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After One Direction, Liam Payne was just getting started. His death is a heartbreaking end | Alexis Petridis

The singer and songwriter helped reinvent the boyband. His life and career have been cut far too short

Their debut, What Makes You Beautiful, was infernally catchy; it addressed their female fans with a charming positivity and was rooted in a glossy take on powerpop rather the standard boyband approach of ballad or pop-R&B. magazine, they maintained a distinctly rock-y edge to their sound – 2012’s Live While We’re Young opened with what was fairly obviously a homage to The Clash’s Should I Stay Or Should I Go?, which really wasn’t the kind of thing one expected from a TV talent show band. He attracted a succession of impressively high-profile collaborators to his solo career: Quavo of Migos, Pharrell Williams, J Balvin, A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, Ed Sheeran, Fred Again.

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