How Did One Direction Become Superstars in Less Than a Year’s Time Upon Their 2012 U.S. Invasion? Greatest Pop Stars Podcast Discussion

In 2012, boy bands hadn’t been a major part of the American pop marketplace in a decade — since the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC and their progeny ruled the world during the peak of the TRL era at the turn of the century — and hadn’t had a British vocal group take over top 40 in far longer. 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.

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On this week’s Vintage Pop Stardom episode of the Greatest Pop Stars podcast, host Andrew Unterberger is joined by Billboard co-chief content officer Jason Lipshutz — whose second book, A Whole Lotta History, tells the story of One Direction’s entire career, and is out November 3 (pre-order it here) — to discuss one of the most jam-packed pop star years of the entire 21st century. We detail how 1D showed up in our lives at year’s beginning as relative unknowns unlikely to make a major impact, and ended the year as no-doubt superstars, with even bigger things still to come.

Along the way, we also answer all the most pressing questions about One Direction’s early days: Who were our favorite members, and the seemingly obvious future breakout stars? What made the sadly late Liam Payne so essential to the early group? Which do we prefer between Up All Night and Take Me Home? Is “What Makes You Beautiful” one of the greatest debut singles of all time — and is “One Thing” actually secretly the better single of the two? Were The Wanted worthy rivals for the group at first — and why did 1D ultimately end up leaving them in the dust? Why wasn’t the group’s early radio success commiserate with its pop stardom? And perhaps most importantly: Where do we still see One Direction’s massive pop impact a decade and a half later — and might we ever see the boys (without Liam) together again?

Check it out above, along with a YouTube playlist of One Direction’s biggest 2012 moments — all of which are discussed in the episode — and subscribe to the Greatest Pop Stars podcast on Apple Music or Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts) for weekly discussions every Thursday about all things related to pop stardom!

Make sure to pre-order Jason’s excellent One Direction book A Whole Lotta History here.

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