Conquering the WORLD IN STYLES
Harry Styles is the polite captain of pop’s glitterati and he’s hitting our shores this month, writes Kathy McCabe
ONE day you’re at the Grammys winning Album of the Year; the next you’re jumping around in sequined overalls on a massive stadium stage in front of tens of thousands of screaming Aussie fans.
Cheers and tears have soundtracked Harry Styles’ life since he became an overnight pop superstar in 2010 with the launch of the manufactured boy band One Direction.
But they are even louder now, if a little less shrill, as Styles has evolved to become part of an elite club of stream kings and queens, and multimillionaire box office earners, which includes mates, former lovers and chart rivals from Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift to Drake and The Weeknd.
When he arrives in Perth on his private jet in just over a week ahead of the Australian leg of his Love On Tour – we’ve been waiting three years for this – Styles will be on track to finish 2023 with one of the highest grossing tours in the world. After his original Australian arena tour scheduled for November 2020 languished in pandemic postponement limbo for two years, Styles cancelled it and upgraded to stadiums; his star power had only got brighter with the release of his third record Harry’s House last
year and he could take the risk of upsizing to outdoor venues.
“It might have looked risky on paper but Harry’s fanbase has grown exponentially since One Direction and now he’s got the mums, big sisters, brothers, he’s got the whole family rather than just teens,” an industry insider said. He also has the Grammy voters, whether the ardent fans of his pop star rivals like it or not.
Always touted as the Most Likely To Have A Stellar Solo Career, he is the first boy band survivor and graduate of the reality television starmaking factory to win the Grammys’ coveted album trophy.
In a flurry of feathers and sequins, Styles has been on an upward trajectory since One Direction called time out in 2015 just months after Zayn Malik sensationally quit the group mid tour. Styles’ next moves would set him up for his glittering future as a movie star, a fashion player, a credible songwriter, a social justice advocate, a concert box office behemoth and a reluctant celebrity.
Helping in his quest for world domination has been his mate and manager Jeffrey Azoff, the music industry executive who sat next to him during the Grammys, and also helms the careers of Lizzo, Cardi B and now U2. It was Azoff’s wedding in 2021 where Styles confirmed his relationship with his Don’t Worry Darling director Olivia Wilde, who is now his ex-girlfriend.
Styles and Azoff devised a brilliant strategy to launch his post One Direction career and immediately establish the former teen heart-throb as a reputable artist. Just three months after releasing his debut single Sign of the Times in April 2017, which topped the Australian and UK charts, he made his feature film debut in the Christopher Nolan war epic Dunkirk.
Film critics were impressed with Styles’ subtle performance in Dunkirk while music commentators applauded his debut solo single as a bold and mature attempt to pay homage to the influence of David
Bowie and 1970s rock rather than lazily chasing the pop trends of the late 2010s. It didn’t hurt that Stevie Nicks, the first of many Styles celebrity champions, is one of the most revered and worshipped songwriters of the times.
“Mick (Fleetwood) and I have actually adopted Harry Styles; he’s the very tall and handsome 23-year-old
son we never had,” Nicks told News Corp Australia in 2017. “We just love him; he’s really talented and he’s a nice guy with beautiful manners.”
The self-titled debut album dropped in May 2017 as streaming became the dominant music format;
Sign of The Times remains one of his most popular tracks on Spotify with 1.2 billion plays. But it was his second album Fine Line which would catapult Styles to pop culture glory. That record spent its 164th week in the ARIA top 50 – at No.20 last week –
demonstrating the mighty muscle flexed by stream king and queens such as Styles, Taylor Swift, Adele and Ed Sheeran to hold sway on the pop charts even with their old records.
Fine Line brimmed with Styles’ burgeoning confidence as a songwriter backed by a close-knit creative team who remained on board for the Grammy winning Harry’s House album. That team includes bandmate Michael Rowland, American producer Tyler Johnson and British hit maker Kid Harpoon, who revealed at the awards this week he calls the superstar Gary.
“Obviously I love the first album. I think when I listen to it now I feel like I was a little bit scared of getting it wrong … and played it safe in a lot of places,” Styles told me in 2020. “And I think with this one, it sounds so much more free and the making of it was more joyous and that’s been from the music to the videos, the album cover and all the artwork and stuff.
“That I guess has been the best part for me, that I’ve probably just been having more fun and having that freedom. And obviously standing behind the music you are putting out makes it more enjoyable.”
Fine Line also gave Styles the freedom to express gender-fluid sexuality, as evidenced by his playful videos for the hits Light’s Up and Watermelon Sugar. But those clips, his painted fingernails, pearls and feather boas on red carpets, and that internet-breaking British Vogue cover in late 2020 featuring Styles in a lacy Gucci dress and tuxedo jacket, drew both applause and outrage. It continued the speculation about his sexuality – even as he dated actor and director Wilde. He was also accused of queer baiting for bucking gendered fashion stereotypes, with Pose star
Billy Porter, who is a red carpet sensation with his dramatic gowns, among those who were not happy about that Vogue cover. “I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation?” Porter said in the UK Sunday Times.
But the backlash was in stark contrast to the vibe at Styles’ concerts when his Love On Tour resumed last year. Fans regarded the musical gatherings as a safe space to come out – even on stage – and the performer has used his considerable platform to champion the LGBTQ+ community.
Styles has politely declined to engage in public discussion about his sexuality. “There’s always going to be a version of a narrative, and I think I just decided I wasn’t going to spend the time trying to correct it or redirect it.”
Great pop stars have always created, if not courted, controversy with their art. But at the heart of any superstar’s success is the strength of their connection with fans. Harry’s House confirmed the relationship which started with One Direction in 2010 continues to flourish in 2023 as his audience stretches beyond the teen early adopters to their mothers and grandmothers, the queer community and artist peers.
And while songs such as last year’s biggest hit on the planet As It Was continue to generate millions of streams a day, it is on stage where the pop superstar’s power is at its zenith.
His ongoing Love On Tour world extravaganza arrives in Australia this month after its arena run was cancelled during the pandemic. Styles has netted more than $485m and sold 2.6 million tickets since the tour kicked off in September 2021. It winds up in Italy in July this year.