#team change

[bakagamieru]

Azoff Rumors

I’m terrible like this and don’t have the source, but I saw that there was some sketchy anon who apparently is claiming that Irving Azoff convinced Louis to do babygate in order to screw him over, ditch “difficult” fans like Larries, and promote solo Harry with a het!Harry image.

The OP was clear that this is not to be taken as fact, so don’t get me wrong; this is not a condemnation of the OP.

I did, however, find that theory to be implausible and because it’s such a dramatic yet somewhat plausible idea, I wanted to make a post about the things that don’t make sense.

Screwing Louis over entails that Louis and Harry and the whole band would find out that he’d been screwed over (if this were real and the fandom were hearing about it, you’ve got to assume the boys would already know)

This pretty much eliminates any chance they have of signing the more lucrative 1D band (their last album sold more than 2 times Harry’s album did in the 1st week), or if there’s somehow a binding deal in place, of having them cooperate and re-sign later

Yes, Harry’s popularity could grow, but 1D is a sure thing, Harry’s future popularity is not, so from a business perspective, 1D is still very valuable as a band, and if you have both solo Harry and 1D that’s ideal

This also pretty much means losing Harry’s good will and cooperation

In this vein, Harry seems relatively happy with his promo so far, accepting that happiness is a nebulous measure

Also, Harry has seemed relatively unstrained with Jeff Azoff who surely would be hit with some of the fallout if this were true

We’ve seen the boys show strain with people on their teams that they’re supposed to love before, so it’s not unlikely that we would see it now if there was strain

Harry doesn’t want het!Harry

Harry was perfectly happy to send a barrage of signs that he’s not straight and that Larry is a real thing, he did this over the course of several years and there’s nothing to indicate he would happily stop

The fact that Harry’s band is wearing rainbow shoes, Harry wore a rainbow pin and jacket, that rainbows were in Harry’s album booklet, and that Harry’s support of the LGBT+ community was a talking point in his promo indicate his continuing desire to not be seen as straight

If Azoff plans on marketing Harry as straight, again, I can’t see Harry jumping on board with that, especially when it’s a step back from the FOUR promo season and Harry and Louis slowly being allowed to be seen near each other again

We’re back to the point that pushing het!Harry, especially by throwing Louis under the bus, would lose them Harry’s good will and cooperation and any chances of re-signing him

If they were using het!Harry to get rid of Larries and build a more expansive and diverse fanbase, you would assume they would want to stick around in years to come to reap the long-term benefits

Harry’s promo so far has included the regressive 1D vs. Zayn narrative that is fake and serves no one but the old team

Alienating Zayn, again, means eliminating Azoff’s chance at signing the most lucrative part of 1D, the 5-person band

Solo Harry gains little to nothing from furthering this narrative

Solo Harry’s dissing Zayn conveniently comes in sync with Solo Liam’s dissing Zayn (after having been the most pro-Zayn narrative-wise for a long, long time)

Again, bringing up Zayn at this juncture is pretty much unnecessary for both Solo Harry and Solo Liam

The fact that it was brought up again for both and that the spin was the same means that there was coordination between teams which there shouldn’t be since Liam and Harry have completely different teams

This isn’t necessarily negative or tied to Syco, but we’re still seeing other coordination with the boys- we’ve seen new brand deals spanning across all the boys, notably Gucci, and again, this shouldn’t be happening since their teams are supposed to all be different

The only people who really gain from making Zayn look bad and making the band look fractured and the hiatus like it’s not going to end are Syco and Modest

Across the board, Syco seems to still have their fingers involved in all of 1D’s stuff somehow

Seeing that several boys are still at least partially controlled by Syco somehow, it only makes sense that all of them are, it makes more sense to think that continuing link is responsible for narrative delays and regressions rather than Azoff

Liam’s babygate 2.0 and solo promo (that basically revolves around babygate 2.0) that heavily promotes Cheryl

the subtle yet noticeable push to make it seem like the hiatus isn’t going to ever end and will just end up being a break up that came from both Liam and Harry

the negative Zayn stuff that came from both Liam and Harry

Niall’s validation / involvement of the narrative for babygate, babygate 2.0, and Liam’s bearding with Cheryl

Louis’ continuing link to Syco as his label which has done nothing but sabotage him

The continued “Simon is great!” BS spread in Dan Wootton’s interviews (Harry and Niall at least) and other interviews the boys do

Oh yeah, just the fact that Dan frickin’ Wootton is still getting interviews, even podcasts, with the boys, Niall is still connected to Modest, but discounting him, you’ve still got Liam and Harry who have no reason to be giving The Sun or Dan priority

Have they really acted like they wanted to get rid of Larries?

There was definitely a struggle during FOUR promo and OTRA between the old team’s closeting tactics and a new push for Harry and Louis to be able to publicly interact again

presumably some powerful force was working in the boys’ favor against the old team, and that would be their new team, believed to be Azoff

There has definitely been a split between how the US press spins stories relating to all the boys vs how the UK press does

it’s long been speculated that someone powerful is trying to protect the boys in the US, probably Azoff

Larries are most visible when they’re reacting to something bad, so all they had to do to keep Larries while not scaring off new fans, is not give Larries anything major to push back against

Harry’s current image minus some of the het stuff basically ensures no push back as long as they don’t touch Larry to start with (don’t poke the beehive with a stick and you won’t get stung)

If they want a more varied fan base, those fans are going to be casual and aren’t going to be in the fandom spaces of the current, more hardcore fans, so it doesn’t really matter if Larries are figuring out things that are supposed to be secret

Is het!Harry really essential to gaining new fans?

They’re already sending mixed messages with the het!Harry in the promo and yet the rainbows and LGBT+ talking points in interviews, so they can’t be too worried about some gay rumors scaring people off

TV shows, movies, and comic books have already accepted that the LGBT+ community is valuable / profitable to market to

Possible Azoff Smear Campaign / Fandom Demoralization Campaign

To be honest, I’ve seen a lot of rumors and discussions about Azoff not being as friendly to the boys as the fandom previously thought in the last few months, and it makes me feel like there’s a campaign to make the fandom distrust Azoff more than it makes me feel like Azoff is actually the bad guy here.

There are people who pay attention to when and how fandom chatter changes to various BTS people involved with the boys.  I’ve seen theories before about how Syco is trying to deflect negative attention from some of their people elsewhere, so I see no reason that the negativity towards Azoff couldn’t be just another way to deflect attention.  

Also, making the analysis fandom believe the boys are trapped yet again with an unsavory team for an unknown amount of time, and making Larries believe that New Team doesn’t want them anymore than the old one did, is sure to be demoralizing.  Who has been trying to get rid of these sectors of the fandom for a long time?  Old Team.  Who benefits from demoralizing fans so that they leave the 1D fandom?  The same people who pushed so hard for fans to think the hiatus was a break up- Old Team.

The Disappointment Factor

Anons are always sketchy sources since anons can be so easily used for spreading narratives and gaslighting.  At the same time, I think a lot of the fandom is just disappointed that things haven’t gotten better as quickly in the timeframe that we’d hoped for.  Because of that, I think people are taking it out on Azoff who was viewed as a “savior”, now that the saving hasn’t happened as of yet.

Fandom analysis has always been guesswork because we don’t know what’s going on BTS, so fandom expectations of Azoff were never based on any concrete promise or timeline.  That means that there’s no reason to blame Azoff over anyone else that fandom expectations haven’t been met. 

Conclusion: Don’t Think of Things That Are Uncertain As Certain

Obviously I fall in the camp that believes that Syco’s continued involvement is to blame for the negative things we’re seeing, but I’m not demanding everyone else necessarily believe it.  

What I’m doing is saying to take speculation about Azoff screwing the boys over with a dump truck full of salt and consider the reasons I give above for why this particular rumor doesn’t seem to add up to me.

We tend to think we know more than we do about what’s going on BTS.  We just don’t.  We don’t have enough information and we don’t have reliable sources.  The more we think we know for sure, the less we’ll consider all the angles of what’s going on, and therein lies the potential to severely misinterpret things.  

I just want to urge everyone not to get caught up too much in the trends of opinion in the fandom, and especially not the negative ones which are always more likely to cause damage.

[bakagamieru]

Admittedly, I haven’t had the time or the patience to listen to all of the interviews lately, but I think there’s more proof that all the boys are getting their hiatus narrative from the same place because I think Niall and Liam just changed their answers at the same time.

I forget exactly which interview, but in one from the last few days, Niall said for the first time something about fans getting more One Direction because everyone is releasing solo stuff.  Today during the Glamour event interview, I heard Liam give the same type of answer, also for the first time I think.

It’s a subtle nuance, but when multiple members start making those subtle changes at the same time, especially if they end up changing their answers to the new one consistently during interviews, it means they’re both getting their narrative from the same place.

[bakagamieru]

Hi, I would like your opinion about something. I have just learnt harry will go on tour and I am so happy that things are going so well for him. But I can't help thinking about zayn's sabotaged solo career. I mean doesn't media said he left to go solo and yet in two years has done few interviews and most of them printed and twisted. Ofc he did well too but its bc he's talented and thanks to his fans. I don't like comparing. I love them both. They're great and talented.

Yeah, it’s upsetting me even more that Still Got Time is getting 0 promo since we can directly compare it to the promo Harry is doing.  I’m glad Harry is getting the promo he is because he deserves it.  I just wish Zayn could get the promo he deserves too.

Harry obviously isn’t clear and free of the old team since The Sun got several exclusives Harry’s team would have had to cooperate with and his Rolling Stone article had some clear OT style BS.  Despite that, there’s no denying he’s getting a hell of a lot more promo than Zayn has.

Part of it might have to do with his status as the face of 1D and the one everyone has always said would go solo.  A few other bloggers, like @that-regular-chick, have already pointed out that since the old team was the one that pushed the idea of solo Harry throughout the entirety of 1D’s career, they’d want him to succeed if only to say that they were right.  That might be why he’s getting better promo out of all this.

I also saw someone speculate that Zayn is getting treated worse by his team because he refused to stick to their image for him.  He wouldn’t badmouth or pretend to hate the other boys during interviews even though print!Zayn was much harsher and more bitter.  I don’t think his new team ever had his interests first in mind, but it’s possible that they screwed over his promo even more as punishment for refusing to play along.  Harry simply isn’t in that position because his official image is more neutral in relation to the other boys.

I don’t know what happened with PartyNextDoor.  I thought it was a bit odd that he wasn’t in the video, but I figured he must not have wanted to be in it.  Now all the UK press is reporting about him unfollowing Zayn, so I feel like Zayn’s team has once again screwed him over.  

The whole “Zayn wanted to shoot the video at his house so he called someone at the last minute and told them to catch a plane to London to direct” didn’t sit well with me even before this.  Now I’m thinking the purpose of that story was to put all the responsibility for the video on Zayn so that it looks like his rudeness/carelessness was why PartyNextDoor wasn’t in the video.  It’s another set up feud like 1D vs. Naughty Boy, 1D vs. Bieber, and Zayn vs. Calvin Harris.

It’s hard to say for sure what’s going on right now.  All I know is that 1DHQ is still involved in the boys’ business somehow even though it really should have been over by now.  All we can do is hunker down and wait since trying to speculate about what’s going on BTS is nearly pure guesswork.

You’re right that the way things have turned out make all the reasoning given for Zayn “quitting” look even shadier, though.  The only way you can look at what’s happened and think it makes sense is if you think Zayn is a lazy, rude idiot and that his team is the same.  Zayn used to sleep in a bit and he doesn’t suffer fools or haters lightly, but otherwise he’s always put in effort, been professional, and shown that he’s very intelligent and passionate about music. It doesn’t match up.  

The anxiety thing may be partially true, but 1) why would Zayn go solo and think his anxiety would be better performing solo rather than with the buffer of a group?, 2) there are ways to handle anxiety, exactly none of which his team has employed, and 3) there are ways to promo Zayn’s stuff without him making appearances, none of which are being used.

We’ve got a lot of solo releases coming up, so I plan to enjoy those to the fullest and not deal with the BS more than I absolutely have to.

[bakagamieru]

Upcoming Team Change?

Ok, so in the last 2 days, we’ve suddenly gotten:

a promise of new music from Zayn and then actual and immediate delivery on that

a confirmed general period for the release of Zayn’s 2nd album that they started vaguely teasing a year ago, immediately after his 1st album, and that we’ve mostly heard zip about since then

also note that Zayn’s Japanese shows were previously moved to June (rather than cancelled like we all expected at that point) which is around the same time frame as the 2nd album release

a fairly solid release date for Harry’s 1st single

a new event that Niall is performing at despite him lamenting that he only had 1 song to sing at his Jingle Ball performances and not having released any songs since then, I’m betting he’ll release some music before the May performance

throw in Paul reappearing with Niall and posting all of OT5 in 3 segments (with his wife’s help) on the same day

I see 2 possibilities for why all this has happened.  One is that I’m right that the release dates for all their solo stuff kept getting pushed back because they didn’t know for sure when they’d be out from under 1DHQ, but they’ve now got a solid date.  The other is that the Paul thing is unrelated and the various teams released information at the same time to piggyback off of each other for promo.

It’s optimistic, but I lean more towards the first option.  I don’t see a lot of cross promo in the articles that are circulating, plus the solo releases up until now haven’t always been promoted super enthusiastically by the teams supposedly attached to them.

Even though this pattern got messy and confusing awhile ago, I’ll also point out that I’ve always thought the skull shirts Louis wears are connected to being free from 1DHQ and he wore one recently on the 22nd.

I’m not saying they’re free and clear, but it’s possible that they finally, finally have a solid ending date that they feel confident planning things around again.

[bakagamieru]

Merger =/= Bail Out

Yesterday I saw a post about how Irving Azoff had to bail out Jeff and how Jeff isn’t good for Harry because he’s not promoting solo Harry and Harry is still linked to Kendall.

I can’t seem to find the post anymore, but I didn’t agree, so I wanted to offer my alternative view.

Fake Team vs. New Team with Hands Tied

The Azoffs’ hands are still tied.  If Zayn isn’t able to choose representation that supports his best career interests, if Louis isn’t able to, if Niall arguably isn’t because of his continuing connection with Modest, and if Liam can’t seem to release music since it keeps getting pushed back with no explanation, then why should the Azoffs be able to manage Harry normally at this point in time? All of them have their hands tied, so I think it makes perfect sense that the Azoffs are still biding their time as well.

I think in some cases like Zayn and Louis and maybe Niall (mgmt), they’re being represented by teams they didn’t choose.  I don’t think these will be long term arrangements and I think they’ll change when they can.  I think either they’re being loaned out under the original contract or they were forced to sign short term contracts under some sort of manipulation.  In some cases like Harry and maybe Liam and maybe Niall (label), it might be that they have legit new teams that can’t fully function until 1DHQ ends whatever stalling tactic they’ve used.

The reason some of the teams are real and some aren’t would be that 1DHQ still has control over the representation of the boys.  If they allow a new team to announce itself, it can happen, but they don’t have to allow it and the new teams can’t do anything under that situation.  1DHQ would have allowed the announcements as a way to control the spacing of them and not make 1DHQ look as bad.  They would have mandated the fake teams in order to cover their tracks with forcing Zayn to leave, to pretend that one person stayed with Modest, and to pretend that one person stayed with Syco.

The fake new teams would allow their name to be used because it’s promo for them and their actual artists.  The real new teams wouldn’t have a choice because my theory is that they’re still waiting in the wings, primed to go but without official power yet.

1DHQ Is Still Lingering

All of this boils down to the idea that 1DHQ is still in power.  I don’t think it’s absurd to think that since:

We’ve had a lot of starts, regressions, and restarts with the band-Zayn reconciliation narrative.

Babygate is STILL ongoing and has seen the same start-stop-start pattern as the reconciliation has.

The bearding that is heavily weighted in favor of promoing the beards is still ongoing for Zayn and Liam in particular and for Louis as well.  They even brought back Eleanor which I can’t see anyone but 1DHQ doing.

There’s still a more positive spin on news in the US, but nowhere near what you’d expect if any of the boys’ new teams had power and were actually going to bat for them.

It’s likely 1DHQ don’t have control over the boys’ solo releases and the majority* of the solo music keeps getting pushed back further and further without much explanation. 

*The exceptions are singles from Louis and Niall that may well have been to add to the perception that 1DHQ didn’t get totally ditched. Zayn’s new single is so recent it’s hard to judge.

We’re still getting massive coordination among solo efforts and stunt news which shouldn’t be happening if everyone is really conducting separate solo careers under separate teams.

It also relies on the idea that 1DHQ doesn’t have control over the upcoming solo material.  Mainly I think this because of the delayed releases mentioned above and because based on their original contract, there’s no reason 1DHQ should have control.

It’s possible none of the current teams are the new teams as well.  Liam’s management and Louis’ management were both considered odd choices when they were announced.  Louis’ is definitely tied to 1DHQ and Liam’s has no other music clients.  We know Louis staying with Syco is BS and Niall being with Modest is likely more of the same.  

Full Stop

For Harry, I would say that he probably never intended to be managed by Jeff under a new company.  I don’t think the “merger” was because Jeff failed.  I don’t think they ever intended Jeff’s company to do anything real.

At the time it was announced it was set up oddly with the business name not being registered ahead of the announcement.  The corporation was set up a year in advance, but the fact that the fandom knew the name of the company before it was even registered properly still holds true and is still very odd. 

Then there’s the fact that the corporation for Full Stop also seems to be connected to Irving Azoff’s other companies.  O’Hana was created the same day it was announced Harry was leaving Modest for Jeff.  Also... this retweet on Jeff’s Twitter from April 2015, 3 months after the first corporation was registered and about 9 months before O’Hana was filed.  It may be coincidence, but it’s a rather interesting thing to keep in mind that out of 36 total tweets, one just happens to reference the same word.  The song is by Leon Bridges who Jeff is connected to, but still.

They also never got a website up which even the most incompetent people can do. You buy a domain name from Godaddy and use a website builder site like WIX or Squarespace.  Voila.  You can hire a college kid to do it for $50 probably.  It makes no sense not to set up a site if you intend to have a viable artist agency.  The name for the site was even bought. It was done before the announcement, so you would assume the name was purchased by Jeff et al., yet it was never set up.

They don’t seem to have an active Twitter either.  The only two results that pop up have 3 tweets between them.  I found what I assume is Jeff’s actual Twitter since Gemma and Ben Winston follow it, but that only has 36 tweets that most related to his father’s clients or the people he’s been an agent for.  His business partner, Tommy Bruce, has a private Twitter.  There’s no promotion for this company or its artists anywhere except a couple news articles.

The other thing is that Harry was the main and nearly only client that Full Stop claimed.  Meghan Trainor has also been said to be under Full Stop, but it’s impossible to tell since there’s no real social media coverage, the Full Stop website isn’t up, and there’s no official list anywhere of their clients.  Meghan doesn’t list her management on Twitter or on her website.  Just like Harry, Meghan was originally a client of Jeff when he was an agent at CAA.

Full Stop has 2 public clients max and for a management company who should be advertising their clients, there shouldn’t be any private clients.  Out of those 2 clients, 1 of them hasn’t released anything since joining the management company and there’s little evidence that he ever intended to release something any sooner than is now planned.  It’s not like Jeff took on clients and failed.  He never started at all before merging.

Kendall Jenner

The other claim made was that Jeff was screwing Harry over by connecting him to the Kardashian family.

But how connected is Harry really?  The last time he was truly seen with her was quite a while ago.  The last big hurrah was the yacht at the end of 2015 really.  Ever since then some articles pop up occasionally when Kendall and Harry are in the same building, but there haven’t been any pap walks or social media pictures or anything.

Harry’s bearding is super low key at this point by anyone’s standards. In fact, he hasn’t really been involved in any big stunts personally for quite some time. The Sun has tried to create scandals, but they didn’t exactly have Harry’s cooperation with those.  They just pulled them out of thin air.

I would say it’s obvious that Harry is somewhat immune to the BS going on with Louis, Zayn, and Liam especially.  Niall is somewhere in the middle considering his ongoing connection to Modest.  There’s some reason that Harry is immune whether it be a negotiation or something else, but it doesn’t really matter why when we can see the difference clearly.

I can’t see how Jeff can be blamed for connecting Harry to the Kardashians when Harry’s been entirely under the radar for the last year.  He had one magazine cover, showed up in fan pics a handful of times, was papped out a handful of times, and that’s pretty much it.  Kendal Jenner is not at all comparable to the other beards we’ve had over the last year.  She’s more like when Niall and Demi Lovato used to be connected in the press constantly, except Hendall isn’t brought up nearly as frequently.

Good Relationship

There’s been no particular indication of a bad relationship between Jeff and Harry.  Pictures aren’t everything, but Harry seems genuinely comfortable with Jeff’s presence and to actually like spending time with him.  I don’t think I’ve seen any pictures where Harry looks like he’s looked while bearding or like the other boys look when they’re clearly doing something they don’t like.  None of the boys play along particularly consistently with forced relationships.

I don’t think Harry would be friendly with a guy he thought was screwing him over.  All the boys have been around long enough and have experienced the crappy side of the entertainment industry enough at this point that I don’t think they’d get themselves into that again.  If they made deals, it was with the best advice possible.  If they chose actual new teams, those new teams will serve them well and they’ll have contracts that give them the control they want.

Irving Azoff

The theory was always that Irving Azoff was behind the new team for 1D as a group.  I see Jeff merging his company back into his father’s as a sign of forward movement in the 1D connection to Irving Azoff.  If Full Stop being a separate company was mostly for Harry’s benefit as it seems, then Harry becoming a client of the bigger combined company is a good thing.  Eventually, after all the delays are done, after all this stupid BS stops lingering, I’m still betting 1D will be with Azoff.

[bakagamieru]

Do you think it's the lingering Sony/syco/1d contract stuff that having an impact on liams & Niall's solo albums and with Louis'...everything? With the babygates it clear they still have an influence. Do think it might have something to do with that they have Harry and are using the control they still have to affect them because they don't have them and to stop them competing with their big star. In addition to all the other reasons discussed sabotage and ruining the 1d brand.

Sony is the only one that still has Harry officially.  People are acting as if Harry being with Sony is proof of him being controlled by Syco, but that’s not how it works.  Sony is one of the major companies, so Harry being with Columbia could be legit and have nothing specific to do with Syco or Modest.

In all honesty, while I don’t think he has a free pass, it looks like Harry is immune to some of what’s going on with the others.  He doesn’t have any intense bearding or much bearding at all going on.  The Sun didn’t get the exclusive story on his single release.  I honestly think Harry being with the Azoffs is legitimate, so I don’t think he’s looking at sabotage from his team like Zayn and Louis and, to some extent, Niall.  The jury’s out on Liam.

Anyway, I don’t think Harry is a great indicator of the team change because he seems to be in a slightly different situation for whatever reason.  On top of that, I really don’t think Harry is the member to be looking at as the one deepest in the 1DHQ hole right now.

I still don’t think there’s any strong sign that 1DHQ has control over the upcoming solo releases.  If they could have forced Liam to release something music related around the baby’s birth announcement, I think they would have, for one.  We’ll have to see how things develop.  

It seems that we’re in limbo again and I’m at the point where I don’t even care if it’s nasty, I just really want to know what in the hell is going on BTS that this seems to keep dragging out.

[bakagamieru]

Gami do you think the news the other day about Harry's music being released around May could finally indicate OT's time running out? Because I see people thinking Zayn's second album and Liam's album are still gonna be tied to OT. I'm not sure why that would be but I think it's partly bc we're still stuck with all the beards etc. Dunno why Harry would be different but bc he's being kept silent rather than whored out it just feels that way.

Just keep in mind that no one in this fandom has more than half a clue what they’re talking about.  It’s not anyone’s fault so much as that there just isn’t enough information available to us.  Even if people claim to have information about legalities and entertainment industry procedure, there are always exceptions to the rule, 1DHQ are corrupt enough to do illegal things if they can get away with them (and they can), and no one really knows what’s going on with this particular situation.

This got long, so a summary of what’s under the cut:

the information about first option rights to solo material is probably coming from an unreliable source being taken out of context

if 1D’s original contract wasn’t already fulfilled by MITAM or MoM, it most likely wouldn’t be fulfilled by any further solo albums

MoM was actively sabotaged into the ground, but what we’re seeing with everything since is different, it’s more passive sabotage/stalling

if 1DHQ had control of all the upcoming solo albums and wanted to stall the releases to stall the contract, they would stall the later releases instead of the first

we’re almost done with the Syco BETRAYAL!!!! media campaign and it’s likely the end of that will mean 1DHQ no longer has much say in the official narrative, we’re waiting on the 2nd half of Louis’ cycle

Niall and Louis’ single releases may have been special exceptions allowed/forced/negotiated by 1DHQ to save face for Syco and Modest

there’s every indication 1DHQ’s contracts and control were supposed to end around March 2016, so it’s unlikely an album requirement is still unfulfilled, it’s more likely the holdup is elsewhere

we’ve seen things lately that look a lot like March 2016 although we’re stalled again at the moment

to actually answer the question: I don’t think Harry has special circumstances, but I think the numerous dates we’re getting around May/June are significant

Where Are Contract Terms Coming From?

I’ve never understood why everyone is so insistent that 1DHQ has any right to any of the boys’ solo albums.  (MoM is different for several reasons).  I think people are interpreting the BS that was spewed about Zayn to explain why he “left” as meaning that 1DHQ gets the first option for any solo stuff the boys ever do. Maybe there are other reasons for thinking this?  But none that I’ve seen mentioned come to mind.

The idea of 1DHQ having rights to solo material is being taken out of context if it’s from the articles about Zayn, especially since this was all speculation in the media and we don’t have the actual text of the contracts. The article I remember had a specialist talking about common clauses in entertainment contracts and applying them to Zayn.  It didn’t claim to have specifics about the 1D contracts. 

The stuff about solo options was put out there to uphold the lies about Zayn leaving in the first place, so that alone makes the information less likely to have any truth to it.  I know that people who think Zayn left of his own free will won’t question the information, but if you know Zayn leaving was fishy, you have to know it’s likely that the information isn’t valid.

An alternative and more reasonable explanation, if there’s even any truth to start with, is that if the boys wanted to release solo stuff while under their original contract or if they wanted to leave their original contract early, that 1DHQ would get first option on solo material.  Neither of those situations would apply to right now.  

I can’t see why any contract would give first option rights to a former contract for the rest of the artist’s life.  1D should be able to just not release anything for a few years while waiting to be able to perform as a group again rather than giving 1DHQ the satisfaction in that case.

If 1DHQ has control over 1D’s solo albums, it would have to be a new contract or negotiation and I don’t see that happening.  It’s too big of a loss on 1D’s side to trade those rights for anything else.

1  Album = Any Solo Album or Compilation

I don’t see any reason why any of the upcoming albums should be under 1DHQ.  We can never know for sure what deals and compromises have been made, but as far as we know, the conditions for the 1DHQ contract to end should have long been fulfilled.  

There were conflicting reports of 5 albums vs 5+1 albums.  MITAM would be the last album necessary to fulfill the contract if it’s a 5 album one.  IF the original contract hasn’t been fulfilled, that still only leaves 1DHQ with 1 compilation or solo album under their control.  If any of the boys’ solo albums would be considered sufficient to fulfill the group contract, there’s no reason that Zayn’s MoM wouldn’t have already fulfilled it.  

It’s absolute BS that Zayn left the band or his contract with 1DHQ.  If he had, he would have a “new team” that doesn’t actively sabotage him.  That means MoM was under 1DHQ and should have fulfilled the +1 requirement if it exists. If MoM doesn’t fulfill the requirement, then none of the other solo albums would and there’s no reason that the 1D boys should be beholden to release those solo albums under 1DHQ control.  At most, if the contract hasn’t ended for some reason, then they’d have to wait to release solo material. Coincidentally, THAT’S what we seem to be seeing more or less.

It’s possible that the album HAS to be a compilation album, but I don’t think that’s ever been stated that way anywhere and I don’t see why the contract would allow 1DHQ to stall the release of such an album for an undue amount of time.  Given the group’s normal release schedule, last November would have been the reasonable time to release it.

Active Sabotage vs. Stalling

Something else that doesn’t add up with believing 1DHQ has a say over the solo albums is that we’re seeing the other boys being sabotaged in a very different way to Zayn.  Zayn was screwed over at every turn.

Zayn never got to perform his hit single live because “it didn’t sound right live” even though he released a fantastic acoustic version of that very song.

Zayn’s hit single wasn’t given nearly enough time to breathe with more singles being released at an absurdly accelerated pace.

No one can even say for sure how many singles were released from MoM because of conflicting information from press releases, album stickers, and promotional follow through.

With just 1 single, Louis has made more promo appearances and interview appearances than Zayn was able to for his entire album.  Ditto to an even greater extent for Niall.

Fashion and Gigi are ALWAYS promoted heavily while Zayn’s music gets left in the dust despite Zayn himself showing his priority is with the music.

The promotion of Zayn’s music always centered around Gigi and Perrie even when it didn’t make any sense for the songs to be about them according to when they were written and the lyrics.

Rather than 1DHQ actively trying to bomb the albums like they did with Zayn, the other solo albums aren’t coming out at all despite being teased.

Niall has released a single, but there’s no concrete date for an album release. It seems to have maybe gotten pushed back slightly since he first gave an estimate.

Louis has released a single, but he isn’t announcing intentions of an album despite making it sound like he’s planning on continuing to release material in the future.

Liam’s collaborations were supposed to be released last year and there were heavy hints of his album being released towards the end of last year, then they were moved to the beginning of this year, and we still don’t have a single.

Zayn’s 2nd album started being teased immediately after the release of Mom (why?) and a year later we still don’t have any further concrete info.

Harry’s album has been vaguely teased for quite some time and does look like it’s real based on how the teasing was done, but we have no solid information at all.

This isn’t all coincidence.  It’s a pattern and it means something.

No Reason To Stall Next Album

If 1DHQ can earn money while still bombing the solo careers, I think they’d have already released at least 1 of the other albums already.  It would have made sense to release 1 in the fall when fans were missing the normal yearly 1D album. 

Even if they wanted to stall to stretch contract time, if we’re for some reason assuming they have control over all of the 1D solo albums, they’d still be able to stretch out the time between that 1st (not including MoM) release and the other 3 that would be left.  There’s absolutely no reason that they would need to wait like this.  If anything, the wait would happen between the 2nd to last and the last solo album release if that was the case.

Also, if they had control over the releases, I would think they would have had Harry go first to further the “Harry is solo and 1D is dead” narrative.  As it is Harry is the last one to have solid rumors or release anything, so that actually serves 1D’s best interests instead of 1DHQ’s. 

It might be overly optimistic, but I’d like to think that the reason we haven’t seen those albums is because they don’t belong to 1DHQ and they’ve been delayed because of 1DHQ finding ways to stall the end of their contracts.  I don’t see why they’d have control over the albums of the other boys and yet wait to have the releases happen.  This is conjecture, but I wouldn’t think a contract would allow one party to demand a release to fulfill the contract and also allow that party to stall the release for an undue length of time.

Solo Louis

While Louis and Niall have unquestionably gotten better promo for their songs than Zayn did, Louis’ solo career so far is odd.  It’s obviously Steve Aoki’s team and Ultra Records that are pulling the weight when it comes to promo rather than Louis’ team.  My opinion is that this is because Louis is a guest on Steve’s song rather than an equal in the release.

We went through the whole “this 1D member will stay with Syco because Syco said so” and then “this 1D member has BETRAYED!!!! Simon Cowell by signing elsewhere” thing with Zayn, Liam, Niall, and less so with Harry.  They started the 1st part with Louis and we haven’t seen the 2nd part yet.  Still, it’s the same pattern.  

Syco never gave an official announcement of Louis signing with them. They gave vague statements like they did with the others.  Louis’ solo song makes it seem like he must definitely be with Syco, but the song wasn’t released through Syco and he’s not on the Syco website.  At most they may have tweeted about him on the official account a few times.  If they’re using Louis guesting on Steve’s single as a way to legitimize the idea of Louis being with Syco, that would make sense.  It would also explain why Syco isn’t lifting a finger to advertise.  It’s not really their song or client.

I’m still waiting for that other story to drop.  The timing of that is another reason to believe Syco at the very least doesn’t have control over any further 1D solo albums.  They’ve been piecemealing the “1D has left Syco” information out as slowly as possible.  We’re already down to Louis as the last member left that’s officially linked to Syco, so it’s got to be pretty close to the end of their control. If not, they would have drawn out the announcements even further apart than they already did.

Zayn still needs to end up leaving his current “new team” and joining one that actually gives a fuck about him, but he’s not officially tied to Syco publicly anymore, so I’m going to guess his part is already done in this cycle of BETRAYAL!!!!

Why’s Niall Different?

I realize that people will probably wonder why Niall got to release a definite solo single.  I think the key thing is to remember appearances.  If there’s a contract saying 1D can’t release solo material until X has been fulfilled or X amount of time has passed, it’s possible 1DHQ can still allow exceptions.  

Allowing Louis to release a collaboration with Steve Aoki while everyone is led to believe Louis is with Syco serves Syco’s purposes.  It makes Syco look like everyone in 1D didn’t just ditch them because they suck.

Allowing Niall to release a single under Modest does the same thing for Modest.  It makes them look like they weren’t just ditched by everyone.  

Since Modest and Syco are pretty incestuous and might both possibly have power, Louis releasing something supposedly under Syco and Niall releasing something under Modest might be the two companies scratching each other’s backs.

The other explanation for Louis is that he might have gotten away with a release since it’s actually Steve’s release, but that would beg the question why Liam wasn’t able to collaborate last year.

With Niall, I’m pretty sure he stayed with Modest as part of some sort of negotiation and that he’ll leave them when he can, but staying with Modest might have given him some special privileges.  Personally I don’t think this is the case because 1DHQ was announcing that Niall would have a single the day after Niall straight out claimed he didn’t have plans.  That doesn’t seem like they’re on the same page to me.

Can’t Forget Past Narrative Flow

I don’t know why all this BS is taking so long to go away, but there’s obviously got to be some reason.  Still, I don’t think this was the original plan because the flow of narrative has headed towards non-1DHQ control and then abruptly reversed at least once back in March 2016.  I would say we’ve seen some other mini instances a few times since then too.  

If they knew they had to release several solo albums under 1DHQ, then it doesn’t make sense for them to be preparing for the end of the contract in March 2016.  At the very most there’s 1 unreleased album they need to fulfill the contract and I personally doubt that’s the issue.  There are so many ways 1DHQ could have been dicks and found some sort of loophole or leverage to try to stretch things out.

New Preparations

as inappropriate and infuriating as it is, the anxiety and eating disorder stuff from the end of last year seems like a probable way that they’re going to have Zayn leave his current BS team

announced that Zayn’s Japanese shows were NOT cancelled and were instead moved to June which is different from the norm with his sabotage

resurgence of Zayn being publicly ok with 1D, Louis, Niall, and Liam (still waiting on Zarry though)

rumors about a full 1D group reunion towards the end of the year from professional fans and other sources

everybody is due/rumored to release an album later this year, everyone piling up like that seems odd unless it’s because contract restrictions are finally over

Louis is no longer bearding with Danielle

there was some movement that looked like it was heading towards the end of babygate 1.0 like the closing down of some Briana/Freddie UA’s with vague explanations given, Briana’s old boyfriend being brought up in the news again, etc.

we still haven’t gotten an official confirmation of babygate 2.0 and the papers have been pushing a separation narrative with Chiam

This happened more towards the end of last year and beginning of this year. Right now we’re stalled again, but all of this happened around the same time, so my guess is that it’s March 2016 again.  Now we just have to wait and see if things go through this time.

The Actual Question

I always do this thing where I talk around the problem and forget to answer the question directly.

I don’t think Harry has a special circumstance with his album.  There’s not a concrete date for anyone’s albums right now, Harry’s included, and I think that’s because they don’t know 100% when they’ll be free.  

However, the fact that everyone thinks they’ll probably be free in May/June probably means that they can see an end.  Zayn’s Japan concerts were moved to June, Niall said he’d release his album somewhere around June or July, the word is that Harry’s album might be in May, and Liam’s album should be soon although it may get pushed back more towards April or May.

Hopefully everything goes right and we finally get clear of all this nonsense.

[bakagamieru]

Thank you for putting all this together without missing anything !! Also it's a weird feeling/opinion I had like it's me or everything got better since the end of September? Like first began with harry magazine , then nialls solo , otp5 reunition starting , niall talking that 1d is going to come back , louis solo and now 2017 seems better tbh I think we are more close to the end than before

XD

Things definitely changed in tone massively towards the end of last year.  It was little things here and there at first, but it’s clear that it’s a pattern and we’re getting more and more stuff that can’t be considered ambiguous.  I’m not sure about a specific month, but maybe we’ll get more information that will make it clear in the future.

Harry is the last holdout when it comes to the reconciliation narrative, so hopefully we’ll see something from Zarry soon.  Maybe Zayn will win an award and Harry will tweet a congrats, or Zayn will tweet Harry for his birthday, or when Zayn’s next single is released, Harry will tweet him.  There are plenty of ways it could happen, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Babygate feels like it’s about to wrap up to me too.  I’ve felt like that several times before, but with the way everything else is changing, I think this is really going to be it.

I’m hyper-focused on Niall and maybe reading too much into things that aren’t related, but I feel like Niall’s brown hair with no blond whatsoever made its first appearance after the New Year at that fashion show.  He still had the blond tips at the front before that.

2017 just feels fresh and renewed right now.  There are several hints that Louis and Danielle are done, there are stirrings with babygate that feel like endgame again, the reconciliation stuff has kicked into a higher gear in the last week, Niall is fully brunet again, and I’m feeling optimistic.