Full disclaimer: When Zayn Malik left record-breaking boyband One Direction on March 25, 2015, I had never felt a sadness so acute and strong. Afraid that he'd never sing on another record again, I cried for about three hours that day alone.
Luckily for me, he decided to drop his last name, capitalize his first name, and explore the type of music that accurately represents who he is as a solo artist.
Before he was a solo artist, he was singing impressive riffs in the background of One Direction songs, contributing a lyric to an occasional single here and there, and serving as the "wow" factor in the band's live performances, the only one who could belt out strongly then transition smoothly into a nice falsetto. On paper, his writing contributions were minimal, especially as the sound of the band became more alternative-rock pop, a genre Zayn had not once been quoted in interviews as saying he liked. Therefore, when he left the band, it was heartbreaking and shocking, but not at all surprising when the sound of One Direction as a four-piece was still intact as before, as if the fifth voice they lost was a nice decoration but not exactly a necessity.
In Zayn's first interview after the departure, he confessed that One Direction's music didn't feel real to him anymore. For many fans and casual onlookers, this seemed like a dig at the band that had given Zayn all of his opportunities. However, Zayn affirmed time and time again that he had nothing against the music One Direction did, simply that he didn't feel it was representative of himself as an artist. This left many to wonder exactly what Zayn's individual sound was.
Recently, Zayn's solo debut single and music video premiered on Apple Music and VEVO. Entitled "PILLOWTALK," this song is the lovechild of Miguel's "Coffee" and The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face," about sex that is so "pure, dirty, and raw," it causes him to be in the bed all day with his partner. Beyond the song itself, the clever feature of Gigi Hadid in the music video capitalizes on the romance rumors that have been swirling between the two for months. The song and video have only been out for one week and have already garnered 22 million plus streams (an average of 3.77 million streams per day) on Spotify and a reported 200 thousand digital downloads in its first three days of release in the United States alone. This debut not only showcased Zayn's musical abilities, but also his new team's strategy to make his venture as a solo artist successful.
For Zayn, the music he is making now is personal to him and something that he alone can control. This is in sharp contrast to the music he was "making" when he was in One Direction. The other four members wrote songs echoing stadium-rock and modernizing the pop-rock ballad. Zayn received very few writing credits on any song, typically only listed when all five of the members were, showing how minor his contribution to the band's overall sound was. Of course, this wasn't for lack of trying, it simply worked out that Zayn's musical direction was not consistent with the overall image of One Direction was.
Zayn told The Fader that his musical influences stemmed from the music his father played growing up: Prince, Usher, and 2Pac. Speaking further about the music he is making, he states that he isn't feeling pressure to fit into one genre or style, instead preferring to make tracks that show how his influences have affected the music he wants to make. While little has been revealed about his other tracks, Zayn's been quoted several times confessing he's recorded 40-50 songs in the past few months, each one an honest story he believes should be told. Some songs that are highly anticipated are "BeFour" and "She." The former was used as background music in his Fader cover video, if only for a brief ten seconds, and the latter has been described as an uptempo R&B track by Billboard magazine and French Vogue.
Without a doubt, Zayn's musical direction is clearly his own and regardless of whether it sells or doesn't, he claims he'll be happy with the music he is making. His debut album is set to hit stores in March, around the one year anniversary of leaving the band that may be the reason he is in the position to make his own music now. Regardless, Zayn was told for almost five years that his artistic vision didn't fit into an executive's expectation of marketable music and now, this man has the freedom to explore and become his own artist.
Reach Staff Reporter Nicole Medina here.
Annenberg Media