Liam Payne of One Direction Embodies the Rock and Roll Cliche of Happy Songs and Unhappy Lives/Deaths
It’s been over a decade since I stopped reviewing new music regularly. That was a huge component of my life and career when I was head writer for The A.V Club, but I stopped being a music critic well before I left The A.V. Club to become a staff writer for The Dissolve in 2013.
I consequently know of One Direction primarily through its appearance on Sesame Street, breakout star Harry Styles’ popularity and eventful love life, and the band’s tabloid infamy in their home country.
Now, unfortunately, but predictably, I know about One Direction for another reason: the horrific death of Liam Payne in Argentina a few months back.
Payne’s early passing was tragic and dramatic, even by rock-star standards. Payne had struggled with drug abuse and alcoholism dating back to One Direction’s heyday. A 2021 article about Payne’s struggles in USA Today focuses on his complicated feelings about hotels in a way that now seems ghoulish and prescient given his death.
The USA Today article quotes a podcast interview where Payne confessed, ”In the band... the best way to secure us, because of how big we’d got, was just to lock us in our rooms. What’s in the room? A mini-bar. So, at a certain point, I thought, I’m just going to have a party-for-one, and that seemed to carry on for many years of my life. Then you look back at how long you’ve been drinking, and you’re like, 'Jesus Christ, that's a long time.’"
It went on to say that Payne felt "trapped" in "lonely hotel rooms.”
Payne’s melodramatic life came to an end when he plummeted from a third-floor balcony to his death in a hotel in Argentina while intoxicated.
The late pop star was causing a disturbance and destroying his hotel room. The police were called, but it was too late.
Payne’s death was horrifying, but it was not surprising, let alone shocking. All it takes is one bad night or relapse for an addict’s life to end, and Payne’s battles with alcohol and cocaine were all too public.
I consequently know Payne for performing happy, upbeat songs and for living a hard, difficult life and suffering an agonizing death.
He’s not alone in that respect. That’s one of pop music’s curious contradictions: singers famous for their upbeat, catchy tunes often lead difficult, painful lives and die tragic deaths.
I’m talking about sad souls like Steve Harwell of Smash Mouth.
For my generation, Smash Mouth defined dumb fun. “All Star” is perhaps the most iconically idiotic song ever written. It’s difficult not to smile like an idiot singing or thinking about it.
Smash Mouth became rich and famous for putting out catchy tunes that are the musical equivalent of a happy face bumper sticker.
Steve Harwell was the relatable face and shaky voice of a pop group famous for their peppy ditties. He lived an unsurprisingly hard life and died an even harder death.
The singer had a baby die of Leukemia at six months old. This exacerbated his longtime struggle with alcoholism. Harwell drank so much that he suffered Wernicke encephalopathy, or “Wet Brain,” as it is better known.
In 2021 Harwell parted ways with Smash Mouth after a disastrous gig where he appeared intoxicated, insulted the audience and gave a Nazi salute. Two years later, he died of liver failure.
Harwell and Payne are sadly not anomalies. On record, The Beach Boys were all about fun in the sun, beautiful girls, and endless summer. They nevertheless led tragic lives filled with darkness, addiction, mental illness and, for good measure, Charles Manson and his “Family”, which were close to Dennis Wilson, a melancholy, solitary genius who led a sad life and died an even sadder death.
Wilson did so much heroin and cocaine that he forgot how to play the drums and struggled to sing. He was the only Beach Boy who surfed. He died in 1983 at 39 from drowning.
Considering the life that he’s led and the torment that he has suffered, it’s borderline miraculous that Brian Wilson is still alive today.
Take the Ramones. Though their songs often dealt with issues like violence and drug abuse, they were nevertheless catchy and fun. Yet the Ramones unsurprisingly led hard lives ruled by depression, addiction, and inter-band fighting. Except for Marky Ramone, they all died young.
Pop stars who become household names for fun songs leading tragic lives is a tiresome cliche for understandable reasons.
Probably not, actually. Probably the opposite of fun.
Musicians are often rewarded for putting out songs that fill our lives with happiness with enough money, power, and resources to ruin their lives, primarily through drug and alcohol abuse.
Being super successful and wealthy does not invariably lead to health and happiness. As Payne’s case illustrates yet again, they often lead to misery, addiction, and death.
Payne was certainly not the first pop star known for his happy songs and unhappy life and death. He won’t be the last.
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