I’m using the dramatic curtain gif of peace to start this off because I’ve been seeing a lot of posts and been receiving a lot of asks and messages in regards to one of my faves, Mr. Zayn, and I want to use this gif to represent my dramatic entrance into the topic. And also to represent that I mean no hostility.
I have no idea what in holy hell went down on the Asia leg of OTRA but at the time I remember a lot of Zouis and a lot of general wtfuckery going on. On the 25th of March 2015 I had a lot of feelings. The first of which was, “Why did I decide to stop drinking for a month today?” I promptly downed a martini when I read the news, so RIP that diet, but then it was a lot of:
And
Then I saw this picture from his last concert
And I just felt fucking sad for the guy. Because that is not the face of a diva that is trying to escape from his prison of a boy band, as much as the print media would have you believe. Ultimately I was just really bummed out. Because I had been worried about Zayn since he missed the Orlando performance, mainly due to 1D’s team allowing rumours of heavy drug use to run rampant and letting Matt Lauer ask about it on live television.
While I think at times Zayn was the Jim Halpert of the band…silently shading some of the BS they had to go through
I don’t believe for a second that he was as miserable the entire time as they’re making him out to be.
There are so many theories and all I can conclusively say is that I have no idea what actually happened. At the same time I do believe that everything we’ve heard about Zayn since he missed that Today show performance in 2014 has been a lie based on the epic amount of information @mellygrant has collected in this masterpost.
In terms of how or why Zayn left…I wouldn’t put it past Simon Cowell to emotionally manipulate him into leaving by promising him one thing and then ultimately sabotaging him in an attempt to devalue the One Direction and Zayn brands. Because realistically if Simon knew that One Direction were going to try and leave Syco he’d probably do just about anything to either keep them or, failing that, destroy them.
I don’t think that Zayn is cruel or that he didn’t care about the rest of the band, but I think there was absolutely some truth to him being unhappy and given how quickly he ended his engagement with Perrie I wouldn’t be surprised if part of the deal was that he could end that stunt.
Let’s chat about Zayn leaving, because i get into quite the kerfuffle about it!
The short of it is that I don’t particularly think Zayn willingly left or even actually quit the band. I’ll lay out why I think so bit by bit in my trademark windbaggy hoe way below (although I fully recommend that if anyone is the least bit curious, they should visit @paynegerouslyinlove or @bakagamieru‘s blogs, because both have covered this immaculately and in depth since March 25 and this is mostly just the Spark Notes).
I don’t think Zayn was unhappy in One Direction as a band, but I do think he, and for that matter all of One Direction, are not and were not happy with their present situation as far as their team is concerned.
It’s important to note that Zayn, alongside Louis ( and described in The Guardian as “the naughty clique”), was especially outspoken and problematic to 1DHQ, and rumors were that anytime the band particularly pushed back, it was Zouis leading the charge.
A great example of this is the Porkie Pies incident of October 2013, where Zayn tells a reporter on camera that management had lied about their re-signing:
Zouis (and for that matter, probably the entire band) seemed to harbor a lot of mistrust towards 1DHQ and Simon, and a large shift between the band and their team seemed to occur in 2013, so I don’t believe that they managed to convince Zayn to leave the band or influenced some kind of rift or divide between them.
I fully believe that in the way that Babygate was meant to damage the 1D brand and purposely punish Louis, Zayn leaving the band was meant to damage the brand and punish Zayn, painting him as the villain and a drug addicted mess. Minus the consistent fake cheating scandals that plagued him, there’s no other way to say it other than Zayn has received the dragging of his life, and it began aggressively almost a year to the very day he left the band (March 8, 2014).
Because there’s a lot here (and a long argument), I’ll put the rest of this under the cut, beginning with The Daily Mail’s headlines that show the progression and the narrative as it ran through the year and up until Zayn’s departure.
So
I’ve been meaning to reblog this for over a week, but I have
pudding brain and kept changing my mind about what I want to say
about it. I wanted to reblog it because it was the only post I’ve
seen thus far that offered a convincing argument for Zayn leaving
being a stunt. But even though it was convincing, I’m still not
convinced, I was left with more questions about Zayn leaving the
band. I think the four key elements that stop me from buying the
argument are
1. The
open hostility between him and OT4 (or rather, OTP, since Niall has
remained neutral and Liam still speaks really highly of him) but
specifically, between him and Harry. I always find Harry to be an
unconvincing liar, and I think that his clear distain for Zayn
during MiTAM’s promotional cycle was uncontrived. That’s still a
red-flag in my mind. I won’t get into the Twitter feud between him
and Louis because it could have been set up by their respective PR
companies.
2. Zayn’s
diminished financial stake in 1D’s affairs, as of last week.
@srslycris would be able to comment on this better than me, but it’s
my understanding that Zayn has drastically reduced his involvement
in the business of One Direction, which would suggest to me that he
is not coming back.
3. His
clear – and in my opinion, genuine – distaste for One
Direction’s music. I do not blindly trust anything stated in print
interviews (not even just from 1D, but artists in general – I’ve
had too many management emails providing ‘quotes’ that don’t ring
true to me) but Zayn has made it clear in interviews both pre- and
post-split from OT5 that One Direction’s music was not for him. I
think it’s very difficult to stay in a band where you are being
crushed by your management and label and simultaneously aren’t
creatively satisfied, and it (again, just in my opinion) gives him
enough motive to leave.
4. I’m
also unclear as to how a record label could legally force a member
to leave the band without firing them and thus releasing them from
their contract. Since Zayn was moved to whichever label he’s now
under with the assistance of Simon Cowell and Syco and is still a
part of the Sony company, I don’t see how they can have relieved him
from his contract in full. (PS. I’m still very much side-eyeing the
Simco slip up on Pillowtalk’s release and I do not for a moment
think it was an admin error as has been suggested.) This is less a
statement though as much as a plea for information (not conjecture)
because I find this confusing.
So
those are my thoughts, and I’d love to hear other people’s input,
because I don’t fully understand what happened with Zayn leaving. I
will quote myself and say that “I do not for a moment believe that
Zayn woke up one morning, said, “Hasta luego, putas”, got on a
plane and left.” There’s a lot of fishiness about his leaving, but
I don’t necessarily believe that it indicates that him leaving was a
stunt.
Oh
and side note: yes, Melly and I are mutuals, yes we are long standing
members of the HOET3, yes we disagree about many, many aspects of
this topic. The wonderful thing, that more people on Tumblr could do
with remembering, is that you can be friends with people and still
disagree with them.
suncakesblog 