of other music writers.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:05

I was at Spin.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:07

We had just published a list of the 300 greatest albums the last 30 years to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Spin.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:12

Yeah.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:13

And your first question for me about the list was, which One Direction album did you guys go with? Not even like, was there a One Direction album on there? Which, of course, there wasn't.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:22

It was a spin.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:22

My co-writers would have crucified me if I'd even tried to get one on there.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:25

Which One Direction album was on there? Sure.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:28

Sorry to say we didn't have one, but...

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:29

By the end of the decade, you and I are both at Billboard when we do our decade end list for the 2010s.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:33

We had four on there.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:34

It was probably pretty high.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:37

But this is all just to say back in the early to mid 2010s, stumping for One Direction was not like a super popular take among our peers and people we would talk to.

Andrew UnterbergerHost

9:46

And if they did have One Direction takes, it would be about the entire group.