Rolling Stone Called One Direction ‘Rock’ + Twitter Lost Its Mind

Looking back on a decade since the formation of pop boy band One Direction, veteran music publication Rolling Stone launched a retrospecting feature, hailing the group as “one of the great rock bands of the 21st century.” Twitter users then lost their mind, responding in angst over their perceived abuse of genre labels.

There is a lot to be emotional about in the present time and genre wars are evidently stoking resentment among the Twitter community, who lashed out and decried One Direction’s designation as a rock band, much less one of the best rock bands of the last decade.

Although One Direction entered an indefinite hiatus in 2016, their worldwide appeal has not waned and Rolling Stone’s feature, titled, ‘Better Than Words’: How One Direction Became One of the Great Rock Bands of the 21st Century, ignited a wave of excitement among the band’s loyal followers. Some of them even defended the claim that One Direction have indeed written rock-oriented songs, despite their biggest hits all being bonafide pop tunes.

Still, for many, it’s difficult to wrap their head around the idea of One Direction being a rock band when the traditional setup of a rock band includes guitar, drum and bass. Curiously, the Wikipedia page for the band does not designate a “members” tab, where ordinarily each member of the group is listed alongside their respective role in the band — singer, guitarist, drummer, bassist, etc.

Despite this, the members of One Direction do indeed play musical instruments and have done so onstage numerous times.

On the other side, the definition of rock has become increasingly broad over the last decade especially, with Billie Eilish receiving heavy airplay on alternative rock radio and Imagine Dragons nabbing Grammy for Best Rock Performance in 2014.

See all the Twitter reactions below from the angry, the confused, the humored, the defensive and the indifferent.

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