“Beatles Reaction Puzzles Even Psychologists.” So ran a headline in the American Science News Letter in February, 1964.
Yesterday it was reported that the band One Direction was breaking up. For bereft fans, of course, Beatlemania is ancient history, with as many decades having passed between then and now as had done so for their predecessors since the outbreak of the First World War.
Moreover, if they feel their woe to be deserving of slightly greater reverence (than the Beatles, if not the Great War), they may have a point. Whereas fans of bands from the Bay City Rollers to Take That had to content themselves with weekly fanzines, One Direction are a band born of the internet age. Their devotees have consumed a never-ending drip-feed of tweets and YouTube videos. If they feel there may soon be a void at the centre of their lives, they may well be right. If only until the next thing comes along.
The band members themselves, whose names you may even know, deserve some credit for the manner of their going. Fracture has been deferred until March. This long goodbye will certainly be lucrative, but it may also help to dilute the pain.
Risible or not, the pain can be real. When one member, Zayn Malik, abruptly departed the band in March, the hashtag #cut4zayn trended on social media amid images of self-harm. A strategy of gradual disintegration, rather than the traditional dramatic explosion, shows a band with an admirable sense of responsibility towards fans who may be vulnerable for ludicrous reasons, but are vulnerable nonetheless.
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Bemused parents should do their utmost to sympathise, perhaps consoling their distraught offspring that where there used to be only one direction, there are now at least four. If they won’t take it from them, they could ask grandma.