Zayn goes in the opposite direction

by Nicole Garofalo, staff reporter 

One of the biggest boy bands in the world, One Direction, has been making music together since 2010. However, back in March 2015, member Zayn Malik abruptly separated from the group. A statement made by the group’s management claimed Malik left so he could be a “normal 22 year old.” But apparently, this wasn’t the case.

On January 29, Malik released his debut single, “PILLOWTALK,” and became the first artist to have their first single debut at #1 on the Billboard charts.

According to Malik, he had always known he wanted to leave One Direction, but stayed for the fans and his fellow band mates. A lot of fans understood this decision for him to leave after Malik stated he wasn’t always too happy with the music he was making with the boy band. Many fans thought, who could blame him? He did audition for The X Factor back in 2010 as a solo artist after all.

“When I realized the direction we were going in with the music I instantly realized that it wasn’t for me, because I realized that I couldn’t put any input in because it didn’t fit the grain of what we were as a band,” Malik said in an interview when asked when he decided he wanted to go his separate way from the group.

Growing up, Malik favored music with more R&B roots. Since his music taste leans more towards that, it explains why he didn’t enjoy the music he made within the group. At the beginning of their career, One Direction’s music leaned toward mostly bubblegum pop, then gradually started developing more rock and folkish edges to it. This wasn’t the type of music Malik was hoping to make when he signed with Modest Management. As he had said, he wasn’t able to have much of a say in what music was made, which resulted in Malik becoming overall unhappy.

“PILLOWTALK” really paves the way of what Malik wants his solo music to sound like. It has chill R&B vibes that surprised people that had never heard of Malik before, or only knew him as that guy from One Direction. For the message of the song, many people thought of it as just a song about sex, like most songs of that sound today. In a radio interview, however, Malik explained how the song is basically about the ups and downs of a relationship. This can be told by lyrics in the song such as “In a place that feels the tears / the place to lose your fears,” and “it’s our paradise / and it’s our warzone.”

“I think ‘PILLOWTALK’ is a very good song for Zayn’s first release after One Direction, I enjoy it, and I feel like a lot of people can like it too if they get over the fact that he was once a part of One Direction,” sophomore Kristian Bonaventura said.
Is Zayn Malik going to be the next Justin Timberlake? It’ll be known after he releases his first solo studio album, “Mind of Mine”. This album is set to be released on March 25 of this year, which also happens to be the one year anniversary of the day Malik officially left One Direction. Many wonder if this is just a coincidence of scheduling, or if it was part of Malik’s plan all along.