Liam Payne’s death yesterday — whether an accident or on purpose — is a horrible tragedy.
Just 31, Payne — formerly part of the giant pop group One Direction — had a hard time since hi massively popular boy band broke up.
Payne watched as Harry Styles, the star of the group, went on to even bigger success as a solo act.
His bandmate, Niall Horan, learned to deal with that. He’s had lowered expectations but has sold records, concert tickets, and appeared as a judge on The Voice.
Payne’s one album release, “LP 1,” has sold just 1.1 million copies over five years, mostly from s streaming. Actual physical sales were just 32,000. In its first week in 2019, “LP1,” sold just 9,500 copies. The songs were hammered out by committees of writers and producers.
Like Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, the two other members of One Direction, Payne could not find a musical identity apart from the group. That was obviously frustrating.
Payne signed with Capitol Records, part of the Universal Music Group. But his picture no longer appears on the Capitol website. Horan’s picture, however, is there still as he’s continued to release records.
